Backstage Library Works partners with libraries, museums, and archives like yours to help you serve your communities. We're dedicated to providing you the best experience possible so you can focus on doing the same for your patrons.
Backstage gets the job done, frees you from your backlog, and enables you to operate more efficiently. We leverage powerful technology and deep expertise to help you make your metadata more useful and your physical and digital collections more accessible.
Our goal is to help you accomplish your goals, and that won't ever be a one-size-fits-all process. We work with institutions large and small, from public, academic, and special libraries to museums and archives, corporate bodies, non-profit foundations, and government agencies. We are confident we can help you.
With our efficient workflows honed over the course of decades, Backstage offers a unique combination of automated and hands-on metadata services. Our exclusive automation tools have been developed in-house by subject matter experts in order to batch-process records quickly, efficiently, and accurately. Our highly trained catalogers take care of all the details that require a human touch.
We can upgrade your publisher metadata, non-MARC records, order records, or other brief records by matching against the Library of Congress, our own curated database, or other sources, including OCLC WorldCat and the RLUK bibliographic database.
Skilled and experienced Backstage catalogers can also create original MARC records to your specifications for materials in any format and in any language, including many non-Roman scripts.
In addition to copy and original cataloging, Backstage metadata teams provide shelf-ready physical processing, reclassification, and retrospective conversion.
LEARN MOREAuthority control is vital for you to serve your patrons. With linked data a growing part of the metadata landscape, you want an authority control vendor who is on the forefront of advances in identities management. Our system is a modern design, engineered for flexibility and customized just for you.
Start with an individualized profile. A Backstage project manager will walk you through each step in the process, explaining how your choices will affect your results. Choose which databases to match your records against. Select options for RDA and other record enrichments. Dive deep into the detailed reports to track and review results, or glance over our easy-to-read summary reports. The power is entirely in your hands.
Have you noticed your bibliographic database becoming a little unruly? It can happen easily, especially as you bring in new consortium partners, add in bulk collections, or harvest records from other sources. Our database services include record validation and enrichment, deduplication and consolidation, and custom programming and processing for all your needs.
LEARN MOREReady to digitize? Your collections may be irreplaceable. How do you find a partner you can trust? Whether you have oversized maps and posters, handwritten correspondence, fragile scrapbooks, or glass-plate photographic negatives, we can give your unique materials the care they deserve.
Backstage offers secure storage, inventory systems, custom-built media cradles, and staff specifically trained in handling archival materials. Our entire process is designed for your peace of mind.
We match your materials with the right equipment to produce archival-quality images. Our studio environment and digitization procedures are designed from the ground up to adhere to rigorous FADGI standards for optimal image capture.
Digital work doesn't need to just end at capturing images either. We can capture and produce whatever metadata you need from simple technical info to full descriptive cataloging or article-level segmentation.
LEARN MOREMicrofilm remains the absolute best way to preserve content for the long term. Properly produced and stored, today's preservation microfilm will last for centuries.
In 1986, a coalition of prominent libraries unable to find a microfilming service that could meet their exacting standards established what is now the Backstage preservation microfilm group. Today, we still maintain the same committment to providing the best preservation microfilming service anywhere.
With our own darkroom and lab, Backstage does not outsource film processing or duplication. This allows us to monitor and control the entire process from start to finish, maintaining the highest level of quality in the microfilm we produce.
Keeping a master copy off-site is a standard preservation procedure, but we offer more than just climate-controlled peace of mind, you also have access to our duplication-on-demand service, requesting film or digital copies for researchers and inter-library loan.
LEARN MORESometimes your project just doesn't get along well with the out in outsourcing. That's okay, we're still here for you. We have experience running crews and equipment on-site. We can help design a solution for almost any service that we perform in-house to get it done at your house.
Our on-site teams have scanned, microfilmed, cataloged, reclassified, sorted, shelved, and moved library collections. While we're on site, we can help with weeding, cleaning, inventory and more.
Your collection may be too valuable or too large to send off-site. We have a range of options. Whatever your situation, talk to us about how we can help you provide the access your patrons deserve.
LEARN MOREAt Backstage, we stand behind our work with a guarantee that has no expiration date. Quality is the foundation of our success, and we're confident enough in our ability to do things right the first time that we're willing to stand behind our work forever. Our promise here is very simple:
We will correct to the client’s satisfaction, and at our expense, any problem with our services, no matter when such a problem comes to light.