At Backstage, we understand the challenges that come with describing your holdings in the way that best serves your patrons, and we know the value of well-managed, quality metadata that will open access to your collections.
Leveraging proven processes, our catalogers stand ready to support your bibliographic projects. Whether you’re assessing cataloging and acquisitions workflows, processing a donated collection, or just trying to get ahead of the curve on your backlog, we can create metadata to fit your chosen standards and local practices.
Whatever your project, our teams can handle it.
Backstage catalogers find, edit, and create MARC records that meet accepted standards and are adapted to fit your specifications.
We can build as simple or as rich a collection of metadata as you’d like, working from original materials or from digital surrogates of title pages and other key descriptive elements.
We can create records for almost any language in the world. And, we work with all sorts of media: new books, rare antique volumes, vinyl records, sheet music, electronic titles, and more.
Most cataloging projects begin with identifying copy records in the database of your choice. Typically, we work with the Library of Congress, BDS, and OCLC WorldCat databases, although we may be able to work with others upon request.
Copy records are enhanced to your desired specifications. That means we can simply accept existing bibliographic records without any changes (great for quick accessioning) or perform a full review to fill in missing access points, verify existing punctuation and descriptive fields, and more.
Matching copy is not always available. In such cases, Backstage catalogers will create an original MARC record. While we follow international rules and standards, bibliographic records can be adapted to match your existing processing specifications.
Most records we are asked to create are full-level RDA, complete with most descriptive fields and consistent with the BIBCO Standard Record (BSR). However, your project’s cataloging profile can be customized to suit your budget, database, or consortia’s needs. Not sure what level of cataloging is best for your project? We can offer some suggestions.
Want to learn more about our general process? Check out the FAQ.
Your growing collections reflect a diverse community of users. Backstage offers the linguistic expertise you need. We’ve cataloged publications from around the world in a wide range of languages, including:
If you have language needs not on this list, contact us, and we’ll let you know how we can help.
Do holes in your acquisitions workflow keep you from getting materials into the hands of waiting patrons as quickly as you’d like?
When a book vendor doesn’t offer the shelf-ready processing that you rely on, you can turn to Backstage to bridge the gap. We catalog your books and media, then label and prepare them to go straight from the shipping box to your library’s shelves.
When preparing a large shipment, such as a donated collection, we can box the materials in call-number order to make shelving the new items even easier.
Shelf-ready workflows may include:
Metadata enables access to archival materials, digital images, and other special collections. When discovery systems for these collections don’t look like a library catalog, we’re still here to help.
We can craft metadata to fit your systems, schema, and specifications, including:
We’ve gathered data elements from archival folder labels, digital images, and the backs of photographs. We’ve worked with existing metadata from paper finding aids to text files to spreadsheets. Our teams can create, enhance, and format whatever metadata you need to help your patrons explore your incredible collections.
If it’s not in your electronic catalog, for all practical purposes, it’s not in your library.
Whether you’re populating an ILS for the first time or just have small pockets of unconverted materials lingering in your library, Backstage can provide high-quality bibliographic records for your catalog.
We have worked for libraries all over the world, preparing records for all major automation systems. We’ve converted collections for academic, public, special, and government libraries, in dozens of languages, including non-Roman scripts, and from nearly every type of source document.
You may already have brief record information in spreadsheets or another electronic format. We can work with you to convert these non-MARC data sources into MARC records that you can use in your ILS.
We also provide on-site card scanning for catalogs that can’t be packed up and shipped to us, and we can process anything from guard books to title/verso pages if no cards are available.
A catalog record helps a librarian put your book, ebook, or database content in front of an interested reader. The richer your metadata, the more readers you’ll attract.
The brief records produced for CIP or by conversion from ONIX to MARC may suffice to list an item in a library’s catalog. But from there, you’re playing a game of hide-and-seek. Will the metadata in your brief record lead readers to your content?
Backstage can help you create or convert metadata for your content, enrich your data with additional access points, optimize your records for search and discovery in the library environment, and make your publications more useful to library patrons.
Read about our lifetime guarantee.
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