*Apologies in advance for multiple postings.*

ALCTS webinar: Using Open Refine to Update, Clean up and Link your Metadata to the Wider World

Date: September 18, 2013

All webinars are one hour in length and begin at 11am Pacific, noon Mountain, 1pm Central, and 2pm Eastern time.

Description: Missspelings, extra spaces, random; punctuation/ and wEird capitalizaTion: Are any of these issues with your metadata? Open Refine (formerly Google Refine) is a powerful tool that can solve all of these problems with a single click. Even more amazing, Open Refine allows you to transform your data from one format to another, extend it with web services, and even connect it to linked data sources like Freebase. This presentation will show just how useful this tool can be for local database projects like the Minneapolis Community & Technical College Zine Collection as well as messy MARC records in your ILS. The world of metadata has been rapidly changing and it's time to get your data out of the 90's, clean it up and be ready to link to the wider world of information!

Who should attend? Metadata specialists, systems librarians, and technical services managers.

Presenters: Sarah Weeks is Head of Tech Services for the St Olaf College Libraries. She received her MLS from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and worked as a systems librarian in public and academic libraries until 2011. She is currently chair of the Technical Services Section for the Minnesota Library Association and co-chair of the MARC Formats Transition Interest Group for ALA. In addition she has served as a LITA representative to ALA's MARBI committee. As someone who is involved in both cataloging and systems work, she is very interested in how new technologies and software are changing the way traditional bibliographic information is used and in how we can connect new types of resources to the universe of library information.

Elissah Becknell is a Zine Librarian and Instructor at Minneapolis Community & Technical College Library. She received her MLIS from Saint Catherine University and has worked as an academic librarian, instructor and cataloger since 2010. She is the Newsletter Editor of the Twin Cities Archives Round Table and started a project called the Zine Linked Data Working Group. Her interest in working with linked data was sparked by an informal linked data dinner with other cataloging and systems librarians. The Zine Linked Data Working Group has been conducting experiments since the Fall of 2012 and she is excited to share her experience and wisdom.

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Registration Fees:  ALCTS Member $43 ; Non-member $59 ; Group rate (members/non-members) $99/$129 ; International $43   

For additional information and access to registration links, please go to the following website:

http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar/091813

ALCTS webinars are recorded and registrants receive a link to the recording shortly following the live event.

For questions about registration, contact ALA Registration by calling 1-800-545-2433 and press 5 or email registration@ala.org. For all other questions or comments related to the webinars, contact Julie Reese, ALCTS Events Manager at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 5034 or alctsce@ala.org.

Posted on behalf of the ALCTS Continuing Education Committee.