Matching Made in Heaven: Collections and Metadata Collaboration for Print Preservation

Following the trend of repurposing library space to meet modern user needs, Western University is undergoing a planned revitalization and renovation of its largest library on campus. As a result, 500,000 items will need to be shifted to other locations or off-site storage. In this session we will outline the impact of metadata work in shifting this large collection of material to a shared print preservation storage facility, in coordination with Western University’s Keep@Downsview partnership (https://downsviewkeep.org/). Keep@Downsview is a partnership of five universities to preserve the scholarly record in Ontario in a shared, high-density storage and preservation facility.

We will demonstrate the importance of collaboration and communication between Collections Librarians and Metadata Librarians to improve identification of materials for shared print preservation. While past Charleston conference presentations have discussed weeding legacy print collections, this session will focus on the importance of metadata matching processes. Speaking from experience at Western University, we will identify the types of tools and skills that we use to facilitate this work (such as MarcEdit, Excel, Python, OpenRefine, Google Sheets, and regular expressions). In highlighting the value of metadata for collections based projects, attendees will walk away with talking points to advocate for quality metadata at their institution and with vendors.