Editing Legacy Metadata for ETDs: Description of a Best Practice Using the MARCEdit Plug-In Tool

As the standards for describing & encoding metadata for electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) constantly change, so is the need to go back and retrospectively edit records that are not in accordance with the new rules. The process of retrospectively editing individual ETD records to meet new standards can be grueling and time-consuming, but with the creation of new tools and developments it does not have to be that way anymore.

The following presentation demonstrates a practical approach used by the University of North Florida (UNF) Libraries to retrospectively batch edit legacy metadata for ETD found in OCLC. The process is simple, saves time, and can be performed by any cataloger or library staff with or without highly specialized technological skills.