I'd like some advice and info from any of you who have OPACS, please:

Our system is INNOPAC, which we like very much, but we have a problem:
we're finding lots of records with mysterious changes in call number,
mergers of records that should not have been merged, deletion of records
that should not have been deleted, etc.  I contend that it is because out
of a staff (professional and paraprofessional) of 84 people over 60 staff
members plus many student assistants have been passworded for updating the
bibliographic records (in addition to nearly all the other functions).
In the days of the card catalog, only the cataloging dept. changed the
catalog -- now everyone is authorized to do so.

   a.  What percentage of your staff is authorized to update the
       bibliographic records in your opac?

   b.  Do you limit the update of bibliographic records to the cataloging
        dept. or any other specific group?

   c.  Are student assistants allowed to update bibliographic records?

   d.  What kind of quality control do you have (if any) for changes made
       in the bibliographic records?

   e.  Who is responsible for authorizing who may be passworded for
       working in the bibliographic records?

Please -- I'm getting desperate: all my time lately seems to be taken up
with trying to sort out the ghastly mess our database is becoming (and all
I have to worry about are the serials....)  If any dept. or individual
disagrees with the way an item is cataloged or tagged, that item record is
mysteriously changed by the fairies....

Thanks for the help.  Advice will be gratefully accepted!!

                      --Kathleen Thorne (kathleen@sjsuvm1.vm1.edu)
                        Serials Cataloger
                        San Jose State University