Enhancing Records, Expanding Access

Cataloging is a shared enterprise. A bibliographic record created by one cataloger in Connexion can be added to and enriched by catalogers around the world. But if your library catalog is not synched to Connexion, many of these bibliographic enhancements – things like summary notes and tables of contents – won't ever appear in your records. We work in one such library, so we developed a process for adding these enhancements (specifically the 505 and 520 fields, though the process could be adapted to work for other fields as well) from Connexion records into our integrated library system. Since implementing this workflow, we've enhanced thousands of records in our catalog, greatly increasing the accessibility and discoverability of our collection. While it is an involved process, we have broken it down into manageable steps that other libraries will be able to replicate and modify to their own needs. In addition to Connexion, we relied on open-access tools such as MarcEdit and Notepad++ to efficiently batch edit data. We will provide a detailed report on the impact this workflow has had on our library catalog. We will examine not only the number of enhanced records but also provide a breakdown of what types of records have the highest probability of having available enhancements, allowing for a more targeted implementation of this workflow. We will also provide access to step-by-step documentation so that the audience can replicate this work at their institutions. Just as cataloging is a shared enterprise, we believe these sorts of technical workflows ought to be as well.