When filing a support ticket with OCLC, libraries can include both the link to WorldCat Discovery and screen shots of the issue in the ticket so OCLC customer support can duplicate the exact issue your library experienced as closely as possible. For broken links, it is also helpful to include a descriptive phrase in the subject link, such as linking problem with the specific journal in this KB collection, rather than a generic subject such as "problem" or "broken link." KB linking problems may be forwarded in some cases from OCLC support to the KB team, so that KB staff can work with content providers to correct metadata problems that originated with the provider.
For some time OCLC had a practice of marking collections as discontinued when they no longer received KBART updates from the content provider. For some of the discontinued collections where access to the content is still available, libraries will want to maintain access to a KB collection for the content. OCLC has suggested replacement KB collections for some discontinued collections where access to the content is still available, but not for all of them. After maintaining a practice of leaving the discontinued collections in the KB indefinitely, OCLC announced a new practice of deleting discontinued collections after six months.
In order to select new collections when OCLC discontinues a particular collection, libraries can check the Just In Time (JIT) Updates by subscribing to the news feed for Collection Manager in the OCLC Community Center. You can also check for discontinued collection announcements you may have missed by searching the updates. To check for KB collections that your library currently has selected, perform a blank search for Collections in Collection Manager with "My Selected Collections" checked, then use the filter to view your discontinued collections. You can also check this discontinued collection list to see if your library has selected a collection that has been discontinued since last month, as well as this list for possible replacements.
Libraries that serve as depositories for U.S. government documents can sync both their print and electronic collections to their official GovDocs collections. Libraries that are not depository libraries have the option of using the KB collection for all electronic GovDocs, since these documents are freely available.
For depository libraries, OCLC exports records from WorldCat to create the two global knowledge base collections that contain GovDoc titles, which are updated monthly. After the monthly update, OCLC downloads an updated repository file from GovDocs site telling them what new holdings to apply based upon each depository library's access. OCLC utilizes the category numbers to select all titles that reflect that category in the knowledge base. This means one entry in the repository file may mean multiple titles are selected in the knowledge base. For the libraries who are trying to troubleshoot why they may or may not have received holdings, or why they are not seeing categories they think they should., OCLC recommends that they review the repository they are using to select holdings. Please note libraries can opt to have holdings feeds on one or both of the collections, and it’s not required to be on both. When reviewing KBART files or the WorldShare Collection Manager interface the vendor ID field is the category value in the repository file.
Links from electronic items or electronic versions of physical items in Discovery are based on knowledge base holdings data and use OCLC's link resolver. Maintaining accurate title level information in the KB ensures that the link resolver will link to the desired item on the content provider's platform. Edits to title level information that will improve accuracy include the title, identifiers (ISBN, ISSN, OCN), author, date, publisher and coverage ranges. Titles in both customizable and non-customizable collections can be edited at the global level, while customizable collections can also be edited at the local level, so be sure you are ready to share your edits globally before making any changes to titles in non-customizable collections. Edits to some collections will be overwritten by regular updates from content providers, so check this list to make sure you are editing collections where the changes will be retained.
Grouped OCNs appear on a title in a KB collection when OCLC's algorithm matches data points for that title to the same item in a different format. Grouped OCNs are also added for duplicate OCLC records for the original electronic format. When a title in a KB collection has one or more grouped OCNs, a link to the title in the KB collection will appear in Discovery on the record with the grouped OCN. Sometimes there is an incorrect match, and you may see a link to an electronic item that does not match the record that is being displayed. In that case, you don't do anything to the record that is displaying a link incorrectly. Instead, you remove the grouped OCN from the incorrectly linked title in the KB collection. More information on title level settings for grouped OCNs is available in OCLC's documentation.
OCLC numbers appear in the KBART file for a KB collection, as well as in the title-level information for a particular title in the Collection Manager interface for the KB collection. OCNs can appear in a KBART file either because the vendor included them in the data they sent to OCLC, or because OCLC's matching algorithm determined that there was an existing OCLC record the described the particular title. In instances where there is no OCN, adding an OCN will allow your holdings to be set on that particular record, which will make the item much more likely to be found by patrons.
Since electronic resources often generate multiple OCLC records because of the large number of vendor records that are loaded and are not able to be de-duplicated, multiple OCLC records will often be grouped under the Editions & Formats function. If a record has limited information and/or does not follow standard cataloging practices, it will not be grouped with other OCLC records in the Discovery results, but will appear on a separate result in the search results. You can enter an override OCN for titles where there is an OCLC record that contains more complete information, and you can also send the OCN to the global collection if you choose.