UMass Batch Services Working Group

The Libraries’ Discovery search indexes metadata sets available from EBSCO as well as records loaded from FOLIO and the custom catalogs including record sets managed by the Batch Services Group. Most of these metadata sets represent paid resources and subscriptions, but open access content from major publishers and which UMass supports monetarily through the acquisitions budget is also included. Like all metadata, these sets must follow standards to be interoperable as it is shared and exchanged between a multitude of systems. In this way, troubleshooting issues, including links out to content, can sometimes be difficult to solve as vendors, librarians, and content providers must come together to find the source of those issues.  

The working group aims to manage, troubleshoot, and develop sustainable workflows to provide access to metadata and eResources at scale. Our activities include but are not limited to: enabling metadata and linking in our discovery platform; batch loading bibliographic metadata into our Inventory and/or discovery service; ensuring metadata currency between systems; managing semi-automated processes such as Local Holdings Records for our Shared Print Serials program; batch updates; reporting and metadata evaluation; troubleshooting, and documentation. Our goal is to support research, teaching, and academic success by making library resources discoverable and accessible. Our work ensures that our metadata and practices follow current standards and are interoperable. This allows us to power multiple systems, such as those used for interlibrary loan, discovery, or EAST management systems.  

Members: Meghan Bergin, Jennifer Eustis, Ann Kardos, Jack Mulvaney, and Amelia Sutton. 

5C Shared Principles +1 

• Shared resource: The Five College libraries collections make up a single and shared library resource.   

• Best practices: In an agile manner, standardize, streamline and improve best practices. 

• Alignment: FOLIO is an opportunity to align multiple systems and create a more unified presentation of Five College library data; enabling more seamless access to collections. 

• Additional functionality: Once core functionality is established, improvements, and additional functionality can be explored and prioritized.  

• Communication: Commitment to transparent communication throughout all stages of the project. 

• Respect one another: When we debate and discuss differing opinions, we will always show respect to individuals. All of us will end up compromising on some aspects of the design or the project work. We recognize that this is hard work and time consuming. Many of us may be pushed outside of our comfort zone; however, we will remain respectful to one another. These guidelines are forward-looking and will guide Five College Library cooperation beyond the FOLIO implementation.