Network Zone Management for Alma Consortia : Maintaining and Enhancing the Shared Database of MARC Bibliographic Records

Abstract

The California State University (CSU) system migrated as a consortium to Alma in June 2017. Our university system shares a database of Marc bibliographic records in the Network Zone (NZ). The purpose of this presentation is to share how the CSU performs general database maintenance and enhancement of the NZ. Topics include import profiles for automated loading of new and updated OCLC Worldcat records into the NZ, troubleshooting and resolving multi-matches (when an incoming record matches two or more existing records) and strategies to deal with duplicate records.

The presenter also seeks to raise the fundamental question of "What is the Network Zone?" which will influence how a consortium manages its NZ. Is it an exact, mirrored subset of the Worldcat database or a Worldcat-sourced, but consortium-mediated database?

Although the presentation is geared toward consortia using Alma with an NZ, standalone Alma institutions with an Institution Zone (IZ) may benefit from common strategies in maintaining and enhancing bibliographic databases.