1. OSMOSIS :
a new way of updating
holdings on the New
Zealand union catalogue
Ksenija Mincic-Obradovic
Cataloguing Manager
The University of Auckland Library
k.obradovic@auckland.ac.nz
ALA conference, OCLC stream
26 June 2010

2. Before 2007
•NZ NUC was the main cataloguing utility
•Original cataloguing on NZ NUC or on local catalogues
•New holdings reported to NZ NUC
•OCLC WorldCat only a few libraries; for records not on
NZ NUC + CJK cataloguing
Individual Libraries

3. Since 2007
daily
•NZ NUC source for NZ records; WorldCat
source for other records
•New holdings reported to either
Individual
Libraries
Over 5,000,000 records
Nearly 16,000,000 holdings
280 member libraries

4. But …
• Adding new holdings somewhat patchy
• Some older material (including theses, rare
material) not reported
• Deletions and transfers rarely reported…
… and, this causes a series of problems

5. OSMOSIS Pilot project
• OSMOSIS – a software tool that identifies
changes (additions and deletions) to library
holdings, developed by TMQ (Fla) in 1992
• Project began in 2008
– National Library of New Zealand
– University of Auckland (first pilot library)
– Auckland University of Technology
– University of Canterbury
– Victoria University of Wellington
– Porirua Public Library
– ELGAR – Libraries for a Greater Auckland Region
• 2009 – technical improvements to
batchloading to the NZ NUC (service offered to
pilot libraries only)

6. Process
• Library exports a copy of entire database and
sends to TMQ
• TMQ Processing:
– Pre-processing: Fixes errors and pulls problem
records and sends reports to library
– OSMOSIS: compares new file with previous file and
identifies adds and deletes; and sends files to NLNZ
• NLNZ runs TMQ’s PLP/MCU batchload
matching algorithm software to identify and
resolve duplicates before loading to the NZ
NUC

7. OSMOSIS

8. OSMOSIS Checking Options

9. OSMOSIS Fixing Options, 1

10. OSMOSIS Fixing Options, 2

11. MCU Record Comparison

12. Problems resolved:
•Serial holdings/enumeration data
•Translation tables– library symbols to NZNUC
codes
•Material not to be represented on NZ NUC and
WorldCat (e.g. purchased records for eebo)

13. Problems unresolved:
•Duplicate records
•Inadequate metadata
•Initial effort for setting up the services off-putting
for some libraries

14. • Accurate holdings on WorldCat and NZ NUC
• More effective resource sharing and interlibrary
loan fulfilment
• Greater visibility of NZ libraries’ collections
• Improved workflows
• Various errors in the catalogue were reported, e.g.
duplicate records and mistakes in MARC coding
Errors fixed by manual interventions or global changes
(MARC Global, Gary Strawn’s programmes)
Benefits:

15. OSMOSIS Reports

16. Good Quality
Records Enable:
• Resource discovery
• Accurate machine
matching
• Reduction of record
duplication on NZ
NUC and WorldCat
• Projects involving
metadata
conversions
• Database mergers
• Improved faceting
and FRBRisation on
Primo

17. Future of the OSMOSIS project
• OSMOSIS appears to be useful method
whereby:
– Participating libraries attain maximum NUC/WorldCat
reporting (both additions and deletions)
– Standardisation of cataloguing practices across
libraries is encouraged
• Recommendation to extend OSMOSIS service
to additional 10-15 libraries in 2010-2011
financial year
• TMQ and NLNZ discussing RDA/MARC
implications

18. Thank you
Ksenija M. Obradovic
The University of Auckland Library
k.obradovic@auckland.ac.nz