CatalogSnap
EN/DE/HU
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rom card, from book — to MARC21

The AI types — the librarian thinks.

Configurable, ILS-independent cataloguing: ISBD, RDA... you decide.

CatalogSnap is an AI-supported cataloguing tool. The AI does the automatic work and proposes; you adjust and approve.

Five practices — four important functions — one application

Retroconversion — Catalog card scanning

Photograph an existing catalog card with the mobile app. The AI extracts author, title, publisher and the other MARC21 fields. You review, adjust if needed, and approve. The result is your ILS record.

scan card→upload→review fields→approve & export

Subject analysis — Book pages scanning

Your catalog card is already in CatalogSnap. You scan the table of contents, foreword and back cover. The AI extracts e.g. 505$a, 520$a and 650$a-z and adds them to the MARC21 record. You review, adjust if needed, and approve. The result is your ILS record.

scan TOC, foreword, back cover→upload→review fields→approve & export

Acquisition cataloguing — Book scanning

You scan the title page, colophon, table of contents, foreword and back cover of a newly acquired book. The AI extracts all relevant data for the MARC21 record. You review, adjust if needed, and approve. The result is your ILS record.

scan title, colophon, TOC, foreword, back cover→upload→review fields→approve & export

Offprints — From accession ledger scanning

You scan the pages of your accession ledger. The AI detects the rows and creates a MARC21 record from each one. You review them, adjust if needed, and approve. The result is your ILS records.

scan ledger page→upload→review fields→approve & export

Batch processing — Image upload

If you already have scanned catalog cards, you upload them to CatalogSnap individually or in bulk. The AI processes them into MARC21 records. You review them, adjust if needed, and approve. The result is your ILS records.

upload files or folder→review fields→approve & export

Languages

Different languages: English, German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Latin, Russian, Greek...

א

Scripts

Different scripts: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Kanji...

K

Writing styles

Different writing styles: typed, handwritten, Fraktur...

Ж→zh

Transliteration

Standard transliteration: Greek, Ukrainian, Russian, Armenian, Chinese...

The application

Android navigation — menu items

In production use — with different practices

  1. Library of the Research Institute for PhilosophyAcquisition cataloguingRetroconversionSubject analysis
  2. Eötvös Library of the Research Institute for LiteratureBatch processing
  3. Library of the Research Institute for ArcheologyOffprints
  4. Library of the Research Institute for EthnographyRetroconversion

Every library has work that takes years...

The older the library, the larger its paper-catalogue backlog can be. CatalogSnap brings the processing of these backlogs within reach. It doesn't make the tasks vanish — it makes them doable.

Beyond the accelerated processing, something else happens in the background: we stop walking around the accumulated tasks. Tasks previously postponed for lack of time become part of the working day.

And if a card is on its way to becoming a MARC21 record anyway — why stop at the description? Let's do subject analysis, standard transliteration and abstract generation in the processing language with a few clicks.

The result is not a faster version of the old work, and not a bypassing of the librarian's expertise. It's a different kind of work — wider scope — in foreseeable timeframes.

Costs

To use CatalogSnap, you need an LLM subscription of your choice. We help with the selection. The per-card processing cost will then move within a predictable range.

The CatalogSnap service fee is institution-specific — no per-record fee, and independent of the ILS you use.

Contact us: info@catalogsnap.eu

Data & hardware

CatalogSnap stores the data on a standard Windows library PC or laptop that you control.

The mobile app runs on a perfectly ordinary modern Android smartphone, and stores no data after the images are uploaded.

Data is kept in the CatalogSnap application only until you delete it. The application keeps its log files for 1 week. The application stores no personal data.

The LLM provider's data policy depends on the provider chosen by the library.