Librarians often wear many hats, and for some, cataloging may be an expectation they were not expecting. What do these librarians need to know, in order to best catalog for their institution? In this session, attendees will learn the basics regarding cataloging, RDA, and MARC formats. They will gain a basic understanding of the history and importance of the technical skill of cataloging and its importance on discoverability not only for patrons but their fellow librarians. It will demystify the language behind cataloging, to ensure that no matter one’s previous roles, they are able to accurately tackle cataloging. They will learn what MARC fields are non-negotiable, which we can ignore, where to find resources, and ultimately how to create the best MARC records for their library and patrons.
In this presentation you’ll learn about the tools, strategies, and decision-making currently being used in migrating 20 years of metadata and digitized special collections from BYU’s CONTENTdm system to a new, highly customizable OrangeDAM platform. This migration involves transforming and standardizing our often inconsistently entered metadata from years’ past to align with a newly developed digital collections MAP based on Dublin Core fields and RDA guidelines, with corresponding fields in MARC and ArchivesSpace included. This work is also being done in collaboration with our BYU sister schools, BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii, which also host digitized materials in the BYU Library’s digital asset management systems. This presentation will cover the practical challenges of metadata cleanup, transformation, and migration, and MAP creation, offering insights into our process, tools used, and lessons learned so far to improve findability and usability across our digital collections.
