Literature on vendor records in integrated library systems (ILS) is sparse; the little that does exist is proprietary to one system or another. This lack of scholarly treatment supports the assumption that vendor records are perfunctory and that creating them consists primarily of data entry. But are vendor records really that one dimensional? After 26 years with the same ILS, Gettysburg College migrated to Alma in June 2019. As the library reimagined a new acquisition infrastructure, disambiguating vendors proved especially enlightening and revealed exactly where and with whom we were spending our funds. This poster will provide some practical advice and add a case study to the literature for how to organize vendor records for purposes of vendor negotiations and institutional transparency.
