Deleting Empty Bib Records

Occasionally you will come across a title in the catalog that does not have any copies attached to it. We call that an empty bib record. System has several processes to "clean up" these empty bibs.

Once a month, System runs a routine that deletes all of the copies with a status = 'wd' or withdrawn. Any bib records that end up empty through this process are deleted in a separate process once or twice a month as staff time permits.

For bib records that end up empty from other processes, System tries to clean those up at least every six weeks, but sometimes it stretches out longer. These empty bibs are harder to do because System staff have to examine them one-by-one. In some cases, the empty bib is actually a current title undergoing cataloging and in the case of world language materials, it can take weeks to get items attached. In other cases, one of the System members may input on order record, but doesn't create any copies as they should. So it's not a simple matter of "just delete all the empty bibs".

If you encounter an empty bib record you think should be deleted, report it to Cataloging using the Catalog Correction Form found on OZ. Clean up is an ongoing process and just like doing the dishes, there's always a new batch to "wash" every day.


rev. 1/2020

Wrong Cover Shown With Title in ValleyCat

In ValleyCat or the Enterprise catalog, you may occasionally come across a title with the wrong cover art. For example, the following screen shot shows a picture of "Vietnamese Cooking" next to the title for "The Fertility Plan". This anomaly is usually a result of conflicting ISBNs in the Marc record. Report these instances to the Cataloging Department using the Cataloging Correction Form found on Oz.








rev. 8/2017

No Requests on Empty Bib Records

In most cases, every bib/title record in Horizon has one or more copies attached to it. However, there might be a few titles that don't have any copies attached. You cannot place a request on a title that has no copies attached to it. Here's what an "empty bib" looks like in ValleyCat:

If you try to place a request on this empty bib, a rather cryptic message appears which says "visit the full bib page" as shown below:

If you try to do it in Horizon, you'll see the following message:

Empty bib records might occur for one of two reasons:

1. The bib record is very new and the copies have not been attached to it yet. Advise the customer to place the title on their "My List" and check back in a week or two. If it continues to be a problem, follow the instructions below for using the Catalog Correction Form.

2. The bib record is very old and all of the copies have been withdrawn. In you suspect this is the case, report the bib# and title to the Cataloging Department using the Catalog Correction Form found on Oz.  Note: System staff routinely runs a program that removes empty bib records from the catalog.


rev. 8/2017