Knowledge Base: Library Help

Each item has two kinds of records in the Polaris/Leap database: a bibliographic record and an item record.  Bibliographic records are the "parent" for item records, providing a single correct source for important basic information like title, author, subject, and material format.

A bibliographic record contains all the information about an item that doesn’t change from copy to copy. You can think of it as the information you'd find on Amazon about the item. Bibliographic records are the "parent" for item records, providing a single correct source for important basic information like title, author, subject, and material format. To ensure that this information is always correct and consistent between records, only system-level cataloguers trained by TRAC are allowed to create or edit bibliographic records. 

Most books have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) barcode and number on the back – each ISBN corresponds to a particular edition of a particular book, and thus generally to that book's bibliographic record. DVDs work the same way, but have a Universal Product Code (UPC) instead of an ISBN.

Holds and TRACPAC searches are based on bibliographic records, allowing staff and patrons to search for and order a particular book, without having to specify exactly which copy they'd like.

An item record is the record for an individual copy of an item. They contain the information specific to a library's individual copy of a book: barcode, condition, shelf location, fine code, etc. Item records do not contain basic information like author, title, etc.: each item record must have a "parent" bibliographic record from which it pulls that information. There are usually many item records based off a single bibliographic record, allowing each copy to have identical title, author, etc. information without having to re-enter it every time a new copy is added to the system.