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Custom Holdings in WorldCat Resource Sharing

Custom Holdings is an OCLC ILL feature that allows you to display holdings for preferred lenders.

Creating Groups and Paths

To use Custom Holdings, you must first create Holdings Group records and Holdings Path records.

A Holdings Group record contains the OCLC symbols of preferred lenders for a particular category of borrowing activities, for example, FREEBKS, LAND, ZERO, LVIS. Each group is identified by a unique name containing from 1-8 alpha-numeric characters.

A Holdings Path record contains the names of Holdings Group records appropriate to a set of requests. Within the Holdings Path record, you list the Holdings Group records in order of borrowing preference. Each Path is identified by a unique name containing from 1-8 alpha-numeric characters.

Custom Holdings groups and paths are created in the FirstSearch Administrative Module:

• Go to http://firstsearch.oclc.org/admin.
• Log on using your OCLC resource sharing authorization and password.
• Click the Resource Sharing section of the main menu, and then choose Custom Holdings Groups from the drop-down list under Staff ILL Settings in the sidebar menu.
• To create a new Holdings Group, click the New Blank Record button.
• Type a group name in the Group Name box.
• Type a group description in the Group Description box.

In the Symbols to be added box, type the OCLC symbols of the institutions you wish to add. To add multiple symbols, separate each symbol with either a space or comma. Click the Add Symbols button.

• When all symbols have been added, click the Save Changes button.
• Repeat steps 1-8 until all Holdings Groups have been added.

It’s easy to use copy and paste to create a custom holdings group that includes all members of a group access or union list group using the OCLC ILL Policies Directory:

The advanced search screen of the OCLC ILL Policies Directory lets you search by group affiliation. Enter the 4 characters GAC or UL group code to retrieve a list containing the OCLC symbols of the members of a GAC or UL groups. These OCLC codes may be pasted into a custom holdings group workform.

Creating Custom Holdings Paths:

After creating Custom Holdings Groups, the next step is to create a Custom Holdings Paths.

• Go to http://firstsearch.oclc.org/admin
• Log on using your OCLC resource sharing authorization and password.
• Click the Resource Sharing section of the main menu, and then choose Custom Holdings Paths from the drop-down list under Staff ILL Settings in the sidebar menu.
• To create a new Holdings Path, click the New Blank Record button.
• Type a path name in the Path Name box.
• Type a path description in the Path Description box.
• Select the groups you want to add from the Groups available to be included in the path box by highlighting them. Click the Add button.

This will move that group to the Groups chosen to be included in the path box. If you accidentally add a group, select it and click the Remove button to remove it. Groups may be positioned in the path by selecting a group and then using the up and down arrows.

• When you are finished adding groups, click the Save Changes button.

Additional information on Custom Holdings is available on the OCLC Web at:

OCLC has also produced a Custom Holdings tutorial:

If you have questions about OCLC Custom Holdings, please contact Jon Penn at Nylink at pennj@nylink.org or 800-342-3353.