Looking for Trouble: Finding and Fixing Problems in Your Catalog
The metadata in many library catalogs has a long and varied history. It is the legacy of the work and dedication of past catalogers, and carries with it the fingerprints of catalog cards, historical cataloging rules, and past library practices. If your metadata has been in more than one system, it may also be affected by the differing capabilities of those past catalogs, and even the system migration process.
Many differences between current catalog data and ideal catalog data show up as “problems” that affect how patrons find and access your library resources. Such problems may cause items to be mis-shelved or have problems circulating. They may also make your reports and analyses of metadata incomplete or misleading. By searching for different types of problems directly, we can identify and resolve many issues before they cause any more trouble, and often identify where these problems are coming from and prevent them from reoccurring.
In this session, we will talk about different ways to find problems in cataloging records (including bibliographic records, holdings, items, electronic resources), how to decide which problems are serious enough to address in your library, how to create projects to clean up your data, and how to monitor your system to identify where problems are coming from.