About Item and Copy Records

Each bibliographic (bib) record contains information describing a certain title, but you must also have an item record to identify each item that exists in your library. (For example, you could create a bib record for the book A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton, but until you create an item record for the copy you have on your shelves, the item does not exist in your database and cannot be accessed by your borrowers.) Your database can include bib records for which you have no item in your stacks, but you cannot have an item record without a bib record. Item records attach to bib records.

For example, if your library has three copies of A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett, three item records are attached to the bib record for that title, as illustrated here:

Copy records are records that let you group related item records together. They let you see how many sets of one title a library carries. They add another “layer” of cataloging records by representing multiple sets of a title.

A copy record is attached “between” a bib record and an item record to help keep a group of related item records together:

For example, if your library has four sets of the World Book Encyclopedia, and each set has 26 volumes, all 104 item records (volumes) are linked to one bib record. You group these item records by the set they come from when you create copy records, as illustrated here:

Both copy records and item records attach to bib records. When you attach a copy record to a bib record that already has items attached, Horizon inserts the copy record between the bib record and the item records. Horizon attaches the item records to the bib record through the copy record:

You attach an item record to a bib record either directly or through a copy record. You can “move” the item record to a different bib or copy record. (For instructions, see Moving an Item Record.)

You can create copy and item records manually. You can also create an item record manually, or you can have Horizon create item records automatically when you import bib records. You edit existing item and copy records to update holdings information.

Copy records are also created in Serials Control for periodicals. However, if you have multivolume titles that are not periodicals, you can create a copy record for them in Cataloging.

 


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