The Library receives numerous gifts of published materials every year from donors around the world. These gifts might include antiquarian materials from a personal collection, newly published books that were written using the Library's collections, and other donations from individuals who feel a personal or scholarly connection to the Schlesinger. We also frequently receive published materials as part of the archival collections that are acquired by the manuscripts curators. One of the main jobs of the acquisitions and cataloging assistant is helping to accession and process these non-purchased materials. This page provides step-by-step instructions for accessioning gift materials.
Accessioning Gifts - Overview
What you will be doing:
SEARCHING FOR THE CORRECT RECORDS
The first step is to figure out whether there is an existing record in Alma that matches the item you are accessioning. If there isn't one in Alma, then you will check in OCLC. If no record exists, you will create a provisional working record in Alma (see below).
CREATING PURCHASE ORDER LINES (PO-LINES) AND ORDER RECORDS
This process indicates that Schlesinger has acquired a copy of the item you are cataloging. It also specifies that the item was acquired as a gift (i.e. not a purchase, with no expenditure of any funds).
EDITING HOLDINGS RECORDS
The holding record is where specific information unique to the item you are cataloging is identified – that it was a gift, what the donor's name is, when it was accessioned, and other attributes.
Searching For the Correct Records
Searching for Bib Records in Alma
Always begin by searching in Alma to see if a copy of this item is already held somewhere at Harvard. Use the persistent search bar or Resources > Cataloging > Search Resources to try and locate the item on which you are working.
- Is there already an exact match for this item in Alma? If so, is it held by Schlesinger or another Harvard library?
- If Schlesinger already holds the exact same item, mark the new item as a duplicate ("dupe") on the acquisitions slip, note the MMSID (field 001 in the bib record), and set it aside for the curator to review.
- If another Harvard library already holds the exact same item, make a note of which library and the Alma record number, and set it aside for the curator to review.
If you are specifically instructed to add an item even though it is already held by Schlesinger (i.e. to add a second copy) or to add an item at Schlesinger that is already held by another Harvard library, locate the record in Alma and then skip to Create Order Records in these instructions.
- If there is no existing record in Alma, the next step is to search for a record in OCLC Connexion and bring it into Alma.
Searching for Bib Records in OCLC Connexion
There are a few ways to search for records in OCLC. One is to do a simple browse. Click the icon second from the left on the toolbar...
(When you click this icon, it will ask you to logon if you have just opened OCLC. Go ahead and click OK.)
The easiest way to browse is to use the parameter Title Whole Phrase because if OCLC doesn't have the title in its system, it will show all of the titles that are alphabetically before and after your search term. If you have a rather rare item, sometimes doing a corp. name/publisher/personal name search will yield results in case the record's title has not been cataloged properly.
The results will show up as such.
The results show that there are 25 titles matching the search for That Certain Something. Click on the title to see your options.
Let's say that the copy that I am accessioning of That Certain Something has a date of 1960. We can sort the results by date and then easily narrow from there by examining the individual records to see which best matches the item in hand. Oftentimes, if one of the results matches when you have, and it also has a letter D in the column labeled L, then it is the best/most detailed record in OCLC (D indicates that the record was contributed by the Library of Congress/DLC). Just make sure that the record is cataloged in English (eng) under the column CatL (you can also check this in the 040 field, where it will say $b eng).
Once you have located the corresponding record in OCLC, hit F5 to export record into Alma. When the pop-up displays that the record as successfully been exported, highlight and copy the MMS ID#. Go back to Alma, and in the persistent search bar, under the terms All Titles and MMS ID, paste the MMS ID number, hit enter, and then you will see the record has been exported into Alma.
You can also import records in Alma using the sidebar link under Resources > Search Resources. Make sure you're in the HVD + OCLC + LOC (Pre-order searching) tab and type or paste the OCLC number into the System Number search box. The record should come up under the WorldCat (OCLC) tab of results and you can use the Import button to bring it into Alma. You can then begin the ordering process directly from the metadata editor.
Creating Purchase Order Lines (PO-Lines) and Order Records
Creating the Order Record from the Alma record
Once the record has been located and/or imported into Alma, you will need to create an order record for the item. You can do this using the Order link in the expanded options menu from your search results list or the Order/shopping cart button in the metadata editor (if you have the record open).
This will take you to a page titled PO Line Owner and Type. The only changes you will make will be for Purchase type which will almost always either be Print Book - One Time or Print Journal - One Time.
PO line owner will always be Schlesinger Library. After indicating all of the above, click Create PO line. (If you have set up a template for Gift orders, this is also where you'd select that template to pre-fill the important fields in the order form.)
Editing the PO-Line
You will then be taken to the Purchase Order Line Details page. If you have not already set up a Gift template, there are several things that you'll need to edit. Firs, under the summary tab, you must edit the item's location.
After clicking edit, you will be taken to another page where you will edit only two fields regarding location. First, from the Item policy drop-down, select In-library use (62).
Next, scroll down a bit to the Location Information heading, and from the Permanent location field, select Schlesinger Library: In-library use only (GEN).
Next, click the save button which is located in the top right corner. A confirmation pop-up will inform you that the item will be moved to new holdings, etc. Click confirm.
This will take you back to the Summary tab of the main Purchase Order Line page. You need to add a Material supplier, which will be either XGIFT/XGIFT (for a regular gift item) or XSCHMS/XSCHMS (for published materials removed from a manuscript collection).
If the item included a simple, narrow slip of paper with the word gift at the top of the slip, you will choose/enter XGIFT/XGIFT.
If the item came from the manuscript collection, the slip of paper will be wider and include more instructions than the gift insert. It will say something like "Records/papers of ____________." These indicate that the item is a gift from a Schlesinger manuscript collection, thus the material supplier code will be XSCHMS/XSCHMS.
The pricing heading should look as follows. After you enter 0.00 in the list price field, make sure you click outside the box in order for it to stick...
Next is the PO Line details. You are only responsible for a few fields here. These apply to both XGIFT and XSCHMS items.
- Acquisition method: Choose Gift.
- Material type: For monographs (Print Book - One Time), use Book. If accessioning a serial (Print Journal - One Time), use Issue.
- Reporting code: Monographs should use the code Rare Books^Special Collections (7021) and serials should use Serials^Special Collections (7023).
This is what it should all look like for a rare book...
Adding the Donor Provenance Note
Finally, on the Notes tab, you will need to add a note indicating the donor name.
Click the Add Note link to add note and simply write "Gift of _________" if item was a gift. If it was from the XSCHMS, note what the slip requires, such as "Received with the papers of Angela Y. Davis." Click save and return to the Summary tab.
Nothing else needs to be entered, so now, at the top of the screen, click the Order Now button. DO NOT click Save and Continue or Save.
Receiving the Item
Once the item is "ordered," you will receive the item which tells Alma that Schlesinger has the item on site. From the sidebar menu, navigate to Acquisitions > Receive. The page should look like this:
IMPORTANT: make sure to have Keep in Department checked, and next to that, from the drop-down, always have it select Cataloging (in-house).
You will have to select this every time that you accession something. Alma always reverts the drop down to Cataloging (ITS 625) for some reason. DO NOT receive under this heading because that will mean that Alma thinks the item is located at a completely different location. ITS 625 is not Schlesinger but is a larger cataloging department responsible for non-Schlesinger items.
Finally, check the box on the left side next to the item you are accessioning and click Receive.
Congrats. You have successfully created an order record.
Editing Holdings Records
The final steps of accessioning a gift item are printing out the bib record, editing the item's holdings, and getting the item ready for end processing.
In the search bar, find the item that you just accessioned. Once you locate the item, click on the title, and you will be taken to the MARC bib record. Print this out (Ctrl + P). In the top left corner of the print out, write either CC (copy-catalog) or OC (original catalog). Fold in half and place behind the t.p. verso with the curator's slip.
After printing the bib record, click Edit to bring the record into the metadata editor.
In the menu bar, you will see a little box with a magnifying glass over it called View Related Data. Click on this and then select View Inventory to view holdings (you can also use the shortcut Ctrl + I).
Here you will see which libraries hold the item. Locate the Schlesinger holding and click Edit.
Holdings: 008 Field
Click into the 008 field and hit Ctrl + F to expand the field. Once expanded, it will look like this...
The ONLY one you need to edit is Method of Acquisition where you will choose g - Gift. Click inside the 852 field to collapse the box.
Holdings: 541 Field
You need to add the 541 field which is where you will note the item's provenance. You may either create a 541 from a template which can be used for future items to save time, or you can do it manually. If using a template, simply hit Ctrl + E and then choose your template from the drop-down menu. To add the 541 field manually, hit F8 to create a new field.
For an item from a manuscript collection (XSCHMS) the 541 field should resemble this:
Notice that next to the $$a it says "Received with the records of Boston Women's Fund". That means that it came from that particular manuscript collection, and so therefore, you will write verbatim what was written on the curator slip. You ONLY need to do this for items from the manuscript collection. For regular gifts, you will only write the donor name. Here is an example:
Writing in the Book
On the title page verso (or the verso of one of the first pages, if there is no title page) write the gift statement on the bottom of the page and Schlesinger on the side:
If the item was a XGIFT, the usual wording for the gift statement is "Gift of________". If the item was from the manuscript collection, it's "Received with the papers of _________." If the manuscript collection was for an organization rather than an individual, the usual wording is "Received with the records of________." Always use the exact wording on the accession slip if it varies from these models.
Creating Provisional Bib Records
First: Sometimes records are difficult to find in OCLC. Make certain to try various search terms to ensure a record does not already exist before you create a new stub record. Even a minimal existing record for the item is okay to use for an order. If an item has an ISBN, search that first, but if nothing comes up, or the item doesn't have an ISBN, try various terms using the title, personal name, corporate body name/publisher, or series name.
Even if your searches do not yield the exact item, you may be able to find a record for a similar item, and that can be a useful reference for creating your own provisional bibliographic record.
If there is no record in Alma or OCLC, you will have to make a provisional OC (original cataloging) bib record for ordering purposes. The cataloger will later expand this into a full record.
For a provisional bib record, you will identify general information about the book such as: title, creator, date, publisher, pages, size, etc. You should set up a record template in Alma for these OC (original cataloging) records.
Information about which fields to include in your brief bib record template can be found on the Schlesinger Published Materials Sharepoint site: BRIEF bib Record-Template
There is also a checklist that goes into more detail about what each field means and how to correctly use it: Brief Record Checklist
Training Resources
- Searching OCLC - http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/support/worldcat/documentation/searching/refcard/searchworldcatquickreference.pdf
- OCLC Bibliographic Formats and Standards – http://www.oclc.org/bibformats/en.html
- Guidelines on When to Create a New Record - http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/org/cat/differences