Presentation given at Electronic Resources & Libraries, March 19, 2013

1. TIME SAVING TOOLS FOR E-BOOK
METADATA MANAGEMENT
ER&L 2013
Holly Tomren
@htomren

2. 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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3. 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
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4. 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.
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5. SOMETIMES IT LOOKS LIKE THIS…
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6. 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
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7. 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…
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8. 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
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9. 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
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10. 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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11. COLLECTION MANAGER WISHLIST
• Improved record matching
• More ebook collections in the WCKB, better coverage
• “Expert Community” functionality
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12. 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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13. THANK YOU!
Holly Tomren
Head, Metadata Services
Drexel University Libraries
holly.tomren@drexel.edu
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