Parallel Record Examples

A. Two records found in OCLC. Note that for the non-English record, the language of cataloging displays (if there is a 040 ‡b).

A1. Record 1 is a non-English cataloging bibliographic record. Note the 040 ‡b ger, use of the German abbreviation for pages (S.) in 300, & the note (not a quotation) in German.

Open record 2 to see if it is preferable for downloading.

A2. Record 2 is an English-language bibliographic record. Note that although the cataloging agency is a German vendor (Harrassowitz), the cataloging language is English: no 040 ‡b, abbreviations in 300 are in English, the note is in English.

This record should be selected for downloading. The 035 and 040 should be retained.

B. In this example, WorldCat has only one record

B1. The record is Spanish language cataloging: it has a 040 ‡b spa and a Spanish abbreviation is used for illustrations in 300.

Since no other record is available, this record may be selected for downloading to Orbis, but the 035 and 040 fields must be deleted.

Former OCLC policy was to make an exception for vendor acquisition records, which were not treated as parallel records. Current policy (summer 2008) is to treat vendor records as parallel records if the language of cataloging is not English. (Note in example A2 that the vendor record language of cataloging is English)