There's a pretty good example included in the "samples" section of the source ( http://marc4j.tigris.org/source/browse/marc4j/src/org/marc4j/samples/ReadMarcExample.java?revision=1.1&view=markup ).
Your particular use might look something like this (not tested): public class MARCParser() { public List<String> getData(File file) { MarcReader reader = new MarcStreamReader(new FileInputStream(file)); List<String> data = new ArrayList<String>(); while (reader.hasNext()) { Record record = reader.next(); VariableField field = record.getVariableField("856"); data.add(field.toString()); } return data; } } Hope this helps, Jonah On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 9:36 AM, Joshua Welker <wel...@ucmo.edu> wrote: > Does anyone have a simple example of reading a MARC file using the Java > marc4j library? The documentation is rather lackluster ( > http://marc4j.tigris.org/doc/) and I am unable to find anything helpful > Googling or searching discussion lists. I am wanting to do something like > this: > > > > > > public class MARCParser(){ > > > > public ArrayList<String> getData(File file){ > > > > MarcReader reader = new MarcReader(file); > > ArrayList<String> data = new ArrayList<>; > > while(reader.next()){ > > data.add(reader.getField(“856”)); > > } > > return data; > > } > > } > > > > I figured this would be a simple enough task and have done something very > similar with a PHP MARC library, but I am stumped here. > > > > Josh Welker > > Information Technology Librarian > > James C. Kirkpatrick Library > > University of Central Missouri > > Warrensburg, MO 64093 > > JCKL 2260 > > 660.543.8022 >