Linking Items to Additional Bibliographic Records

To link item records to additional bibliographic records, you must be assigned permission 126 (Link additional bib records). See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

Save Item Record

When linking a new record to a bibliographic record, you must save the item record before linking.

Holds on Items Linked to Multiple Bibliographic Records

If an item is attached to multiple bibliographic records, the item will fill title-level holds only on the first attached bibliographic record. The system does not check the other attached bibliographic records for title-level holds.

To link an item record to an additional bibliographic record:

  1. Retrieve a bibliographic record.
  2. In the Summary tab of the retrieved record, select the item record(s) you want to link to an additional bib.
  3. Choose Edit | Link to additional bib record | Find Bib.
  4. In the Select destination bib window, retrieve the bibliographic record to which you want to link the item(s).
  5. In the Summary tab of the bib record to add, choose Use Bib. The Select destination bib window closes, and the system links the item(s) to the additional bibliographic record you selected.

If an item is attached to more than one bibliographic record, the additional bibliographic record number(s) appear immediately beneath the variable-length field area of the item Record tab in a status bar labelled Also linked to record(s):.

  1. You can remove links to additional bibliographic records appearing in the status bar by right-clicking a bib record number and then choosing Remove link to bibliographic record.
  2. You can edit an attached bibliographic record by viewing the item in the Record tab and then choosing Edit in the toolbar.
Maximum Record Size and Number of Links

Note that Sierra follows established limits for maximum record size and maximum number of links when you link item records to additional bibliographic records. The maximum record size is 100,000 bytes (characters) for most hardware platforms. If you exceed this number by linking records to additional bibliographic records, Sierra does not link the records and prompts:

Cannot add link: Adding this link will cause this record to exceed the maximum size for bibliographic records.

The maximum number of item record links is 5000. If you exceed this number by linking to additional bibs, Sierra does not link the records and prompts:

Cannot add link: Adding this link will cause this record to exceed the maximum number of item links allowed.

See Record and Field Limits for more information on maximum record sizes.