Metadata Standards and Policies Working Group

These metadata policies support the daily work of SUNY cataloging staff in the Alma Network Zone environment. They are intended to inform and guide any metadata work that uses shared bibliographic records in the Network Zone.

The SMSP reviewed and renumbered these policies in 2025. The older policy versions can be found in the SUNY Digital Repository.

Summary:

OCLC will be the primary bibliographic utility used by the SUNY system.

Policy:

Members must use OCLC as their primary bibliographic utility. One of the following cataloging subscription services is required for all SUNY Libraries* 

• OCLC Full Cataloging Subscription:
  • Allows for holdings to be automatically synced with OCLC
  • Allows the campus to automatically (or batch) update their holdings via an OCLC data sync collection
•  OCLC Small Library Edition (for eligible community colleges with fewer than 3000 FTE)
  • Allows for holdings to be automatically synced with OCLC
  • Allows the campus to automatically (or batch) update their holdings via an OCLC data sync collection
• OCLC CatExpress
  • Does not allow for holdings to be automatically synced with OCLC and will require manual updating of holdings in OCLC
• Other subscription cataloging services that meet SUNY shared LSP standards

Members must use the OCLC record number as the primary match point when exporting records into Alma, except in cases where a SUNY policy has been established to use a different match point

The following types of bibliographic records are not required to contain OCLC record numbers or to have holdings set in WorldCat:

• brief records created for ordering purposes
• personal-copy course reserves
• titles borrowed on ILL from outside the SUNY system
• inventory control of equipment 
• records representing titles in a knowledgebase
• shipping list records 
• host bibliographic records for bound-withs
• suppressed bibliographic records 
• record sets provided by vendors other than OCLC, including leased book sets

* This policy does not apply to Empire State University, which has never maintained an OCLC cataloging subscription, nor does Empire have a physical collection. Any further exceptions must be approved by the Metadata Standards and Policies Working Group.

Policy justification:

The presence of unique OCLC record numbers in bibliographic records makes it possible to match records in Alma when materials are owned by multiple SUNY libraries. The unique OCLC record number provides a match point that simplifies record loading, record maintenance, and other technical operations. Requiring use of a common bibliographic utility ensures that the records of SUNY libraries can be merged and maintained with greater ease in Alma.

 

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2025
Date created: April 2025

Summary:

SUNY member libraries must make bibliographic record changes in WorldCat and export the updated record into the Network Zone.

Policy:

• Original cataloging of materials whose records would reside in the Network Zone must be done at the WorldCat record level using an OCLC bibliographic utility
• Any edits to bibliographic records in the Network Zone must be made to the WorldCat record using an OCLC bibliographic utility
• SUNY member libraries will prioritize corrections and changes to bibliographic records that enhance discoverability
• Exception: Local notes/extensions are added in the Metadata Editor and will show the icon of a house by the MARC tag. These local notes cover all information which may apply only to a specific copy (such as Special Collections materials), or acquisitions or holdings notes. The Local Fields document provides more information about what information belongs in these fields

Policy justification:

Because SUNY is using OCLC WorldCat bibliographic records, any original records or edits to records that will reside in the Network Zone must be done in WorldCat. Creating original records and editing records in WorldCat improves discoverability for consortium members.

If an edit is made in the Metadata Editor in Alma, that edited information will be lost when the WorldCat record is exported to replace the existing record in the Network Zone. This export and replace happens when any change is made by any full cataloging member of OCLC, not just full cataloging members within SUNY.

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2025
Date created: April 2025

Summary:

Describes the principles regarding work in the SUNY Alma Network Zone.

Policy:

• The Alma Network Zone (NZ) is the shared bibliographic environment of SUNY, whose goal is to have bibliographic records, brief or full, residing there with direct and related inventory
• Libraries must avoid adding duplicate records (with the same OCLC number in 035 $$a) to the NZ
• Libraries must not change the OCLC number in existing NZ records
• The following are examples of records that should not be added to the NZ:
  • online resources (not part of Community Zone collections)
  • personal-copy course reserves
  • titles borrowed on ILL from outside libraries
  • inventory control of equipment
  • host bibliographic records for bound-withs
  • vendor record sets that the library is not allowed to share

Policy justification:

The Alma Network Zone as a shared bibliographic environment provides a foundation for collaborative work, both in terms of collection development and cataloging. Duplicate records undercut the usefulness of the shared cataloging by causing problems with record loading and other functions. Since records are shared, the OCLC number cannot be changed; rather, inventory is moved to the desired record. All bibliographic records should reside in the NZ, with noted exceptions, in order to enable collaboration and sharing of information.

There could be rare cases when brief bibliographic records created to track inventory locally are allowed to reside in the IZ rather than the NZ at the member library’s discretion. Criteria to consider when making this decision include: do the brief records contain the minimum elements required for in-process brief bibliographic records, or would addition to the NZ negatively impact member libraries’ ability to upgrade and maintain records. Excessively brief records may make it difficult to identify and select a resource and they may inadvertently hide relevant material in Primo search results, negatively impacting our users.

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2025
Date created: April 2025

Summary:

Specifies the minimum standards for bibliographic completeness in the SUNY LSP.

Policy:

• Should meet minimum descriptive standards for SUNY, which are the CONSER Standard Record (CSR) for serials and the BIBCO Standard Record (BSR) for all other bibliographic formats for either RDA or AACR2. BSR and CSR standards can be used independently of being a member of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC).  When created by non-PCC libraries, records cataloged as BSR or CSR are coded as Level blank in OCLC and do not carry PCC authentication codes. Additionally, name headings on non-authenticated records do not need to be supported by authority records
• May catalog at the Full level, which surpasses the SUNY floor standard
• Should meet a level of completeness comparable to CSR and BSR standards when using records that don’t follow the RDA or AACR2 standard. There is no requirement to recatalog pre-AACR2 records

The following types of bibliographic records in the shared LSP should not be required to meet floor bibliographic standards:

• Records created for ordering purposes
• Records representing titles in a knowledge base
• Shipping list records
• Records provided by vendors for outsourced cataloging
• Retrospective conversion

Ideally, floor standards should apply to bibliographic records for all cataloged titles. However, there are some circumstances that can prevent that standard from being applied. Some examples of those obstacles can include:

• Record sets from vendors; sometimes upgrading records to floor standards is not feasible given staffing levels and workload in a library
• PCC-authenticated bibliographic records in OCLC; these may be locked, preventing non-PCC members from updating the records to floor standard. The recommendation is to use these records as they are, with the expectation that they will be updated by an authorized member. Records requiring updates can also be reported 

Policy justification:

The purpose of a floor standard for bibliographic records is to specify minimum standards for completeness and content designation. A shared LSP which uses a shared bibliographic record and a floor standard gives SUNY members expectations on quality, reducing the need for editing and re-editing of records

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2026
Date created: April 2025

Summary:

States the preference for separate records but makes exceptions for single-record approach in the LSP.

Policy:

Traditional practice has been to catalog every manifestation of a title on its own bibliographic record (i.e., “separate records”). Exceptions have been made for electronic resources, microforms, and other formats, adding these versions to the same bibliographic record as the print resource (i.e., “single record”). Separate records are the dominant approach with single records accepted as variant practice. SUNY members -

• Must use separate bibliographic records for each format of a single title
• Are not required to convert migrated single records. Specific conversion projects may be undertaken to solve problems in the new system
• May use single records due to established national practice, such as the print and microform records for the U.S. Newspaper Program.

Policy justification:

• Separate records provide for simpler maintenance, particularly in a batch load environment
• Separate records allow users to refine their searches by faceting and allow library staff to generate accurate analytics reports
• As all SUNY LSP members are using Primo, they can rely on the Dedup/FRBR functionality in discovery, which allows manifestations (separate records) of the same work to display as a single record

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2026
Date created: April 2025

Summary:

Requirement to follow the provider-neutral approach and use provider-neutral records in the NZ.

Policy:

• SUNY libraries must use provider-neutral records in the shared Alma Network Zone
• SUNY libraries should follow the practice outlined in the OCLC Special Cataloging Guidelines and use a provider-neutral approach for print-on-demand reproductions and photocopies of textual materials, scores, and other materials
• This mandate addresses the Alma Network Zone, and does not apply to Alma Community Zone records

Policy justification:​

The use of provider-neutral records for print-on-demand reproductions and photocopies of textual materials eliminates a proliferation of records describing essentially the same manifestation. This reduces user confusion over multiple instances of a title in the catalog and leads to better discoverability. Using the national standard for the WorldCat record will save time and money. Local additions may be made using local bibliographic extensions in the IZ at the discretion of SUNY libraries. Provider-neutral records can also apply to electronic resources, but discussion of that material type has been omitted from this policy as these materials are not added to the NZ.

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2026
Date created: April 2025

Summary:

The language of cataloging for Network Zone (NZ) bibliographic records must be English, regardless of the language of the resource.

Policy:

The language of cataloging for records in the Network Zone must be in English. Records must be written in English, regardless of the language of a resource (which may be non-English).  

The language of cataloging can be identified in field 040 subfield $b, such as:
040   DLC $b eng $e rda $c DLC

If subfield $b is not present, the language of cataloging is assumed to be English, such as:
040   UKDOR $c UKDOR $d BTCTA

• This policy should guide selection criteria when choosing from several possible matches to export from WorldCat
• If an English language bibliographic record cannot be found, it is expected that members will create a parallel record in WorldCat following the guidelines addressed in OCLC’s 2.6 Language of Cataloging, then export that record into the Network Zone 
• The language of cataloging in an existing record should not be changed to meet this policy. Instead, derive a new record from the foreign cataloging agency record and record the necessary characteristics in English

An exception to this policy includes resources activated in the Community Zone.

Policy justification:

• To reduce bibliographic record duplication in the NZ
• To receive regularly updated records from WorldCat as the import profiles only allow for English language records to be accepted in the NZ
• To increase the discoverability of the records, as non-English language records are more likely to include controlled vocabularies that are not English
• To increase the likelihood of selecting the correct record to describe the resource
• To maintain consistency in record presentation, including notes, abbreviations, and transliteration schemes

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2027
Date created: April 2025

Summary:

In-process brief bibliographic records will be created/imported into the Network Zone (NZ) to encourage collaboration and reduce duplication when possible.

Policy:

Creation or import of manual brief bibliographic records for newly ordered items is a common acquisitions task for many SUNY libraries. In the interest of standardization and increased collaborative technical services between SUNY libraries, create/import brief bibliographic records in the NZ to allow other campuses to also attach their purchase order lines and holdings to these records. Whenever possible, brief bibliographic records should contain the title, ISBN, author, edition, and publication date of the item. Any additional information to aid in identification is beneficial but not essential.

However, as SUNY libraries increasingly use vendor APIs to order materials, there may be situations where brief bibliographic records are added to a campus IZ when a matching NZ record is not available. Campuses must follow the procedures to overlay brief bibliographic records with an OCLC record and share that record with the network.

The process for adding/creating these brief records in the NZ can be found in the Alma Resource Management training guide.

Libraries are encouraged to overlay a fuller bibliographic record over another library’s brief bib, if they are confident it is for the same resource.

Policy justification:

• Shared in-process brief bibliographic records will reduce the number of duplicative records in the NZ and the resulting maintenance those records will require
• These records will also reduce workload on campuses, who can identify brief records in the NZ that meet their needs and won’t have to create them

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2027
Date created: April 2025

Summary:

Bibliographic and acquisitions records for withdrawn or deleted materials should be routinely removed from the IZ.

Policy

Outdated acquisitions and bibliographic data should be removed from Alma. Superfluous records for materials that are no longer in the collection can affect discovery results, resource sharing availability, collection management decisions, and statistical reporting. When the last item is withdrawn, the corresponding holdings, bibliographic, and acquisitions records should also be removed following the procedures to delete individual items or delete items in batch. By following the established “wdn” process, data can be processed and/or recovered using Analytics. Deleting these records will not remove them from Alma and they will continue to be accessible.

Policy justification

Standardizing this practice across campuses means that SUNY can generate accurate statistics for reporting, as well as provide better searching and retrieval of records in the Alma environment.

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2027
Date created: April 2025

Summary:

SUNY member libraries must use the recommended local field designations for bibliographic records shared with the Network Zone (NZ)

Policy:

Local fields are added to Institution Zone (IZ) bibliographic records using local extensions, which allow the fields to be indexed and made visible in the local institution but not in the NZ or other IZ environments. Local extensions also protect the local fields from being overwritten when a new copy of the bibliographic record is overlaid in the NZ. Local information must also be added using the designated SUNY Alma field, which often differs from the traditional MARC field. When adding local extensions, use the following SUNY Alma field designations:

SUNY local bibliographic fields

Content	MARC field	SUNY Alma field
Local call number	090/099	leave in 090/099
Local thesis/dissertation note (not included in OCLC record)	502	move to 592
Local licensing notes	506	move to 593
Local citation note (not included in OCLC record)	510	move to 594
Local target audience note (not included in OCLC record)	521	move to 595
Local reproduction note (not included in OCLC record)	533	move to 988
Local performance rights note (not included in OCLC record)	540	move to 596
Local ownership note	561	move to 598
Local note	590	leave in 590
Local subject - Personal name (not included in OCLC record)	600	move to 696
Local subject - Corporate name (not included in OCLC record)	610	move to 697
Local subject - Meeting name (not included in OCLC record)	611	move to 698
Local subject - Uniform title (not included in OCLC record)	630	move to 699
Local subject - Topical term (not included in OCLC record)	650/690	move to 690
Local subject - Geographic term (not included in OCLC record)	651	move to 691
Local subject - Genre term (not included in OCLC record)	655	move to 694
Local added entry - Personal name	700	move to 952
Local added entry - Corporate name	710	move to 953
Local added entry - Meeting name	711	move to 954
Local added entry - Uniform title	730	move to 955
Local hierarchical place name	752	move to 957
Local added entry - Local journal title	730	move to 958
Local added entry - Varying form of title	246	move to 959
Local added entry - Uncontrolled related/analytical title	740	move to 960
Local series added entry - Uniform title	830	move to 961
Local series statement	490	move to 962
Local added entry - Personal/corporate/meeting names (not included in OCLC record)	79X	move to 973

The following MARC fields have been reserved for Consortial use:

• 975 Primo VE Single Record Display: Used to prevent MARC records from deduping/FRBRization. This field can be applied to an IZ only record, NZ record, or CZ records in an institution. Example of the field format: 975 _ _ $a PrimoVE Single Record Display $9 local
• 976 Copyright Date for Primo VE Display: Used to allow the copyright date in 264 _4 $c to display in Primo VE in addition to the publication date in 264 _1 $c.
  • A normalization rule is used copy MARC 264 _4 $c to MARC 976
  • A display norm rule allows MARC 976 to display the copyright date in Primo VE, as well as the publication date
• 977 and 979: MARC fields 977 and 979 are not currently being used. They are reserved for future consortial use.
• 986 Aleph System Number: Populated with the Aleph System number during migration. This MARC field will only display in an institution record via a local extension.
• 999 OCLC WorldShare Collection Information: Contains information from the OCLC WorldShare query collections for new, updated, and merged records. Records exported directly from WorldCat to the NZ will not contain MARC field 999. MARC 999 may have been created at cutover or after cutover.
  • Records created in the NZ at cutover from the OCLC WorldShare query collection will appear with the Cutover information:
    999__ |a Cutover - 20190517 |b 20190517 |c New collection customer.71307.193
  • Records created and/or updated in the NZ from the OCLC WorldShare query collections will appear with information about the collection, the date, and the action: 999__ |a SUNY LSP Collection |b 20190927 |c Added to collection customer.71307.170
    999__ |a SUNY LSP Collection |b 20201119 |c Master record variable field(s) change: 040, 505
  • If there is no MARC 999 in the NZ record it may be as a result of a SUNY institution linking the record to the Network Zone

SUNY has defined local MARC fields that can be freely used by institutions to meet their local needs. The following local MARC fields are reserved for unrestricted local use: 982, 983, 984, 985, 990, 991, 992, 993, 995, 996, 997, 998.

Policy justification

The use of local extensions in a shared record environment will protect local data from being overwritten or provided out of context. The designated SUNY Alma fields specify the guidelines needed for consistent interpretation of local data, resulting in better management of indexing, discovery, and troubleshooting.

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2028
Date created: April 2025

Summary:

Newly created or revised physical boundwiths should follow the process of creating a suppressed IZ bib record with inventory that links to individual NZ bibliographic records.

Policy:

SUNY libraries should follow these steps for creating any new boundwiths or revising existing boundwiths in their collections:

1. Create a suppressed host bibliographic record in the IZ with physical inventory
2. Link constituent bibliographic records to the NZ with no physical inventory using 774 fields

Add a local extension note to each constituent bibliographic record describing the boundwith relationship

 

The IZ host bibliographic record should:

• Have title: 245 00 Host bibliographic record for boundwith item with barcode XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
  Note: this is an example and campuses may choose to phrase this IZ 245 differently.
• Have constituent relationship linking fields for each boundwith component: 774 1_ $t Bib title 1 $w MMSID (from the IZ)
• Be suppressed: this record serves to bring your boundwiths together and shouldn’t be discoverable to users
• Should have inventory, including a location, call number, and barcode

Each NZ bibliographic record:

• Should be fully cataloged
• Should have a local extension note describing the boundwith relationships
• Should be linked to the NZ
• Should not have any inventory

Policy justification:

The process described in this document is a change in policy and is recommended by the SMSP due to advances in Alma functionality. SUNY has made two configuration changes to support this process:

• Configured ‘Bibliographic Record Deletion with Related Records’ in the NZ to prevent the deletion of bibliographic records that are related (as expressed through the 774 linking fields). With this new configuration, SUNY can prevent bibliographic records without inventory, such as these NZ boundwith bibliographic records, from being deleted through routine or manual processes.
• Configured the ‘Delete NZ Bib without inventory’ parameter to false, preventing campuses from deleting a bib in the NZ when they remove the last holdings through the withdrawal process.

Date of last review: April 2025
Date of next review: September 2028
Date created: April 2025