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Grouped Records in Aspen

This documentation explains how records are grouped and the methods for maintaining them. Aspen automatically groups MARC records for different editions of the same work. Manual grouping and ungrouping records can only be performed by SWAN staff or catalogers from SWAN's Cataloging Libraries group. 

What is record grouping?

Grouping records refers to the practice of combining MARC records for different editions or versions of the same material into a single Aspen search result. Records for Non-English editions are not grouped with English editions.

In this example, the search result contains a group of records representing books, audiobooks, and large print editions. Different MARC records represent each edition in the Symphony catalog. Aspen has automatically combined them into a single result.

You can drill down further by clicking the Show Editions button beneath any format.

Why group records?

Record grouping has many benefits for library patrons and staff.

Cleaner search results

Grouped records mean your patrons will not need to look at multiple results to find the materials they need. They also mean that each unique title appears as a single search result so patrons can see more materials at once. They will not need to sift through multiple pages of repetitive results.

Smart hold placement

As you can see in the examples above, both format groups and individual editions have Place Hold buttons. You and your patrons may place a hold on a particular edition if necessary, but placing a hold on the format group provides additional benefits.

When you place a hold on a format group, Aspen uses an algorithm to choose which Symphony record to select for the hold based on home library, availability, and other factors to help patrons get their hold as quickly as possible.

Format order in grouped records

Aspen allows us to customize the order of formats within in grouped record. There are many possible formats that may be assigned to a work (for example, there are several video game formats) that are not all listed here. 

Books

  • Physical book formats (Book, Large Print, Braille, Graphic Novel, etc.)
  • eBook formats
  • Physical audiobook formats (Pre-loaded Audio, Audiobook CD, etc.)
  • eAudiobook formats

Music 

  • Music CDs
  • Vinyl Records
  • eMusic formats
  • Other music formats (Music Cassette, etc.)

Video

  • DVD
  • Blu-Ray
  • Blu-Ray/DVD Combo
  • 4K Blu-ray
  • eVideo formats
  • Pre-loaded Video
  • Other video formats (VHS, etc.)

Video games and other

Listed in alphabetical order.

How do records get grouped?

When Aspen indexes MARC records from Symphony, it extracts three data points. When all three data points match between two MARC records, Aspen will group the records into a single search result.

  • Full title: The title string from the MARC 240 or 245 field. This string is normalized to ignore variations in capitalization and punctuation.
  • Author: This field can come from many places in the record. Usually it contains the name of the author from the 100 or 110 field. If no clear author is present -- often the case with movies and video games -- Aspen may use the publisher in this field. The author field does not include birth and death dates.
  • Grouping Category: This is a general format assignment. Automatic record grouping will never combine records of different grouping categories. The most common grouping categories are:
    • Book - Print materials, audiobooks, other spoken audio formats, and eBooks. 
    • Comic - Graphic Novel, Manga, Comic or eComic formats.
    • Music - Audio materials in all formats. Does not include spoken word.
    • Movie - Visual materials in multiple formats.
    • Other - Video games and magazines formats.

Viewing grouping information

Grouping information is visible in the Staff View portion of the record details. To navigate here from a search result, perform the following steps:

  1. Click on a title in the search results.
  1. Click Staff View to expand the section.
    aspen-staff-view.png
  2. Scroll to the Grouping Information and Grouped Records sections.

The Grouping Information section displays the unique Grouped Work ID, the three match points that Aspen used to create the group, and Last Update and Last Indexed dates.

The Grouped Records section lists all of the records that are a part of the group. In this example, there are Libby and Hoopla records. The remainder came from the Symphony catalog. For Symphony records, the Identifier column contains the Title Control Number.

Manually grouping and ungrouping records

Sometimes Aspen will miss records that it should have grouped. This may be due to inconsistent metadata or because Aspen did not have enough information to combine with confidence. Other times, Aspen will combine two records that should remain separate.

Only SWAN staff or catalogers from SWAN's Cataloging Libraries group perform manual grouping and ungrouping records. Anyone else may submit a ticket to help@swanlibraries.net with a grouping or ungrouping request.

Grouping records

There are two ways to group records in Aspen: from search results or from the Grouped Work details view.

Grouping from search results

When you see a record in search results that you wish to combine with another, perform the following steps:

  1. Click Group With.
  1. In the resulting pop-up, click the drop-down and select the search result you want to combine with.
  1. Click Group.

The drop-down only lists titles in the same Grouping Category. You cannot use this tool to combine, for example, books with movies. Furthermore, the drop-down only lists titles on the same page of search results. To combine results from different pages, you must either perform a more specific search that puts the results on the same page or group the records from the record details screen.

The group you select from the drop down will be the primary work. This is the work whose title and author information will take precedence. Please be aware of the following:

  • Always combine from a single record or smaller group into a larger group.

Note: Grouping does not happen instantly. You will have to wait for a reindex.

Grouping from details view

You can also group works from the Grouped Work details view. From this view, perform the following steps:

  1. Click Staff View to expand the section.
    aspen-staff-view.png
  2. Click Group With Work.
  1. Enter the Grouped Work ID for the Primary Work
  • This can be found in the Staff View in the details view.
  1. Follow the additional steps for grouping from the search results display.