Updated, November 2024

The ReShare shared inventory (also known as the shared index) allows a consortium to create a union catalog of the bibliographic, holdings, and item records provided by each member. This shared inventory supports discovery for the ReShare Returnables service, and may also be used for shared collections work.

This document describes the process for providing catalog extracts and updates to Index Data’s hosted ReShare service.

General guidelines

What to contribute

Each consortium will determine the scope of records to be contributed to the shared inventory (all records, lendable materials only, print materials only, etc.). Libraries should only submit those records they wish to appear in the shared inventory, based on the consortium’s policy. If you are unsure of this policy, please contact your consortium’s implementation manager.

If there are records that should not be included in the shared inventory, but which cannot be excluded from the library’s set or extract, this should be discussed with your implementation manager in advance. It may be possible to discard records during the ingesting process based on a set of rules, but this is a non-standard practice and requires discussion before implementing.

Mapping

Bibliographic records will be mapped using a default template. Each library’s ReShare implementation spreadsheet includes a section for Holdings/Item Mapping. Holdings and item data should be included in exported MARC records using a custom field, typically a 9xx field. In the Holdings/Item Mapping template, provide a mapping from each ReShare field to the corresponding field in the library’s MARC record. Be sure to provide all of the required elements in the item group. Additional item fields and holding fields are optional.

Lendability

ReShare currently sets a lendability status for each holding record in the shared inventory. This status is used to determine whether a specific holding within the consortium is eligible to lend through ReShare.

By default, we will automatically set a lendability status (LOANABLE or UNLOANABLE) during the ingest process using the lendable/not lendable specifications provided in the library’s ReShare implementation spreadsheet. Lendability can be set based on location (library), shelving location, item loan policy value, or any combination of these.

Record Requirements

Records may be supplied as binary MARC (.mrc) or MARCXML (.xml)

UTF-8 encoding is preferred, but MARC8 is also supported.

Contributing records using OAI-PMH

OAI-PMH is the preferred method for contributing records to ReShare. To use OAI-PMH with ReShare, the library should complete the following steps.

Create a set containing all of the records you wish to contribute to the shared inventory.
Enter your OAI-PMH URL and the set name to be ingested on your implementation form.
Grant Index Data access to your OAI service. If you need to grant access via IP, see the Checklist tab of the implementation form for a list of addresses to be whitelisted.
Set a daily publishing schedule for your set. Index Data will ingest updates from all OAI services daily by default.

Contributing records using FTP

If your ILS does not support OAI-PMH, then you will need to provide files of MARC records to Index Data using our FTP server.

To provide files via FTP, complete the following steps.

Confirm that you can log into the FTP server using the credentials provided to you on your implementation form.
Place any new or update file(s) on the FTP server in the “incoming” folder. IMPORTANT: Do not create a new subfolder; the ReShare ingester only looks in the “incoming” folder for new files.
If you use 'sftp' you will be logged directly into the "incoming" directory. If you use 'ftp', you will need to change directory (‘'cd incoming”) first, then upload your files.
If you need to compress your files, use gzip, and compress each file separately. Do not send an archive containing multiple files. Use filename *.mrc.gz or *.xml.gz, as appropriate.
Filenames must use the extension .mrc (MARC binary) or .xml (MARC XML). Files with other name extensions will not be picked up by our automated ingest process. If your ILS outputs MARC files with the extension .out, you must rename the file so the name ends in .mrc.

Initial extract

The first “ingest” of records into the shared inventory will always be a full extract containing all of the records you wish to contribute to the shared inventory. There are two methods for maintaining your library’s holdings after the initial load.

Ongoing updates

Once the initial ingest is complete, you will submit updates via FTP, at your preferred frequency (e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly). Update files should only include records that have changed since your initial load, i.e. records added, records updated, and records deleted. Updates may be provided in a single file or in separate files (adds, updates, deletes). The value of Record Status (leader byte 05) in the record determines the action to be taken. A value of “d” means the record will be deleted, i.e. your library’s holdings of that bibliographic item will be deleted from the shared inventory. No distinction in processing will be made for other Record Status values: if the library’s unique local bibliographic identifier already exists in the shared inventory, the incoming record will be processed as an update; otherwise, the incoming record will be added as a new record.

Complete reloads

Any time a library makes significant changes to its catalog – e.g. on completion of a large weeding or reclassification project – the library can request a complete re-ingest. If a reload is needed, please notify Index Data before submitting the new file. Ingest processes are highly automated, and processing a reload may require a temporary change in configuration for your library. You will then be asked to supply a new full extract. After that new extract has been processed, you should continue sending updates as before.

Full extracts

Most integrated library systems are able to export incremental updates, but a few (e.g., Sierra and TLC) are not. If your ILS cannot provide update files, we suggest submitting a full extract one or more times per year. Index Data staff will be happy to recommend an appropriate interval, based on the size of your collection and frequency of updates.

ReShare

ReShare Shared Inventory Record Contribution Instructions