Home → Cataloging Bibliographic Records → Cataloging Standards and Policies → Record Structure in Evergreen

3.1. Record Structure in Evergreen

Last Updated 01/28/2026

Levels of Catalog Records

On This Page

The Item Status screen displays details about items that the user has scanned or uploaded. Users can access it through the Search menu, Circulation or Cataloging menus, or directly from an item's Bibliographic record. The screen enables various actions on selected items, including adding to item or record buckets, placing holds, deleting, checking in or renewing items, updating inventory, and editing holdings.

Words to Know

Bibliographic Record: Also called Title Records, these are the shared records where metadata about a title is found, and to which physical copies may be attached. 

Volume Record: Also called Call Number Records. The Volume primarily refers to the call number. This is where ownership is designated. A single call number may have multiple copies attached.

Item Record: Also called Copies. The locally owned record referring to an individual physical material with a unique barcode.

There are three (3) levels of catalog records within Evergreen:

• Bibliographic
• Volume
• Item

A single bibliographic record is shared throughout the consortium. Library branches assign volume records to the shared bibliographic record, and copy records to locally owned volume records. A single bibliographic record may have multiple volume records assigned to it from different libraries. A single volume record may have multiple copies attached to it.

Bibliographic Records are owned by the consortium. Both volume and item records are owned at the branch level.

The following image illustrates the difference between the different record levels:

Note: Library Systems do not own records of any type.

How this Structure Affects the Workflow

Before a local holding can be added, a matching bibliographic record must exist within the catalog. Because only one bibliographic record should exist for each format of a resource within NC Cardinal and the bibliographic record is "owned" by the entire consortium, the MARC record should not contain any local notes or library system/branch specific information.

Once a cataloger selects or adds the appropriate bibliographic record, a volume record may be created for each owning library branch using a local call number. The volume record is "owned" by an individual library branch. The item record is then attached to the volume/call number record and identifies the barcode assigned to that individual copy. The item record is "owned" by an individual library branch and local copy notes may be added, but should not be OPAC visible.