Brown University Scholarly Resources

Breaking MARC

To edit a marc file in Metadata Editor, you will need to 'break' the mrc file into an marc mnemonic file (mrk).

1. Select MARC Tools

If your computer is setup to open mrc files in MarcEdit, then double clicking the mrc file should launch this window for you.

2. Under Select Operation, select MarcBreaker
3. Under Open, select your mrc file
4. Under Save As, name the mrk file
5. Under Default Character Encoding, select 'UTF-8'
6. Select Execute
7. Under Results, check that the number of records looks correct
8. Select Edit Records to open the mrk file

Editing MARC

Select MarcEditor. If your computer is setup to open mrk files in MarcEdit, then double clicking the mrk file should launch the editor for you. Alternatively, if you just broke an mrc file into an mrk and selected 'Edit Records' this window will launch as well.

Validate Records

MarcEditor has a built in record validator which can check the structure and rules of the records and locate and issues that need addressing before you start working on the file and later find a critical error that requires you to start from scratch

1. Navigate to Reports > MARCValidator
2. Select Source File -- by default this is [Current File] which will select the open file
3. Select Rules File -- the default rules will be selected, you can change this or edit the file if you need to make custom changes. Default should be fine for most jobs
4. Run this process twice:
   • Validate Record Structure
   • Check MARC USing Rules Files
5. Select OK

Record and Field Counts

This report will give you record counts as well as field, indicator, and subfield counts. It is a great way to get an idea of the structure of your records at a glance and possibly spot inconsistencies. Indicates the number of records containing the field, as well as the number of instances throughout the entire file. So while a LDR record and field counts should be identical, subject heading fields should have more field counts than record counts as it appears multiple times in a single record.

1. Navigate to Reports > Field Count
2. 000 represents the LDR field and as every record should have this, it is a great way to gauge the number of records in the file.
3. Select and highlight a field you would like more information on
   1. Select Action: Count Subfields
   2. Perform Action
   3. Review list of subfields and indicator counts
4. Generate the Report to create a save file for review as needed

Tools

All tools are found under Tools

• Add/Delete Field

Used to globally add or delete fields. Can delete all instances of a specific field, or can be filtered to only delete fields that contain a specific phrase. When adding a field, make sure to include indicators and subfields - however it is not necessary to include these when deleting.

• Copy Field Data

Copy one field into a brand new field.

• Edit Subfield Data

Add, Delete, or Replace subfields.

• Swap Fields

Can copy from one field to another, or completely move the data to a different field. Can be added to existing fields or create brand new fields. Can swap only specific subfields rather than the entire field as 'Copy Field Data' does.

• Manage Tasks

This will open a Task Manager which is used to create automated tasks. Tasks are a lot like Normalization Rules in that they will automatically make changes to all the records in the File using the MarcEditor Tools and based on the user's defined parameters. These are useful if you are repeating the same actions over and over on multiple files.

Find and Replace

Found under Edit > Replace. Robust Regular Expression searches allow for granular changes to be made to the entire records. See Regular Expressions for more information.

Compiling MARC

Turn a mrk record back into an mrc file when you are done editing. To do this select Compile either under File > Compile File into MARC, or select the Compile button under the menu bar. (It looks like paper in a funnel.)

Merge, Join, Split, and Isolate

Isolate Records

1. In MarcEditor under File > Select Records for Edit
2. Import File
3. Either Manually select the files you wish to isolate, or use the search to select records that match your search conditions. I typically add a unique filed (like 999) to a record in order to easily batch select them, however you can search for specific terms inside a specific field and such as well.
4. Use Invert Selections if you wish to select items that did not match your search instead.
5. Export Selected will open the selected records in a temporary file where you can edit only the selected files. If you select 'Save' it will update the original file with your edits while the unselected records remain unaffected. If you select 'Save As' this will create a new file containing only the selected records.

Join Records

When faced with multiple records you need to apply the same changes to, joining them into one file is often the best solution. Alexander Street Press often has each record in its own file, so it is necessary to combine these files into one in order to not spend 2 hours just adding each record to an import job.

1. Under Tools > MARC Processing Tools > MARCJoin
2. Create a Save File for these files to be joined on
3. Select All the files you wish to join under 'Files to Join'

You can use CTRL+A to select all files in a folder, or use CTRL+Click to select multiple individual files

4. Select 'Process'

Split Records

If you need to split a large file into smaller more managable sizes you can use Split Records.

1. Under Tools > MARC Processing Tools > MARCSplit
2. Select the file you wish to split under Source File
3. Select a folder to save your split files in
4. Select how the record will be split
   • Records Per File -- will split the file into multiple files containing a specific number of records in each
   • # of files -- will split the file into the designated number of files
   • Select 'Process'

Merge Records

1. Under Tools > MARC Processing Tools > Merge Records
2. Merge Record Data
   • Source File -- This is the file you want to merge fields onto
   • Merge File -- This is the file you want to pull fields from
   • Save File -- Where the Merge will be saved.
   • Record Identifier -- This is the field the records will match on (Typically 001 or ISBNS or 035s)
3. Select Fields
   • Move the fields you want to merge from the "Select Fields" to the "Merge Fields"
   • Overlay Existing Items -- If this is checked any selected field will overwrite existing fields of the same number
   • Merge Unique Items -- Only adds the fields if they are unique and don't already exist in the Source File.
4. Hit Next to create the Merge File.

Import and Export

Excel or Delimited Files

• Under Tools > Export > Export Tab Delimited Records
• Step 1: Set File Paths
• Select MRC or MRK file, and create a Tab Delimited Text file to save the data to
• Select Field Delimiter (Tab, Comma, or Pipe)
• Select In field delimiter for records with multiple fields in the same record
• Step 2: Define Fields/Subfields to Export
• Select or type the Field number you wish to export
• Add a subfield if you wish to separate subfields into separate columns
• Add as many fields and subfields as needed
• Export

You can import the exported Tab delimited field into Excel by opening the file in Excel then using the "Text to Columns" button under the Data tab.

OpenRefine

• Under Tools > Export > OpenRefine Data Transfer Tool
• Export to Open-Refine: Turn a mrk or mrc file into a json file
• Import from OpenRefine: Turn a Tab Delimited Text file into a mrk or mrc file.

Z39.50

• Under Tools > Utilities > Z39.50/SRU Client
• Z39.50 Database Settings
• Name: Alma Production
• Host: brown.alma.exlibrisgroup.com
• Database: 01BU_INST
• Port: 1921
• Syntax: MARC21
• Select search mode then enter keywords in the input
• Add as many fields as you like
• Alternatively, Click the "Batch Search" box and upload a text file to search from.
• Raw(adv.) Search can be used to perform an advanced search.
• Links:
• NETSL 2010: "Go Fish!"