CATALOGING PREFERENCES
11/20/03spg, rev. 2/11/16
On the menu click Options then Preferences. Everyone working in the Cataloging module should set
their preferences as follows.
▲ General. Choose your desired Holdings/Item default location and Call Number Hierarchies from
the dropdown lists. If the latter is set for LC or SuDoc, the call number will be pulled from the first
050/090 or 086 of the bib record into any newly-created MFHDs. Unfortunately, this does not work for the
Music and Other call number schemes, even when there’s a call number in the bib 099.
Under Default Field Order Configurations choose the default option, which leaves fields in the order
they are already but sorts the 9xx’s numerically. Be sure to select “Sort automatically on save.”*
Set other options as indicated.
*Other sort options are available; if you think a different option might work better for you, discuss it with the Head of Cataloging or
Cataloging Librarian. Once it is created you can set it as your default in Prefences. If you work with a wide variety of records such
that applying a sort order ad hoc would make sense, you can do that by clicking “Reorder Fields” under Record and choosing the
desired sort order. But to make the new order stick you must un-check “Sort automatically on save” in your Preferences.
▲ Validation. Staff who do cataloging: Set as above, i.e. only Bypass Authority Control Validation.
Other staff: Choose Bypass MARC Validation, Bypass MARC21 Character set validation, Bypass
Authority Control Validation, Bypass ISBN validation, and Bypass ISSN validation.
Cataloging preferences -- p. 2
It is preferable to do original cataloging in Connexion and export the record to Voyager, rather than the
other way around. This process is a bit faster and Connexion has better validation than Voyager.
However, if there is an original record already in Voyager that you wish to upload to OCLC (see
UPLOADING ORIGINAL CATALOGING FROM VOYAGER TO OCLC), validate all headings against LC
authority records if available. Turn Authority Control Evaluation on, or see AUTHORITY RECORDS
OVERVIEW for other ways to check against the Voyager authority file. Alternatively, check the LC
authority file in Connexion.
▲ Workflow. Set as above.
▲ Item Defaults. Select desired default itemtype from dropdown box. Set Copy to zero. We do not use
copy numbers in item records (only in MFHD call numbers--|t--for unbarcoded c.2’s etc. in Spec. Coll.).
Ignore Self Check.
Cataloging preferences -- p. 3
▲ Folders/Files--Templates. Supplies a default template when creating bib and/or MFHD records from
scratch. If you use a variety of templates in the course of your work and do not want a default template to
come up when creating new bibs and/or MFHDs, leave those Templates blank.
▲ Folders/Files--Folders. When importing records from OCLC you want the C drive folder to come up so
as to easily find oclc.dat. Type in or choose C:\
▲ Folders/Files--Save to Local File. For those staff uploading original cataloging to OCLC, the process
involves saving records to a local Work File by clicking the Save Plus icon. To facilitate this process, at
File type in c:\upl.bib and at Character Set choose MARC21 UTF-8.
▲ Mapping. For importing records from OCLC set Local Import to MARC21 UTF-8.
Ignore MARC Mapping for OCR Data. It can stay as is.
Cataloging preferences -- p. 4
▲ Colors/Fonts. Set as desired. Ignore Global Heading Change Hierarchy.
Font. Name = must use Arial Unicode MS. Size to your preference. Bold if desired.
Click OK.
Colors. To set colors, choose the kind of record for which you want to define a color, e.g. Bibliographic.
Then click Back Color (i.e. Background) or Text Color. Reset removes any color.
It is helpful to use the same color for the same type of record under MARC Views (variable fields) and
Record Hierarchy, so set them one right after the other.
The Conversion color, which should be highly noticeable, identifies records that were not converted to
Unicode format. Fix all the “black-diamond-with-question mark” errors in these records and Save to
database ONLY WHEN YOU’VE FIXED EVERY ERROR. DO NOT FIX ONLY ONE ERROR AND SAVE
TO DATABASE. The good news is that there are few conversion errors, and Cataloging will clean them
up as a group when it has time.
The Search Result Colors/Suppressed Records color allows you to see which bib records are
suppressed in search results.
The colors you choose remain until you change them.
Most basic colors are pretty dark, so for back colors you may want to define custom colors. After clicking
a kind of record and Back Color:
Cataloging preferences -- p. 5
▲ This Color screen comes up.
Custom colors. To define one or more Custom Colors, click Define Custom Colors. Click a Basic color
then Add to Custom Colors; repeat for other colors to create a palette.
Under Custom colors, click on a box and adjust the color by clicking within the spectrum to the right or
sliding the arrow up and down. You can also type in number values for Hue, etc. When you are done,
click OK. Repeat for other colors.
Custom colors are retained in records, but once you log off Cataloging they disappear from the Color
screen, above. If you want to remember the colors exactly, make a screen print that includes the number
values, or write them down.