Harvard is a member of the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (ReCAP), along with Princeton, Columbia, and NYPL.

Discovery

Records from ReCAP partner libraries are included for discovery in HOLLIS, when the item belongs to the ReCAP Shared Collection.
ReCAP Shared Collection records represent items that are retained in perpetuity for use by consortium partners.
Harvard has collaborative collection development plans with partner libraries, as a result of which some items that are owned by the consortium are discoverable only through HOLLIS. That is, they are not represented in our Alma cataloging system. Users can place requests and expect the same turn-around times that they would for material at HD.
ReCAP records are included in the Library Catalog scope
In some cases, ReCAP partners share records for archival materials and this may cause confusion to our users. If you encounter any of these and would like them removed, let us know. On 1/30/2024 we removed 306 archival bib records from ReCAP partners.

Partner records are de-duplicated from each other and one partner record is chosen for discovery. For example, if Princeton and Columbia both own a print book, there will be only one ReCAP record.
Prior to loading ReCAP records into HOLLIS, we verify whether we already have that record in Alma. If we do, we do not load the ReCAP record into HOLLIS, so that we don't introduce a duplicate.
- The way we check whether we have the record in Alma is by searching the Library Reporting Warehouse (HART) for matches on ISSN or OCLC number.
- If a ReCAP record matches to one of our Alma records based on the ISSN/OCLC in HART, it will not be loaded into Primo at all.
If we introduce a duplicate by mistake (the detection process is imperfect), the ReCAP record and Harvard record will "cluster" in the search results.
- To see which metadata elements are evaluated to cluster records, please visit Record clustering configuration details.
- If a record slips through our checks, we can manually remove it on demand. Because the manual process is multiple steps, we may not be able to process all requests to do so. Also, in some cases, it is possible the record will come in again, if we are not able to align our OCLC numbers with the partner record.

Example of a Harvard record clustered with ReCAP record:

Expanded cluster:

Delivery

Records will have a link to request via ILL or Scan & Deliver, and the request will be routed to ReCAP partners if the title is available. Otherwise, the request will be routed to Borrow Direct partners, and then to the wider library community.
Requests that go to ReCAP partners will be delivered in the same timeframe as HD requests.
Examples:
- Book held by Columbia and not Harvard: Dhammapada
- Book held by NYPL and Columbia, not Harvard: Global Climate Change
- Book held by Princeton and not Harvard: Travelers of the cold

See the Discovery section above for more information on duplicate detection.
If the ReCAP print bib is also held by Harvard, the ReCAP bib in HOLLIS will show the Harvard print holdings.
The item request will be placed on the Harvard copy.

Example of print ReCAP record and Harvard print holdings:

The ReCAP record is for the print book, and we have the online book.
When this happens, the bib record you see will be from ReCAP and there will be no ILL link.
You will see an Online Access section with the link to the Harvard online subscription.

Example of print ReCAP record and Harvard online access:

The most confusing scenario we see is when a publisher re-uses ISBNs.
ReCAP may have one title and we have a different title, but both titles have the same ISBN.
The records will NOT cluster, because we check both ISBN and Title in the clustering algorithm.
Whenever a ReCAP bib is displayed, HOLLIS checks Alma to see whether we have the resource already, before displaying the ILL link.
If HOLLIS finds an ISBN match in Alma, HOLLIS will display the Alma holdings for that ISBN, even if it has a different title.
The check that HOLLIS does for ISBN is based solely on identifier matches. We are unable to change this configuration. This is hard-coded by Ex Libris. The ISBN values that are checked are: 020 $a $z, 775 $z, 776 $z, 786 $z, and both 10- 13- digit versions.
When this unfortunate scenario occurs, a patron may inadvertently request the wrong title, rather than the title they were looking for, because the request link refers to the item in the holding. (Note that the ILL link will pre-populate the form with the ReCAP print bib data)

Example of print ReCAP record and print Harvard record with same ISBN but different title, un-remediated by a note:

CORINNA WORKING WTH HONOR TO REFINE TEXT OF PUBLIC NOTE

When we learn of these situations, we can remediate the problem to some extent by adding a note (852 $z) to the holding to clarify which title will be requested. This is not an ideal solution but is the most we can do at this time, barring removal of the ISBN from the Alma record.
An example of the problem can be seen on the ReCAP record for ISBN 7506346079, with 852 $z "This book is 夢城 / Meng cheng. Publisher used the same ISBN on multiple titles."
In this situation, we recommend that the patron use the ILL link to request the book.

Example of print ReCAP record and print Harvard records with same ISBN but different titles, remediated by a note: