Style Manual

If you will be manually cataloging your collection, then you will want consistency in the way the bibliographic information is entered into your library's database. We strongly recommend that you follow accepted cataloging standards. This is not as much of a concern if your collection is already cataloged according to standards or if you are using a retrospective conversion service, since the bibliographic information you get from the service will automatically follow MARC and AACR2/RDA cataloging rules.

Regardless of the way that your collection is cataloged, there will be a few things you'll want to standardize for your library's style manual as they relate specifically to Surpass. These include:

Subject Headings

Library automation systems are sensitive to the way that subject headings and sub-headings are entered. A change as small as a single character will cause Surpass to view two seemingly identical subject headings as different and will catalog them accordingly. To prevent this, you should consider using a subject heading authority such as Sears, Library of Congress, or one of your own design. Careful attention to subject headings in your collection will allow you and your users to take full advantage of subject searching and subject and author cross-references.

Fund Codes

For each individual item stored in your database, Surpass Cloud can keep track of the source of the funding used to purchase the item. By using fund codes in your MARC records, you will be able to generate detailed reports of how you used funds from different sources. The first time you use a particular fund code in Surpass, you'll be asked whether you'd like to add it to the list of available fund codes. This allows you to choose it later from a drop-down list when assigning a fund code to items you catalog or import in the future. To group items by funding source, be sure to use the same exact code for each individual source.

Vendor Codes

For each individual item stored in your database, Surpass Cloud can keep track of the vendor from which the item was purchased. By using vendor codes in your MARC records, you will be able to generate detailed reports of items you purchased from individual vendors. The first time you use a particular vendor code in Surpass, you'll be asked whether you'd like to add it to the list of available vendor codes. This allows you to choose it later from a drop-down list when assigning a vendor code to items you catalog or import in the future. To group items by vendor, be sure to use the same exact code for each individual vendor.