Congressional Record Workflow

Owned by Liz Woolcott
Last updated: Aug 25, 2021 by Melanie Shaw
3 min read

Created by Melanie Shaw

with assistance from Liz Woolcott, Kurt Meyer, & Barbara Fleming, June 2021

Congressional Record: There are over 2,000 volumes in this set, with 2,000 volumes stored in a run under an XC plus volume, part, and and year for call numbers.  Given the success of the Congressional Serial Set batch workflow, Government Information and Cataloging agreed to reprise the workflow and adapt it for the Congressional Record Set.  This workflow will catalog by Congresses (plus years) which will include creating a record for each year and attaching individual item records to the specific record for the Congress. The main serial record for the Congressional Record will stay in the cataloging, but will only have a pointer item indicating that the individual items are housed under the records for each Congress.

Contents

Tools Needed:

  • Airtable

  • Sierra

  • OCLC Connexion

Workflow Overview

A-OCLC Connexion traditional bib record creation for each Record Set by Congress bib,

B- Copy from Airtable 949 fields for item record creation,

C-Paste 949 fields to new MARC bib in OCLC Connexion,

D-Produce as new MARC record in OCLC Connexion.

E-Import into Sierra.

Full Workflow

A. Create Record Set by Congress bibliographic records

  1. Claim a numbered Congress in Congress Details tab in the Congressional Record Airtable base:

    1. https://airtable.com/shr7PO20jhGHFxY1X

    2. Note that each Congress includes the number of the Congress in the “Congress” column and the years for that Congress in the “Date Range” column. Both of these pieces of information will be needed for the subsequent steps

  2. Create a new record in OCLC Connexion and apply the Constant Data named Congressional Record by Congress.

  3. In the fixed fields, fill in DtSt: s & the ending year in Dates

  4. In the 245 & 246 fields, add the ordinal number from the Congress column and copy/paste its full dates for each (Copy from the Date Range column in the Congress Details tab in Airtable)

  5. In the 264 $c add the end year

  6. In the 300, add the number of volumes in the full set (found in the Number of Volumes column in the Congress Details tab)

Constant Data record

 

 

B. Create 949 fields:

  1. Go to the “Present at USU” view in the Congressional Record tab, here: https://airtable.com/tblyEGJkFIYwnwkeu/viwUBYnJNn9Qik7vg?blocks=hide

  2. The view will already have one filter in place: Where Barcode is not Empty.

  3. Duplicate the view and rename the new view something memorable like: Barcoded Items 18th 949s, or just add filters to the Barcoded view, if you prefer.

    1. Add this filter: Where Congress contains 18th

    2. Scroll to the 949 column and select all its rows and Ctrl-C to copy.

      1. Note that there are two 949 columns - one with the subfield $ and one with subfield ǂ. You will need to choose the appropriate column for the version of Connexion you are using.

    3. Create a new field at the bottom of the bib record; then position cursor at the beginning of it and Ctrl-V

    4. OCLC Connexion should recognize each return as a new field line for each copied cell.

  4. Finally, if you added filters to the “Present at USU “ view, remove your filters, being extra sure to leave the first filter: Where Barcode is not Empty, in place when you finish.

 D. Produce the record

  1. Produce the Numbered Congress record with all its 949 item fields.

 E. Load into Sierra

  1. Export the record from OCLC; then Import into Sierra, using the first load table.

 F. Fix the Material Type

  1. In Sierra, call up the new record, then change Sierra’s fixed field Material Type a (Book) to n (Government Document).

 G. Track in Airtable

  1. Track that your Congress has been cataloged by clicking in “Cataloged” Column in the “Congress Details” tab.

 H. Batch update the Item Record call number

  1. Periodically have a batch edit run to change all the 090 Item Record Call Numbers to 086. Contact the Integrated Systems Librarian to do this update