Vendor Processing for RDA: Lessons learned at Texas A&M

Abstract

In 2015, the Texas A&M University Libraries initiated an RDA conversion and authority control project with vendor BackStage Library Works. The main library and medical sciences library each sent their separate bibliographic and authority files, composing some 4 million bibliographic and 2 million authority records to the vendor for update and reloaded them into Voyager when processing was completed. The presentation will detail the important aspects of the process, including: RDA and authority control choices, file extraction and preparation, dealing with file loads and updates between extraction and reload, and most importantly, lessons learned from the experience which can benefit other institutions. Although some of the material will be specific to BackStage Library Works, much of the presentation will be relevant to anyone who is contemplating or in the midst of a similar conversion.