Precats

Using the precat template

Use the Precat template only if the item has no barcode or wanding the barcode does not bring up a brief record and you have searched WorldCat and found nothing. (See document "Precat via Worldcat search" for details on how to perform a Worldcat search.)

Open the PRECT BK.MRC template by doing 'ctrl-a' anywhere in Aleph. Scroll to the bottom of the list to highlight the template name and hit <enter> to open it:  
Scroll to the bottom of that list and choose 'PRECT BK.MRC'.
<Enter>. --> Template opens:

If necessary, change date and language in the 008 field by placing the cursor anywhere in the field and doing 'ctrl-f'. The only boxes you need be concerned with are "Type of date" (should be 's' if there is a date on the item and 'n' if not); "Date 1" (the 4 digit year of publication); and "Language". The language codes are ger for German, ita for Italian, fre for French and so on. If you don't know the proper code, go to http://www.loc.gov/marc/languages/langhome.html. If an item contains more than one language, as is often the case with art/ architecture books, the language code is 'mul'.
Hit <enter> when you have completed the 008 modifications and your changes will be acccepted.
If the author of the work is a person, put their name in the 100 field, last name first.
If a corporate author, put the corporate name in the 110 field. And if it is a conference, put the conference title, date and venue in the 111 field. (See samples.)

Put the title of the item (taken from the title page, not from the cover) in the 245 field.

Publisher, publisher's location, and date go in the 260 field.

If the item is part of a numbered series, the series title and volume number go in the
440 field.

Fill in the 599 field only if the item is in a non-roman language, entering a three-letter language code after the 'n', leaving a space:
(Language codes can be found at: http://www.loc.gov/marc/languages/langhome.htm)

Wand the barcode into the 949 field and do 'ctrl-l' to save your new brief record on the server.

Now you must create an item record:

On the left side of the screen, click the '+' to the left of "MIT50" and then double-click on the word 'ITEMS' that magically appears under it.

Now click the 'New' button in the upper left corner and fill in the data boxes in the lower window, under the 'General Information (1)' tab.

In the 'Sublibrary' box put the 3 letter code for the library.
'Collection' = PRECT
'Material Type' = BOOK
'Item Status' = 01
(Remove the 'IP' from the Item Process Status box.)
'Call No. Type' = 8
'Call No.' = This part is not so obvious. First, enter '$$h' in the call number box, followed immediately by the 7-digit number that appears at the top of the screen in bright blue, following 'BR System No.'

Wand the barcode into the appropriate box to complete the process.

Creating a Precat record via Worldcat

Do an author/title search on WorldCat:

1. In Search → Find → Advanced Search tab, in the scroll-down list highlight 'Worldcat via Z39.50'. Then enter author and title in the appropriate boxes. <Enter>.
   

1. If the search is successful, push the record to cataloging by clicking the 'Catalog' button.
2. In cataloging, click the 'OK' button to accept the 'Brief' option and then do 'Ctrl-n' to duplicate the record, and then click the 'OK' button again to accept the 'MIT Bibliographic' option.
3. Hit 'F6' to create a 949 field and wand the barcode:
4. Immediately do 'ctrl-l' to save the record on the server. This action will create the precat record number which you can then transcribe to the precat flag.