Explanation of Add/mod/del report (adds, modifications and deletes to Horizon data bases)

The report of adds, modifications and deletes to SIRIS data bases shows editing activity in the various data bases of SIRIS. In general, the Adds column shows the number of new bib and auth records added to the data base during the month of the report. Mods (modifications) shows the countable number of modifications to existing bib and auth records during that month. I qualify 'countable', because only the date of the last modification to a record is recorded. Thus, if a record is edited three times in a month, by three different people, only the last editing (and editing cataloger) is recorded in the data base. Thus, 'mods' may necessarily be an undercount of the total number of edits to a record. Also, editing the authority record associated with a bib record will mark that bib record as 'edited' and associate the date with that modification. Editing an authority record linked to 300 bib records will cause all 300 to appear as 'modified' during that month. Fianlly, the Dels (deletes) column shows the number of records deleted in the data base during the month in question. The DayEnd processes physically remove all trace of records marked for deletion, thus this number can really only be calculated. Specifically, the number is calculated as

    Dels = Last month's total + This month's adds - This month's total

Finally, the Total bib (or auth) record number is just the raw number of records in the bib (or auth) table.

There are some important qualifications to this, for certain data bases and tables, as follows:

SIL bib records: SIL Totals and Adds do not include 'Fast add' records. The total number of fast adds and the total for the month in question are subtracted from the raw Total and Adds for the month. Also, DayEnd has been modified to not actually remove the records. For this data base, I record the number of bib (and auth) records marked for deletion.

Archive bib records: Counts of Archive activity are broken down by member units. This is done by counting a new or edited according the group to which the creating or editing cataloger belongs.

Archive authority records: Counts are again broken down by member units, by counting a new or edited record according the group to which the creating or editing cataloger belongs. Note that in general, only members of a given group can edit authority records associated with that group. However, some specified archives catalogers may edit anyone's records. Thus, not all of the modifications to a particular group's records may have originated in that group. Special cases like these result in the grand total of the modifications in archives authority records being larger than the sum of the member units' modifications. Only the total change in authority records is reflected in 'Deletes'. Deletes are not calculated for member unit separately.

Research bibliography bib records: Counts are broken down by member units. This is done by counting a new or edited according the group to which the creating or editing cataloger belongs.


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