ELUNA 2015

In 2013, The University of Minnesota Libraries began planning a full catalog RDA authority control and enrichment project of over 5.6 million bibliographic records with vendor Backstage Library Works, intending to complete the project before migrating from Aleph to Alma at the end of the year. Despite careful planning, the project could not be completed before migration amid the crush of pre-migration data cleanup, testing, and implementation decisions. Once staff had found their footing with Alma, work on the project resumed, but cataloging and systems staff had many questions about how the work of the project would be accomplished in a still-unfamiliar, cloud-based system. How exactly would Alma's export and overlay capabilities work for a project at this scale? Would reindexing in Alma work as expected? How could we be sure we had exported all records for enrichment? Would mass republishing to Primo cause any problems?

Working closely with staff at both Ex Libris and Backstage Library Works, the University of Minnesota sucessfully completed the project in November 2014. This presentation will address the planning and testing stages of the project, the design of import profiles for the overlay portion of the project, how project logistics were managed for cataloging staff, and some of the issues and unexpected pitfalls encountered over the course of the project.  It will also discuss project outcomes, analysis of the report data provided by Backstage Library Works as part of the project output, and ongoing work to continue RDA enhancement.

Alma