Time Saving Tools for E-book Metadata Management

TIME SAVING TOOLS FOR E-BOOK METADATA MANAGEMENT

ER&L 2013

Holly Tomren@htomren

INSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND

• III catalog, Summon discovery layer• About 150,000 ebooks• About 20 ebook providers, multiple collections• Small staff• Individual cataloging for most packages not feasible;

look for batch solutions

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EBOOK METADATA

• Different providers = different workflows• Different frequencies• Notifications are rare• Not all vendors provide MARC records• Quality of vendor MARC records varies• Not all vendors provide information about changed

records (UPD, DEL)• Not all vendors provide OCLC numbers/holdings


WORKFLOW: VARIES BY VENDOR

• Example A: WorldCat Collection Set. Monthly email notification, retrieve via FTP. NEW only, no UPD or DEL.

• Example B: Generate files on demand from web interface; separate NEW and DEL files; not OCLC records.

• Example C: Provides records through multiple sources, including OCLC, but coverage different in each source; lots of cleanup, bad links

• Example D: Updates collection constantly, but MARC records only once a year

• Example E: OCLC numbers are not in records but provided in separate spreadsheet.

• Example F: No MARC records; title spreadsheet available• Example G: No MARC records, no title list; check website

manually.


SOMETIMES IT LOOKS LIKE THIS…


TOOLS FOR METADATA MANAGEMENT• MarcEdit

• Evaluate records• Extract records from a file• Merge files• Split files• Batch edit records (add, delete, modify fields)• De-duplicate records• Generate call numbers• Generate control numbers• Convert non-MARC to MARC and vice versa• Generate MARC records from a title list• Verify URLs


TOOLS FOR METADATA MANAGEMENT

More tools:

• Excel spreadsheets• Open Refine• Local scripts• Load profiles (III)• Global Update (III)• Listservs

• MARCEDIT-L• BATCH-L

And electronic resource knowledge bases…


WORLDSHARE METADATA COLLECTION MANAGER

• Uses the OCLC WorldCat Knowledge Base (WCKB)• Drexel currently only using for ebooks, not ejournals• 3 phase approach to implementation:

• 1: Collections that have no MARC record source – replace manual workflows

• 2: Collections with especially “challenging” MARC record workflows

• 3: Collections with reliable MARC records, but want to consolidate sources


COLLECTION MANAGER WORKFLOW

• Select collections in WorldCat Knowledge Base (WCKB)• Set up MARC customization options (one time)• Daily record notifications via email• Download files via FTP• Clearly identified NEW, UPD, DEL files

• Separate with MarcEdit if necessary• Load records without editing• Minimal spot checking, quality control


COLLECTION MANAGER BENEFITS

• Retrieve records for all providers in one place, including NEW, UPD, DEL, in a regular, timely manner

• Notification – no more elaborate schedules• Customizable records – less in-house editing• URLs are correct and customized per institution• Efficient way to manage provider neutral records

(multiple providers on one record)• OCLC holdings set, OCLC numbers included• Greater discoverability (WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local,

anything powered by WorldCat API)• Free with OCLC cataloging subscription

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COLLECTION MANAGER WISHLIST

• Improved record matching• More ebook collections in the WCKB, better coverage• “Expert Community” functionality

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CONCLUSION

• Using a knowledge base can create a more efficient ebook metadata workflow

• By using Collection Manager, we have more thorough and accurate access to ebooks in our catalog & discovery tools

• We are still using a combination of Collection Manager and other methods for now, but will continue moving more ebooks to Collection Manager over time

• This is good preparation for a time in which all ebook management can be done via knowledge bases, and MARC records for the local catalog may not be necessary

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THANK YOU!

Holly TomrenHead, Metadata ServicesDrexel University [email protected]

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Education

Time Saving Tools for E-book Metadata Management