¶ Guidelines for Editing and Removing 856 Fields in Shared Instance Records in FOLIO
MOBIUS Cataloging Committee
When performing catalog maintenance on 856 fields in a shared instance record, the Committee identified the following recommendations:
- Duplicate fields may be removed without oversight.
- Fields that are essentially duplicates (same data, different format) may be edited or removed, using RDA standards.
- For example, if the information is duplicated in a 505, 520, or 545 field, the 856 can be deleted.
- Institution-specific information/access should be stored in a Holdings and/or Item record, rather than a shared MARC/Instance record.
- Institution-specific information/access from non-member libraries can be deleted.
- When encountering dead or broken links:
- Email the record information to libraries with consortial holdings or a relevant discussion forum;
- Request the link to be corrected or moved;
- If no response within 10 business days, the cataloger may proceed with deleting the link.
- When there is some question whether to retain or delete a field from a MARC record, the field should be retained, pending further investigation.
If none of the above are applicable:
- Libraries that have holdings attached to the same MARC record should communicate with each other when considering edits to the record.
In summary, if there is unique information contained in an 856 field in a shared record, the cataloger can either edit/move that information per RDA standards if applicable, or, if the information is institution-specific or a link to a non-open access resource, they can contact the other institutions with holdings attached (either individually if known or via relevant discussion forums) to make a shared decision on what to do with the links.