Cataloguescan

Cataloguescan is a term used in information management to describe a workflow or software for extracting, reconciling, and indexing catalog content from printed, scanned, or digital catalogs to produce structured metadata and item records. It is applied by libraries, archives, publishers, and retailers seeking to make catalog content searchable and interoperable.

The process typically combines image capture, optical character recognition, layout analysis, and entity extraction. Scanned pages or PDFs are segmented into regions such as titles, authors, ISBNs, prices, and publication data. Extracted fields are normalized, matched against authority files when available, and deduplicated across sources.

Outputs commonly include MARC, MODS, Dublin Core, or schema.org JSON-LD, and can be exported in XML, JSON, or CSV formats. Cataloguescan workflows often support metadata mapping, quality assurance, and audit trails, as well as integration with library systems (ILS) and discovery layers.

Applications include converting back-issues or catalog pages into digital catalogs, consolidating catalog data during migrations, feeding retailer product catalogs into e-commerce platforms, and enabling cross-catalog search and linkages between items and holdings.

Related concepts include metadata harvesting, OCR quality management, and authority control. Cataloguescan is not a standardized protocol itself but describes a class of tools and methods used for catalog digitization and data integration.