Five Colleges Record Merge Working Group

Background:

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The Five Colleges invested in the current integrated library system, Ex Libris’s Aleph, in 2005. It is now 14 years later and Aleph is showing its age. Though improvements continue, it is clear Aleph lacks crucial features. As a result of analyses and discussions on how to proceed, in 2018 the Five Colleges selected FOLIO as a beta partner with EBSCO and the FOLIO Implementation Team (FIT) was created. FIT decided to move to a single tenant system for FOLIO, meaning there will be one instance. Currently, there exist overlaps between bibliographic records reflecting what each of the institutions in the Five Colleges has acquired over the years. This working group was created to analyze and provide recommendations on the complex issue of merging records for the move to our new library service platform FOLIO.

Charge:

This working group will draft a recommendations document on the following: people, scope, merge preparation, merge workflow, matching algorithms, best practices/procedures, EAST, communication plan, vendor, and risks.

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Recommendations should identify the risks and issues involved with the merge ranging from data concerns such as data loss or mismatches to supporting financially and administratively the merge project going forward.

Membership:

Steve Bischof, UMass Amherst (FIT Liaison)

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Membership represents the following areas of knowledge: deep MARC21 expertise, archives and rare books, music, non-Latin scripts, serials, boundwiths. For these knowledge areas and other relevant topics to the merge, the working group can call on knowledge experts within the Five Colleges to assist in our tasks.

Lead:

Jennifer Eustis, UMass Amherst

Meetings:

Weekly meetings or as needed at the call of the Lead or the request of the FOLIO Implementation team. Other staff from the Five Colleges may be asked to join meetings when their specialized feedback or knowledge is needed.

Information Sharing:

Agendas and notes will be saved in the FIT Google Drive. Information will also be shared via the Slack channel #5crmwg. Additional updates to FOLIO Implementation Team as requested, and to all staff of the Five Colleges as appropriate.