Overlay Priority In Record Loading

Owned by Lloyd Chittenden, created
Jan 11, 2024
1 min read

Overlay priority is an optional function in a load profile that allows it to avoid overlaying more complete MARC records.

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Overview

Overlay priority is an optional load profile feature that will compare the encoding level of the matched target record to the encoding level of the incoming record. Records with a higher encoding level will not be overlaid by incoming records. The encoding level is a single digit code in the MARC leader that is intended to allow the cataloger to specify how complete the record is. Each load profile can define which codes will take precedence over others. You can also specify the behavior when the two codes are the same, and the whether to attach records when the incoming record is lower.

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Implementation at Marmot

Marmot has a few load profiles that have implemented overlay priority. Our default settings are:

  • Only overlay if the incoming encoding level is higher

  • Attach records if not overlaying

This is the default order of precedence for encoding levels:

  • "⎵:1:I:2:K:3:L:4:M:5:7:8:E:u:z:J:T"

    • The highest encoding level is blank (⎵). A record with a blank encoding level should never be overlaid by another record when using a overlay priority load profile.

You are not limited to including official encoding levels. Some of these codes are only used by particular vendors. For example “T” is a code used by Baker & Taylor for order records.

All codes that may appear need to be accounted for. If an incoming record has a code not accounted for in the load profile, it will create an error when loading.

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