API Authority Control: Leveraging Programmatic Access to Legacy Data

Cleaning up legacy authority data in content management systems can be a daunting task, especially in the absence of tools for batch processing of existing records. This talk will describe a workflow for harvesting name and subject metadata from the CONTENTdm API using Ruby scripts, processing the data with AutoHotkey apps, and reconciling terms with controlled vocabularies published on the web. Although the specifics of this presentation pertain to CONTENTdm, the methodology can be applied to any content management system with a robust API using a variety of scripting languages and tools.