Features

In 1999, MarcEdit started out as a simple MARC=>plain text translation utility.  Today, MarcEdit has become one of the more complete metadata edit suites available to librarians.  While the name MarcEdit has become a bit of a misnomer over the years (as MarcEdit now edits so much more data than simply MARC records), the program has and will continue to evolve to meet the past, present, and future metadata needs of the library community.

MarcEdit presently includes a very rich feature set targeted at making metadata translation and editing easier for both the beginner and advanced users.  These features include:

  • MARC Editing:  MarcEdit includes a MARC Breaker and Maker to move MARC data into a more friendly mnemonic file format.  It includes a dedicated MARC Editor, that provides a number of global editing functions, the ability to edit MODS and MARCXML data (in a mnemonic format) and integrate data from other data sources like OCLC, etc. into a batch set of MARC data.
  • Automatic Normalization Support: UTF8 data comes in many different normalizations — Libraries primarily utilize two.  Depending on the ILS, incorrect or mixed normalizations can cause indexing and display issues.  MarcEdit allows for automated data normalization.
  • Metadata Translations:  Includes built in translations for MARC to JSON, JSON to MARC, MARC to JSONLD, JSON to XML, BibFrame to MARC as well as multiple XSLT translations to convert between various Library and non-Library domain metadata frames to other metadata frameworks (and usually MARC).
  • MarcEditor:  The MarcEditor is MarcEdit’s built in metadata editor.  It includes a number of global editing functions, full regular expression and UTF-8 support, as well as the ability to configure the editor to utilize any characterset supported by the operating system.  Included functions:  Globally Add/Delete Fields, Edit Subfields, Swap Field Data, Copy Field Data, Edit Indicators, Generate Call Numbers, Validate Records, Generate Reports, Find/Replace, Direct Integration with Supported ILS systems, Macro support, Task Support, Call Number Generation, automatic LC and FAST subject generation, automatic Link Data reconciliation, etc.
  • Link Data Framework: Framework and tooling for supporting automatic data reconcillation
  • BibFrame Workflows: Built-in workflows for moving data into and out of bibframe for editing.
  • Clustering: MarcEdit supports the ability to cluster on fields or subfields and edit data in clusters.
  • RDA Helper:  The RDA Helper is both a stand alone and integrated tool that allows users to take a set of MARC data and automatically generate RDA specific data.  The RDA data is derived from the source recordset using available control data, variable field data, and RDA specific assumptions.
  • Delimited Text Translator:  The Delimited Text Translator is a tool that allows users to translate data in Excel, Access, or any delimited format into MARC.
  • Export as Tab Delimited:  A tool that allows users to export their MARC data as delimited text.
  • Harvest OAI Data:  MarcEdit has the ability to harvest metadata from an OAI data provider and convert the data directly to MARC.  Supported formats are MARCXML, oaimarc, oai_dc, and MODS.  However, the program allows the user to provide their own translation rules, so any format could be accommodated.
  • XML Translations:  MarcEdit supports the facilitation of metadata from XML and non-XML formats into various forms, including MARC.
  • XML Profiler: A wizard that allows users to profile XML and JSON files and create portable translations without having to write any XSLT or XQuery
  • Characterset conversion:  MarcEdit supports the ability to convert MARC records from one characterset to another.  This includes the traditional charactersets like MARC-8 (ANSEL) and UTF-8.  But it also includes support for any characterset currently supported by the operating system.  So users with MARC data in Traditional Chinese can utilize MarcEdit to convert that data to UTF-8.
  • Z39.50/SRU Client:  MarcEdit includes a built in Z39.50 and SRU client for interaction with other library systems.
  • ILS and OCLC Integrations: The tool provides ways to integrate directly with a number of ILS providers, as well as OCLC.
  • MARC SQL Explorer:  MarcEdit includes an SQL Explorer — a tool that allows users to export their data into either an SQLite or MySQL data and run SQL queries directly on the data to mine for information.
  • MARCValidator:  MarcEdit includes a number of tools to help users validate data and identify incorrectly structured MARC record data.
  • XML Editor: MarcEdit includes a built-in, light-weight hex editor to support quick editing of XML data.
  • Hex Editor: Trouble shoot binary data with a built-in hex editor.
  • Native software for MacOS and Windows: MarcEdit is written and compiled as native MacOS and Windows applications.   The application can be run on Linux using Wine or via command-line as a stand alone program.
  • Many more features:  Like the ability to split, join, sort, etc. data in various formats.

Today, libraries deal with metadata that comes from many different formats, from a variety of different sources.  The ability to easily work with those disparate schemas to manipulate them for use in our various systems will continue to be a challenge as libraries map out their metadata futures over the next decade.  Working with the library community, MarcEdit will continue to evolve to meet those needs and endeavor to provide the tools necessary to enable librarians to make the best use of their metadata assets.