1. Periodical Holdings Audit:
Correcting Discrepancies and Improbabilities in Catalogs and Periodical A-Z Lists
Ken Irwin
Wittenberg University

2. The Problem(s) Two systems contain periodical holdings information:
The library catalog (III)
The A-Z list (EBSCO Holdings Management/Full Text Finder)
The two systems don’t always agree
Historically maintained by two different departments
Bad data has been copied from one system to another
Data corrupted by EBSCO on original ingest

3. The Problem(s) Kinds of bad information: Disagreement between systems
Disagreement between fields within a system
Impossible data (e.g. Holdings: )
Improbable data (e.g Present)
Especially improbable for niche publications
Just plain incorrect (hard to detect)

4. Ken, you might be projecting…
The Solution(s)
Identify known problems
Record problems found in real life
Model the problem in a way detectable by algorithm
“Algorithm”, sadly, does not imply the lack of grunt work
Fix ’em all
Imagine problems you don’t know you have
You probably have those problems too
Fix them too
Ken, you might be projecting…
Photo: Max Halberstadt,
Public Domain

5. What does “fix” mean RESEARCH!
Where data imported poorly to EBSCO, sometime the catalog alone is enough to clarify correct holdings statement
Often have to check with print holdings in person

6. Methods A lot of Excel: PHP & MySQL Filter
Copy filter results to new table
Filter again
PHP & MySQL
If you are or have access to a programmer, almost any scripting language would do: Perl, PHP, Python, etc.

7. Catalog vs. EBSCO data structure
Lib. Has: text: v.1(1960)-v.4:1(1971) No “real” date fields
CustomCoverageBegin: date: 01/01/1960 CustomCoverageEnd: date: 12/31/1971
+ CoverageStatement: text: v.1(1960)-v.4:1(1971)
(optional)
EBSCO’s format does not allow for volume/issue information in a structured way
Only in the free-text, optional CoverageStatement field

8. Example 1: Records exist in FTF, not in catalog
Scenario: Record was deleted from catalog after export to FTF, not deleted from FTF Process improvement: When records are removed or suppressed from the catalog, change them in FTF too.
Disagreement

9. Example 1: Records exist in FTF, not in catalog
Detection:
Export “serlist” records from catalog
Export records from FTF
Trim urls / bib records 7-digits e.g. (b )
Compare using:
“Compare two lists” from MIT Bioinformatics & Research Computing
Remove FTF-only titles from FTF

10. Example 1: Records exist in FTF, not in catalog

11. Example 2: Coverage “to Present” & End Date
EBSCO’s FTF metadata includes 3 columns related to holdings dates:
CustomCoverageBegin (date only)
CustomCoverageEnd (date only)
CoverageStatement (free text, supports volume #, date, etc.)
The use of multiple fields to cover the same information leads to the potential for discrepancies
Disagreement

12. Example 2: Coverage “to Present” & End Date
Detection:
Excel filter: CustomCoverageEnd = ‘Present’
Excel find: Coverage statement contains ‘-v’ or ‘- v’

13. Example 3: Complex ≠ Simple holdings
Scenario: FTF shows complex holdings and simple coverage statement OR Vice versa
Disagreement

14. Example 3: Complex ≠ Simple holdings
Detection:
Excel filter: ‘|’ (pipe) in CustomCoverage
Excel filter: does not contain ‘ , ’ (comma) in CoverageStatement
And then:
Decide what to do about it…

15. Example 4: Holdings "to present" but not listed as Retains Current
In our library, most current subscriptions are held in “Current Periodicals”
e.g.: “v.49(2012)-;Retains current volume in Current Periodicals.”
Places where that statement is missing are suspect
Some are legit, but many absences for current subscriptions indicate errors
IMPROBABLE

16. Example 4: Holdings "to present" but not listed as Retains Current
Detection:
Excel filter: CustomCoverageEnd = ‘Present’
Excel filter: Coverage Statement does not contain ‘Retain’
Results:
Some correct
Some withdrawn
Some should have had Current Periodicals statement

17. Example 4b: Vice Versa
“Retains current” but end date does not contain ‘Present’
Found four total erroneous records
Errors in catalog
Errors in EBSCO ingest

18. Example 5: Special Collections to ‘Present’
We have very few titles in Storage or Special Collections with current subscriptions.
There were 55 questionable titles
Most: Catalog record was out of date
Some: sloppy data ingest (e.g. a single volume or issue was recorded as the beginning of a series: e.g. n.10(1938)  n.10(1938)-
IMPROBABLe

19. Example 5: Special Collections to ‘Present’
Detection:
Limit holdings to PackageName = “THOMAS RARE”
Or one of several other special collections locations
Limit to CustomCoverageEnd contains “Present”

20. Example 6: Impossible Date Ranges
Items with non-sequential holdings
Lib. Has: n.16(1985),n.22(1987),n.24(1988),n.56(1964)-;
Lib. Has: v.21(1896)-v.22(1987),v.28(1900)-v.86(1929)
Detection:
Did not find a good way to do this!
Fixed them as we found them
IMPOSSIBLE

21. IMPOSSIBLE Example 7: Old News
We don’t have a science library anymore, but:
Solution:
Create List of Bib Records WHERE CHECKIN has ‘sci’
IMPOSSIBLE

22. Example 8: LibHas vs. CoverageStmt
What if we just look for basic textual disagreement? LibHas statement (catalog) is textual different from the Coverage Statement in EBSCO
Disagreement

23. Example 8: LibHas vs. CoverageStmt
For each record, compare the catalog record with EBSCO’s url for the item Catalog: b URL:
Create List in catalog, export Record #, Title, LibHas.
Export titles from EBSCO, including URL

24. Example 8: LibHas vs. CoverageStmt
Match based on record # / URL, compare holdings statements
I did this with a PHP script & MySQL database, comparing strings
You could try Excel, something like: =INDEX(‘ebsco'!$V:$V,MATCH(B2,‘ebsco'!$E:$E)) but I had trouble getting this to work In the standard EBSCO export format $E:$E is the URL column, $V:$V is the Coverage Statement In this example, B2 contains a catalog URL to match on

25. Example 8: LibHas vs. CoverageStmt
Results of this approach
All records in main periodical collection (n = 2029)
LibHas != CoverageStatement (498)
Eliminate blank CoverageStatement (276)
Control for varied spacing and quotation marks (219)
Newly introduced by weeding project (156)
Other errors (63)
Limitation:
Only works where CoverageStatement was defined

26. Future directions Improve staff workflows
Periodic checks for data consistency
Exploring further mechanisms for comparisons/tests