MarcEdit: free software that lets you edit MARC records and more!

Susan Lytinen

Data Projects Specialist

Gail Borden Public Library District

October 19, 2011

DemonstrationEditing MARC records

◦Individually◦As a batch

Creating MARC records from an Excel spreadsheet◦Saving commands as a template

Creating XML records from MARC records

Created by Terry Reese, Gray Chair for Innovative Library Services, Oregon State University http://oregonstate.edu/~reeset/marcedit/html/

Help abounds!MarcEdit homepageYou Tube videosConference presentationsTerry Reese workshopsMarcEdit software helpWhat’s New in MarcEdit blog and

RSS feed on MarcEdit StartPageMarcEdit-L

Editing MARC records – we need software!

Pieces of MarcEdit and file formats

Start with a MARC file, usually .mrc◦ Some MARC files come with different extensions,

such as .binCall up MarcBreaker to create editable,

“mnemonic” file, .mrkUse MarcEditor to edit the .mrk fileUse MarcMaker to change back to MARC file,

.mrcDelimited Text Translator can

convert .txt, .xls, .xlsx, or .mdb into .mrkDTT templates are saved as .mrd

Start MarcBreaker

Finding MARC files with extension .bin

MarcBreaker is fast

.mrk rules: not that hard!

Hard return at the end of each field

Blank line between records = at beginning of each

field, then field tag 2 spaces before indicators Blank indicator is

backslash \ $ is subfield delimiter.

Must include $a No space between

delimiter and subfield contents

# at beginning of line makes it a comment, won’t be included in MARC record.

To edit, just typeI added a 520 summary by typing in the 520

tag, then copying and pasting a blurb from Amazon.com.

“Find and Replace” is under the “Edit” menu

“Add/Delete Field” is under “Tools”“Electronic books” is

entered various ways:=655 \4$aElectronic books.

=655 \7$aElectronic books. $2local

=655 \0$aElectronic books.

I’ll delete all versions, then add what I want.

Some records had more than one “Electronic books” field.

The same utility adds fields, as well as deleting them.

MarcMaker copies your .mrk file to MARC .mrc

You can extract records to edit from a MARC file.

You can choose individual records by clicking on their check boxes, or you can do a keyword search.

After you click on “OK,” click on “Export Selected.”

Then decide whether you want the records that you extracted to be deleted from the original MARC file or not.

Save the extracted records in a .mrk file.

Then click “Exit” to close the record extraction window.

To edit the records, open MarcEditor from the StartPage, then open your .mrk file.

Creating MARC from a spreadsheet

Decide which columns you want to map

Delete everything but the rows you want to make into MARC records

Start the Delimited Text Translator

Tell the DTT the names of your files

DTT displays the 1st line of your spreadsheet

It helps to be looking at the spreadsheet with the information on how your want to map it.

Field 0 maps to 024 8\ $a

Field 1 maps to 024 1\ $a

Field 2 maps to 960 \\ $o

Entering constant data

Join the constant data to the previous line

Field 3 maps to 961 \\ $p

More constant data

Join the constant data to the previous line (again)

Field 9 maps to 1001\ $a

Field 10 maps to 245 10 $a

Saving a template

You have created a .mrk file

Use MarcEditor to look at your .mrk file

The records look complete

Compile the .mrk file to MARC

Loading commands from a template

MarcEdit can change MARC files to XMLOn the StartPage,

click on“MARC Tools.”

Click on “MARCMARC21XML.” Browse for your MARC file, and name the XML file that will be made. Click on “Execute.”

XML looks like this:

But wait… there’s more!Regular expressionsSchedulerZ39.50 searchingMARC to Dublin Core…

Questions?

Susan LytinenData Projects SpecialistGail Borden Public Library District270 N. Grove Ave., Elgin IL 60120slytinen@gailborden.info(847) 608-5013