Using Headings Reports

Headings Reports can help you maintain a high quality of data by ensuring consistent and authoritative record headings. The Headings Reports function enables you to:

• Create a Headings Report and view lists of headings that might require further attention.
• Use a report interactively to resolve entries by editing the records indicated by the report entry.
• Print a report.
• Create a review file of a report.
• Clear selected entries from the report or clear the entire report.
• Clear all headings reports without first creating the reports.
• If your library has acquired the ability to access the Innovative Library of Congress MARC Authority file, you can use the INN-View function to update a heading with a correct heading from an authority record or save the authority record to your database.

Headings that Are Included In the Headings Report

When a heading is added, changed, or deleted from a record, the system checks the normalized version (in which capitalization and punctuation are ignored) of the heading for the following conditions. When any of these conditions are met, the system writes the heading information in the relevant report:

• Headings used for the first time: author, subject, or title headings that are currently not being used by any other record in the database.
• Invalid headings: bibliographic record headings that match an existing SEE FROM entry (MARC 4XX) in an authority record.
• Duplicate entries: headings that share duplicate values for indexed fields that should use unique values, such as barcodes, call numbers, bibliographic utility numbers, or other indexed fields.
• Blind references: generated when the system finds an authority record for which there is no heading in a bibliographic record that corresponds to the valid form stored in the MARC 1XX field in the authority record.
• Duplicate authority records: authority record headings that match the established form (MARC 1XX) of an existing authority record.

If your library has acquired the Automatic Authority Control Processing feature, the system also checks headings for the following conditions:

• Updated Bibliographic Records: records that were updated by the Automatic Authorities Control Processing program.
• Near matches: bibliographic headings that could not be updated by Automatic Authority Control Processing because they were very close to, but did not exactly match, a 4XX field in an authority record.
• Non-unique 4XX: bibliographic headings that could not be changed by Automatic Authority Control Processing because the headings matched two or more 4XX fields in authority records.
• Cross-thesaurus matches: bibliographic and authority headings that match, but for which there is no thesaurus specified, or the thesaurus is ambiguous.

See Automatic Authority Control Processing for more information.

Special Handling for Fields and Record Types

Some further conditions apply to some fields and record types:

• When the SUPPRESS field on an authority record is changed (changing the record status from suppressed to unsuppressed, or vice versa) the system performs a headings check.
• If indexed fields in an item record are included in the database maintenance option Heading Report: Duplicate use fields, the system performs a headings check when the SUPPRESS field on an item record is changed (changing the record status from suppressed to unsuppressed, or vice versa).
• In certain fields, different subfields are treated as separate headings. For example, subfield a of a 7XX field usually is indexed as an author heading, while subfield t of a 7XX field usually is indexed as a title heading.
• When any title in a bibliographic record is changed, or the BCODE3 field in a record is changed from SUPPRESS to non-SUPPRESS or vice versa, the system checks all headings in that record.

Creating a Headings Report

To create a headings report:

1. Select Headings Reports from the Function list.
2. Specify the Report Type(s) you want to create by selecting one or more of the report types listed. Click All to run all of the following reports.
   • Headings used for the first time
   • Invalid headings
   • Duplicate entries
   • Blind references
   • Duplicate authority records
   • Updated bibliographic headings
   • Near matches
   • Non-unique 4XXs
   • Cross-thesaurus matches
3. Indicate if you want to exclude records with a blank or empty CAT DATE field from the report(s) by selecting the Exclude records without a CAT DATE checkbox.
4. To view report entries that were generated in a Date Range, specify the range by entering the month, day, and year for the start date in the From field and for the end date in to To field.
5. You can limit your report(s) by the following criteria:
   • Locations—Location field values from bibliographic records.
   • Users—System users, identified by name and/or login.
   • Programs—System processes in which a heading was entered. For a list of the function codes that indicate these programs, see Function Codes.
   • Statistics Groups—If your library uses Statistics, you can limit report data by statistics group(s).

To limit your report(s) by any of these criteria, select the value(s) you want to limit by from the list on the right, and click the left arrow. To remove a value, select the value in the box on the left, and click the right arrow.

6. When you finish defining the report(s) as you want, click Create.

A status bar appears, indicating that the report is being processed. When finished, Sierra displays the report.

7. (Optional) To print a report do one of the following:
   • Select File | Print (<default printer>)
   • Select File | Select Printer, and specify a printer.
   See Printing in Sierra for more information.
8. Resolve the heading inconsistencies. The following topics contain information on using each report type interactively.
   • Headings used for the first time
   • Invalid headings
   • Duplicate entries
   • Blind references
   • Duplicate authority records
   • Updated bibliographic headings
   • Near matches
   • Non-unique 4XXs
   • Cross-thesaurus matches
9. (Optional) After reviewing the report, delete some or all of the entries in the report. See Clearing a Headings Report for more information.
10. When finished, click Close to exit the report.

Creating a Review File from a Headings Report

You can save the results of a headings report, by record type, to a review file for later use. To create a review file of headings report results:

1. In the Report on Headings Functions window, select Tools | Create Review File | <record type> Records. See Creating a New Review File for more information.
2. In the Choose a Review File window, select a review file, and click OK. The system renames the review file using the headrpt function code, login, and the date/time the file is created.

For more information about using review files, see Creating Lists (Review Files).

Clearing a Headings Report

Each time you create a headings report, the system appends the report entries to the headings database. If you do not regularly clear headings report entries, you can cause the headings database to become full, which prevents the system from displaying your full report results. If you must clear the report to prevent the database from becoming full, you can print the report or save the report results to a review file for later use.

When you clear selected report entries or entire reports, the report entries are not included in subsequent reports, whether you have addressed the issue that generated the entry, or not.

You can:

• Clear individual entries in a report
• Clear all entries in a report
• Clear all or selected headings reports

Clearing Individual Entries in a Report

To clear individual entries:

1. While viewing the headings report, select the checkboxes for the rows you want to delete.

2. On the toolbar, click Clear.
3. On the Clear Checked Entries dialog, click OK.

Clearing All Entries in a Report

To clear an entire report, do one of the following.

Sierra 5.4 and Later

Sierra loads entries in a headings report in batches of 200 when you view the report. Clicking the All column only selects the entries that are already loaded, not the entire report. If your report contains more than 200 entries, it is better to clear the entries from the starting page of the Headings Report function as described below.

1. While viewing the headings report, click the All column. Sierra selects the checkboxes for each entry.
2. On the toolbar, click Clear.
3. On the Clear Checked Entries dialog, click OK to clear all entries in the report.

Sierra 5.3 and Earlier

1. While viewing the headings report, click Close.
2. On the Warning dialog, click OK to clear all entries in the report.

Clearing All or Selected Headings Reports

You can delete all existing reports before generating new headings reports. In Sierra 5.4 and later, you can select which headings reports to clear (for example, just the duplicate entries).

To clear all or selected headings reports, do one of the following.

Sierra 5.4 and Later

1. Select Headings Reports from the Function list.
2. In the Report Type pane, select the checkboxes for the headings report types you want to delete. If you want to delete all types, select the All checkbox.
3. (Optional) Limit the entries to delete to those added to the report within a Date Range. Specify the range by entering the month, day, and year for the start date in the From field and for the end date in to To field.
4. On the toolbar, click Clear All. The system warns you that the selected headings reports will be permanently deleted.
5. Click OK to clear the selected reports.

Sierra 5.3 and Earlier

1. Select Headings Reports from the Function list.
2. On the toolbar, click Clear All.The system warns you that all headings reports will be permanently deleted.

Sierra deletes all of the headings reports, regardless of the types you have selected in the Report Type pane.

3. Click OK to clear all reports.

See also:

Database maintenance

Verifying Record Headings