Hi Jared In cases where libraries use commercial cataloguing services, providing downloadable MARC would usually contravene the licence agreement that the library has with the source/consortium.
it would add complexity to a library OPAC to distinguish between locally created MARC records which may be available for download, and 3rd party which might not. Cheers, Pru On 19/12/2012, at 7:34 AM, "X Middleton" <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks, Jared, for confirming my suspicions. It still seems weird to me how > many library interfaces "display" MARC and don't provide a machine-usable > format. It's better than nothing though, I suppose. At least Koha isn't one > of these systems -- Koha provides so many options for downloading records > it's an embarrassment of riches! > > I also received a reply from someone (who doesn't seem to have CC'd the > list?) who reported they copied and pasted the example link I provided into > MarcEdit, and after a bit of manual re-formatting to remove "subfield > markers" (I presume the | characters) and possibly adjust some spacing they > were able compile the text to an importable MARC record. (They kindly > attached the result for me.) To duplicate this prodigious feat, I guess I'd > need to do some more research on the MARC format acceptable to MarcEdit... > it would be handy to know how to do. > > > > On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 12:58 PM, Jared Camins-Esakov < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> X, >> >> I do a fair bit of cataloging for a small library that has a lot of >>> old/rare books, though I am an amateur librarian. I often use worldcat to >>> find a library that has a copy of our uncatalogued book (when I can't find >>> any z39.50 accessible sources). These libraries often have an option to >>> display a MARC record. Is there some way to get such a display into Koha >>> besides manually copy/pasting bits and pieces into a new MARC record? >> >> Not easily if they do not provide a Z39.50 server or raw MARC record >> download. What you are seeing when looking at the "MARC view" is a >> representation of the MARC format that has been designed to be easily >> readable for humans. MARC records are actually (usually, anyway) stored in >> the binary format that LC provides their records in. >> >> >>> For example: >>> http://tripod.brynmawr.edu/find/Record/.b3780640/Details#tabnav >>> >>> Copying and pasting the displayed record into a text file and trying to >>> import it via "stage for import" does not work. I notice that Library of >>> Congress has an option to download MARC records for its items, which can >>> be >>> 'staged for import" without a problem. Looking a the contents of the LoC >>> downloaded MARC file, it looks almost nothing like the ones displayed by >>> libraries which don't have a download option. >>> >>> I've searched the web (i think) exhaustively for clues as to how to >>> actually handle or convert these "display" marc records into something >>> usable (something that looks like the LoC downloaded MARC records), but >>> with not success. I've installed and attempted to use MarcEdit and >>> IsisMarc >>> hoping they might have some functionality to convert/transform this >>> data... >>> but no luck. >>> >>> It just seems crazy that there's all this info out there, and I can't find >>> any way to use it beyond the crudest (but better than nothing!) methods of >>> cherry picking. >>> >>> What am I missing? >> >> Most libraries that use copy from libraries other than their national >> library use OCLC or Skyriver (or a similar union database) for obtaining >> records. It would be possible to write screen scrapers to harvest MARC data >> from OPACs, but since there is no standard formatting, you would need at >> the very least a screen scraper per ILS, if not a screen scraper per >> catalog to cope with minor customizations made by various libraries. >> >> Regards, >> Jared >> >> -- >> Jared Camins-Esakov >> Bibliographer, C & P Bibliography Services, LLC >> (phone) +1 (917) 727-3445 >> (e-mail) [email protected] >> (web) http://www.cpbibliography.com/ > _______________________________________________ > Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org > [email protected] > http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org [email protected] http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
