The DeathFlip Project: Killing Off Your Authors Practically Painlessly Michael Kreyche, Systems Librarian Amey Park, Database Maintenance Librarian Kent State University May18-20, 2009

2 Summary At a Glance LC Policy Change—Adding Death Dates Record Maintenance Nightmare Brainstorming for Solutions "DeathFlip" Authority Records Mostly Automated Procedures Record Creation

3 The Short Version: library.kent.edu/deathflip

4

5 Typical DeathFlip Record 00239nz n n| acannaab |n aaa ¶ ‡a Burns, George, ‡d ¶ ‡a Burns, George, ‡d 1896-¶ 667 ‡a DeathFlip¶ 670 ‡a ¶ 910 ‡a n ¶

6 The General Idea 1. Load all the DeathFlip records. Twice. 2. Wait for AACP to run overnight 3. Check your “Updated bibliographic headings” report. 4. Gloat. 5. Check your “Near matches” report. 6. Do a little cleanup.

7 FAQ How many DF records do you have? –18,358 so far. Did you say load them TWICE? –Yes, once as names and once as subjects. Should I load them all? –Yes. Won’t I get a lot of blind references reported? –Yes. But it’s OK. Won’t I get a lot of duplicates reported? –Yes. But it’s OK. Really.

8 Interesting equation: b + d = t DF If: –Your authority file is up to date and –You load a DeathFlip file The following equation holds true for your reports: Blind references + Duplicate records = Total DeathFlip records in file

9 20 Year Old LC Policy “Don't add dates to existing headings” Criticized by members of the library community, especially when headings –are for famous dead people and –include a birth date but lack a death date Examples: 100 1# $a Warhol, Andy, $d # $a Dali, Salvador, $d # $a Nixon, Richard M. $q (Richard Milhous),$d # $a Diana, $c Princess of Wales, $d # $a John Paul $b II, $c Pope, $d 1920-

10 Death Dates Chronology June 2005: LC Proposal September 2005: LC Decisions Fall 2005: LCRI revision 2006: Big LC project to add death dates to "selected" headings 2007: KSU finds a solution

11 LC's Proposed Change, 2005 “Allow the optional addition of dates (birth, death or both) to existing personal name headings at will.... Catalogers would not be required to add dates to existing personal name headings (other than to resolve conflicts) but may exercise judgment and add the date or dates if these are judged to be useful.” Comments?

12 Comments 93 “yes” comments: wholeheartedly supporting the proposal as posted 28 “partial yes” comments:... not the addition of dates “at will”... reduce the initial impact of BFM* 12 “non-voting” comments 6 “no” comments: totally disapproved... generally cited the impact of BFM* * Bibliographic File Maintenance

13 A Few Specific Comments Provide notification lists of the names changed in order to expedite BFM in local catalogs Retain former heading in a 400 field to expedite BFM or machine “flipping” in some local systems Use “b.” for all beginning dates, thus eliminating open dates altogether

14 LC's Key Decisions Allow the optional addition of death dates to established headings that contain birth dates only Investigate the development of a notification service for changed headings Investigate changes to the MARC 21 authority format for coding “former headings” in a discrete MARC tag

15 OCLC Feed and Archive

16 MARC Revision Chronology December, 2006: proposal published ( January 2007: amended/approved by MARC Advisory Committee May 2007: approved by LC/LAC/BL October 2007: MARC21 Authorities Update 8 Proposal No "Incorporating invalid former headings in 4XX fields of the MARC 21 Authority Format"

17 MARC21 Authorities Update 8 Two Changes –Added code "h" for 4xx $w, byte 1 (No reference structures): Indicates that the reference is not valid in any reference structure [i.e. name/subject/series]. –Expanded usage of 4xx $i: When subfield $w/1 contains code h (No reference structures), subfield $i may contain the date that a heading became invalid.

18 Suppressing Display of “Flip” 4xx Fields Existing coding (seems good enough to me): ‡a Burns, George, ‡d ¶ ‡wnnea ‡a Burns, George, ‡d 1896-¶ New coding: ‡a Burns, George, ‡d ¶ ‡wnhe ‡a Burns, George, ‡d 1896-¶

19 For the Time Being: No LC 4xx for “Former Headings” AACP can't flip the bib headings automatically. Each new death date requires global changes or manual correction Very unhappy authority control librarian!

20 Workflow Implications Records from Vendor: –updated authority record only heading shows up on blind reference list use global update when more than a few records manual editing for onesies/twosies –with a "current" bib record older bibliographic records not reported— split file!!! check all headings on the Death Date list?

21 Vendor Option (Backstage) Developed for Wofford College –Supply brief records to flip headings –Supply full records to replace brief ones –72% increase in cost over existing service Can we do it ourselves?

22 DeathFlip Plan A Create DF records from OCLC feed Load DF records with custom table –Match existing records –Add identifying field Output a copy of matched records Overlay matched records with DF records Wait overnight for AACP Overlay DF with original records

23 Thinking the Unthinkable What if: We loaded all the DeathFlip records –Even if it meant two records per heading –Even if we didn’t have bib headings Would AACP work? Yes!

24 DeathFlip Plan B Create DF records from OCLC feed Load All DF records –Some will "duplicate" real records –Some will report as blind references Wait overnight for AACP Suppress/Delete DF records Repeat as needed

25 Typical Basic Workflow Day 1 –Clear headings reports –Load DeathFlip records Day 2 –Generate reports –Suppress or delete records –Clear reports (wait till next day if suppressed) Names/Subjects can be done separately

26 Last Quarterly Loads (March 2009) SubjectsNamesAll Records loaded1,115 Fields updated2473,4973,744 Bib records updated1332,4932,626 Headings

27 Timing Load DF before vendor records –Flips retro records and the newly returned records. –Report when loading bslw shows lots of duplicate records, but can pretty much ignore or scan quickly. Blinds worth looking at. Otherwise: –New records with a death date report as blind because non-current bib records haven't been flipped yet—have to look at all because some really are legit (especially conference and corporate names).

28 Initial Record Loads—December 2007 SubjectsNamesAll Records loaded9,949 Fields updated4614,0784,539 Near matches ,036 Headings from February 2006-August 2007

29 Testing the equation: b + d = t DF SubjectsNamesAll t DF (records loaded)9,949 b (blind references)8,2804,845 d (duplicate records)1,5544,965 b + d9,8349,810 Missing records

30 Identifying Missing Authority Records Tentative process: 1.Make a list of loaded DF records; export record number, 910, 1xx subject, 1xx name to text file 2.Make a list from the blind/duplicate report; export record number, 1xx subject, 1xx name to text file 3.Merge and sort text files; identify non- duplicated record numbers 4.Look up in OCLC by LCCN (910)

31 Timing for duplicate detection Duplicate detection works best when your database is more up to date than the DeathFlip records. If you get records from a vendor, load the DeathFlip records after the vendor records.

32 OCLC's RSS Feed

33 Processing the Feed—Raw Code

34 Step 1: Download Feed Perl script saves current feed –Covers about the last two months –Older data migrated to HTML archive Two stages: –Initially, harvested archive –Harvest feed at least every two months Character encoding changes over time

35 Step 2: Extract Data Another Perl script –Parses Feed –Produces Tab-Delimited file

36 Step 3: Build MARC Record Yet another Perl script –Fixes delimiters and other characters –Restructures data into MARC

37 Occasional Retrospective Flip? Unsuppress or reload earlier DF records to fix newly loaded bib records March 2008 (3 months after first load) –17 fields changed May 2009 (1½ years after first load): –122 fields changed for 36 headings How long is it worthwhile???

38 Outcomes Pluses –Saves a huge amount of work –Can find missing authority records Minuses –Doesn't catch TOC fields (970) –Doesn't catch headings with $e, $t, etc. –Sometimes the DF headings get updated

39 Original: –Gimbutas, Marija Alseikaitė,|d1921- DeathFlip: –Gimbutas, Marija Alseikaitė,|d Latest: –Gimbutas, Marija,|d –This heading reported as blind.

40 Go For It! library.kent.edu/deathflip

41 Bibliography Addition of Death Dates to Personal Names. See also: – – LC Proposal, Addition of Dates to Existing Personal Name Headings. June, LC Analysis of Comments Received and Corresponding Decisions. September, Policy on the Implementation of Revised LCRI 22.17, Notice of OCLC RSS Feed for Local Bibliographic File Maintenance. Fall Park,Amey L. Death Dates Added to Some Personal Name Headings. TECHKNOW: A Quarterly Review of Bright Ideas For the Technical Services Division. Ohio Library Council.