The 5C Record Merge Working Group is currently working on a match profile, which we sometimes refer to as a mapping. This match profile will include all the MARC fields in our bibliographic records that are part of the merge and notes on what to do on merge. In short, these notes will be the decisions that we make for each field. For example, for 590 field, do we map this to a 500 note and add a subfield 5 with the code for the owning institution? The merge profile will also add comments on the type of behavior we’d like to see on merge, whether certain fields need to be normalized, what to do with like or exact matches, etc.
One of our first steps towards this match profile is to look at our collection codes. Our decisions are not based solely on location. However, this first entry will help us see what collections and/or locations we have across the 5C and ask questions as to what should be included and excluded. This process is just fine tuning what we recommended in our Recommendations Document.
Alongside this work, the members of the group will be doing small tests with Backstage to tease out more questions and start forming a decision narrative for the merge profile. You can follow our tests from our Sample Tests with Backstage spreadsheet.