Getting started using any new piece of software or tool can be somewhat daunting. \u00a0This can be made even more so if that tool or software is something that may be used for work and isn’t really supported by your information technology (IT) department at work or is supported by a niche community. \u00a0Well MarcEdit is all of those. \u00a0Very few people are going to download and use MarcEdit for fun (and if they do, I worry for them) and for those that find the program and decide to make it a part of their tool kit, they will likely find very little support within their organization supporting their use of the application. \u00a0Its just one of those things that happens. \u00a0Technical services and metadata creation in general, are niche jobs within the library community. \u00a0At the same time, they are exceptionally important jobs, as nearly all the technology and innovations currently being developed in the library community today assume good metadata practices (or take advantage of the libraries long history of legacy metadata practice).<\/p>\n
As library software goes, MarcEdit is pretty widely used. \u00a0As a user community, there are tens of thousands of active users located around the globe. \u00a0However, when compared to mainstream software tools, the MarcEdit user community is pretty small potatoes. \u00a0For users new to the MarcEdit application, this can make it difficult for them to find support or help using the program. \u00a0Fortunately, this is changing. \u00a0Along with myself, a number of individuals within the MarcEdit community are providing workshops and presentations on how to augment workflows and work with more metadata types than ever before. \u00a0The word is spreading, and I hope that is helping bring the user community closer together. \u00a0At the same time, a rich user community has grown up around the application, and users looking for help have more options than ever before. <\/p>\n
When a user first discovers MarcEdit, it’s usually because they are stuck and looking for a solution to a pretty big problem. \u00a0Whether this issue is due to shelf ready cataloging, provider neutral records, the need to do a large retrospection, or the desire to do research against a large corpus of MARC data — new users come to MarcEdit with questions. \u00a0So, where does a new MarcEdit user go to get those questions answered? \u00a0Well, funny you should ask. <\/p>\n