The benefits of linked data in the cataloging community are often tied to improved search and discovery for library users, but in this lightning talk, I share a small use case of linked data also benefiting us, the catalogers creating the linked data. To tackle a backlog of CDs and vinyl requiring original cataloging at the UCLA Library, I worked with music catalogers to create a Python tool that could retrieve not only existing metadata from Discogs - a widely used crowdsourced music database - to generate a basic MARC record; the tool could also look beyond this database to incorporate authorized access points from the Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) by using identifiers across Discogs, Wikidata, and LCNAF - essentially, using the linked data that we've collectively created to reduce manual effort in cataloging work. This project thus highlights how the cataloging community's investment in linked data can benefit not just our users, but also ourselves, allowing us to leverage community-created data to enhance our own metadata workflows.
