AEL can retro-convert card catalogues to MARC21 using a framework in a XML environment. This framework is developed by the US Library of Congress and is available at http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdhome.html. The content of data elements in MARC records is defined by standards such as AACR (Anglo American Cataloguing rules), ISBD(G): General International Standard Bibliographic Description and others.

Apart from MARC, AEL can convert to Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) which is a schema for a bibliographic element set that may be used for a variety of purposes, and particularly for library applications.

AEL also has expertise in EAD (Encoding of Archival Descriptions). A standard for describing collections held by archives and special collections, similar to the MARC standards for describing regular books. Such a standard enables museums, libraries, and manuscript repositories to list and describe their holdings in a manner that would be machine-readable and therefore easy to search, maintain, exchange.

Since most card catalogues are in constant use in Libraries, AEL can organize the scanning of the cards on-site without causing disruption.

AEL Data has developed complex metadata coding and capture software for the catalogue conversion.