Migrating Library Data, edited by Kyle Banerjee and Bonnie Parks

Managing library data, including bibliographic, acquisitions, holdings, item, and patron data, is a significant undertaking, and migrating that data from one library services platform to another can be daunting. With Migrating Library Data: A Practical Manual, editors Kyle Banerjee and Bonnie Parks have brought together papers from twelve experts that will help librarians and information technology professionals in libraries navigate the challenges of migrating their valuable data across library platforms.

The book is organized into thirteen chapters that address all aspects of migrating data. In the first chapter Ms. Parks discusses the migration process from beginning to end. Subsequent chapters cover important topics such as data cleaning, data formats, and the management of data using data manipulation tools such as OpenRefine and MarcEdit. Other chapters address bibliographic, item, acquisitions, and patron data. While much of the book addresses the migration of data from one library services platform to another, chapter 10 addresses data stored in institutional repositories and digital collections, which offer their own set of difficulties. The challenges of migrating to shared systems, and working with vendors is addressed. The final chapter covers testing the migration and going live after the migration is completed.

Many of the chapters are illustrated with screen shots, diagrams, samples of code, and other figures. Useful “pro tips” are scattered throughout the book, which also includes an index and an appendix with acronyms spelled out. Many of the chapters have a brief list of references. I think the book would have been strengthened with a bibliography, a more robust list of references, or further reading. Nevertheless, this is an excellent manual on the challenges of data migration, and it includes many practical and useful solutions to those challenges.

Migrating Library Data: A Practical Manual. Edited by Kyle Banerjee and Bonnie Parks. Neal-Schuman, 2017, 251 pp., ISBN 978-0-8389-1503-5, $56.00 (paper).

This review was originally published in: Catholic Library World. Dec2017, Vol. 88 Issue 2, p136-136.