Using OpenRefine’s Reconciliation to Validate Local Authority Headings

Abstract

In 2015, the Cataloging and Metadata Services department of Rice University’s Fondren Library developed a process to reconcile four years of authority headings against an internally developed thesaurus. With a goal of immediate cleanup as well as an ongoing maintenance procedure, staff developed a “hack” of OpenRefine’s normal Reconciliation function that ultimately yielded 99.6% authority reconciliation and a stable process for monthly data verification.