Authority control, the process of ensuring consistent use of access points in bibliographic records, helps library users discover all relevant information within a library’s catalog. To be effective, authority requires record maintenance. This session will cover the basic principles of authority control and guide users on maintaining consistency in authority records.

Linked data is a method of representing and sharing data that connects information across different sources and domains. It can offer many benefits to libraries through improved data quality, enhanced discoverability of resources, and data sharing among institutions. This course covers the principles of linked data and demonstrates the use of semantically rich data in libraries.

Zines, or noncommercial magazines, are increasingly collected by libraries as primary source documents relating to particular communities. Because of variuus factors such as frequent title changes, inconsistent publishing schedules, and pseudonomous creators, zines can be particularly challenging to properly catalog. This session will cover many common challenges relating to cataloging zines and offer solutions to these problems.

Authority control is the process of ensuring that all access points in a library catalog are used consistently, and it is a great help to patrons and library staff in identifying and locating library material. But it also can be overwhelming for librarians who are not familiar with it. This session covers the principles of authority control and the value that it brings to library users.

Library of Congress Classification (LC), a classification system used by many academic and special libraries, can be perplexing even to seasoned cataloging staff. This course will provide an overview of the structure of the Library of Congress Classification system and offer helpful resources for developing comfort and expertise with the system.

Does a book on houseplants go into gardening (635.9), botany (581.6), or interior decorating (747)? Librarians responsible for cataloging and classifying often encounter and similar dilemmas when processing new materials. Whether new to cataloging or just in need of a refresher, this review of Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) basics will help catalogers feel more comfortable using the classification scheme.

Special metadata projects often require specialized vocabularies beyond the Library of Congress Subject Headings. Many libraries are now supplementing their MARC records with terms from other thesauri. This course covers taxonomy design and development of controlled vocabularies. Topics include types of controlled vocabularies, taxonomy planning, and design, structure and relationships in a taxonomy, and taxonomy management and maintenance.

MarcEdit and OpenRefine are two powerful tools to help handle metadata clean-up issues. Detect misspellings and inaccuracies in your data and remedy them with OpenRefine. Quickly update large quantities of MARC records with MarcEdit. Learn to harness their power to work smarter, not harder.

Library collections contain many types of video formats, from Blu-Ray discs to streaming videos. Using the Resource Description and Access (RDA) instructions relevant to cataloging tangible and digital video recordings, gain proficiency with descriptive elements, choice of preferred source of information, access points, and relationship elements for video content.

Audio recordings require a unique cataloging skillset from working with print books. This workshop covers the RDA instructions relevant to cataloging carrier-based and digital audio recordings. Topics covered include descriptive elements, choice of preferred source of information, access points, and relationship elements. This course is designed for catalogers who feel comfortable with RDA records for print resources and would like to feel more confident about RDA for audio materials.