In This Chapter:<\/h2>\n

\n
• I’ve got a record, now what<\/strong><\/li>\n
• How do I edit records in the MarcEditor<\/strong><\/li>\n
• I’m made my changes, now what?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Technical services processes have changed a lot since I first started cataloging cartographic records in 1999.\u00a0 Some of the biggest changes that have occurred in technical services departments have been the widespread use of shelf ready, vendor created metadata for their acquisitions (both print and electronic).\u00a0 Catalogers today are receiving more vendor supplied metadata and are creating workflows to enable to editing and quality control of that metadata prior to it entering their local catalogs.\u00a0 For many catalogers, MarcEdit has become a vital part of this process, allowing them the ability to work with the metadata outside their local systems to clean up headings, add notes, correct access points, and remove data not\u00a0pertinent to their institutions.<\/p>\n

  For new users however, where does one start?\u00a0 MarcEdit has become a very large, and at first, complex application.\u00a0 The tool provides a wide range of tools and options, and for the first time user, it can be somewhat overwhelming.\u00a0 What’s more, vendors don’t always make life easy.\u00a0 While may metadata providers utilize the MarcEdit file extension “.mrc” to represent MARC data, this isn’t true in all cases.\u00a0 Vendors can provide metadata using a wide variety of file extensions (.bin, .dat, .out to name a few), and often times provide very little guidance for libraries looking to use their records.<\/p>\n

  As stated earlier, the purpose of this book is to help users, novice and experienced, to make better use of the MarcEdit application.\u00a0 And while there are many topics found throughout this text that will help users looking to modify their library metadata, this particular chapter is for those novice users looking to know where I get started.\u00a0 MarcEdit provides a number of ways for users who receive vendor provided data to open that data, view it, edit it, and load it back into their local system.\u00a0 For novice and first time users that have received metadata from a vendor, have downloaded MarcEdit and are now wondering, “Now what?”, read on… <\/p>\n

  I’ve got a record, now what?<\/h2>\n

  I think that one of the biggest strength’s and challenges of working with the MarcEdit application is that there are generally more than one way to do anything.\u00a0 The program was designed with the idea that the application should be able to adapt to your workflows, not the other way around.\u00a0 However, because of this, the program can sometimes be difficult for the first time user looking to make those first record edits.\u00a0 Consider the following scenario: <\/p>\n

  My library has recently purchased access to 2500 ebooks from Acme EBooks.\u00a0 As part of the contract, Acme has provided the library with MARC records for each available ebook.\u00a0 The records are ok, but we’d like to do some work on them.\u00a0 First and foremost, the records include multiple URLs and we’d like remove all the access points except for the one pertinent to our library.\u00a0 Secondly, these records lack call numbers and we’d like the items to show up in our systems browse features.\u00a0 Finally, there are some notes and quality issues we’d like to deal with before loading the data into our catalog.\u00a0 We’ve downloaded MarcEdit, but I’m not sure where to go next.\u00a0 The file the vendor set me is myrecords2013xxx.bin, can you help?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

  This is actually a fairly common scenario, a good way to introduce users to the MarcEdit application.\u00a0 So what does the user do?<\/p>\n

  Well, the first thing to understand is that because MARC is essentially a binary file format, the record needs to be taken out of the MARC format in order to edit the data.\u00a0 Most MARC tools work with is way, and MarcEdit is no exception.\u00a0 MarcEdit provides two primary tools for the transforming and editing of MARC data.\u00a0 The first tool is the MarcBreaker\/MarcMaker.\u00a0 This pair of tools provide the graphical interface to MarcEdit’s MARCEngine — the code responsible for processing MARC data.\u00a0 These “making” and “breaking” functions allow users to take data found in MARC and break the records into a mnemonic format that MarcEdit can read (and the global MARC editing tools can interact with). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  <\/td>\n

  MarcEdit’s mnemonic format is a very precise, but simple format.\u00a0 The key formatting rules to follow are: <\/p>\n \n Field data must always be on one line.\u00a0 A new line represents a new field in the mnemonic format.\u00a0 A blank line is an indicator for a new record.<\/li>\n The field format is as follows:\u00a0 =100\u00a0 \\\\$adata.\u00a0 The parts are specific.\u00a0 All new fields begin with an equal-sign, followed by the field number\/tag.\u00a0 Following the field number\/tag, are two blank spaces.\u00a0 Following the spaces are the indicators.\u00a0 Blank indicators are presented as ‘\\’ or spaces.\u00a0 Finally, after the indicators, is the field data.\u00a0 Subfield characters are represented by a $ + character code.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Users then work within the MarcEditor using that mnemonic file, making their desired edits to the records.\u00a0 Once those edits have been made, users then need to “make” that mnemonic file back into MARC — and it is that file, not the mnemonic file, that the user would load into their catalog.<\/p>\n Before a user can edit\u00a0their MARC data in the MarcEditor,\u00a0the MARC records need to be\u00a0“broken” into the mnemonic format.\u00a0\u00a0If the file\u00a0has a\u00a0“.mrc” extension, just\u00a0double click on the file, and\u00a0as long as MarcEdit is installed, the program will open directly to the MarcBreaker.\u00a0 However, if\u00a0the file that you wish to\u00a0process\u00a0does not have a .mrc extension, use the following steps:<\/p>\n Step 1:\u00a0<\/strong>Open MarcEdit<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Step 2: <\/strong>Click on the MARC Tools link<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Step 3: <\/strong>MARC Tools will open…Click on the Open folder in the menu or the browse link next to the input file box<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Step 4: <\/strong>In the Open Dialog, Change the File type to All Files, and navigate to the file you want to process. <\/a><\/p>\n Step 5: <\/strong>Click on the Save menu icon or the browse link in the Output file box<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Step 6: <\/strong>The Input and Output files cannot<\/strong> be the same file.\u00a0 Once the Input and Output files are defined, and the MarcBreaker option is selected, click on the Execute Button.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Step 7: <\/strong>Once the Execute Button has been clicked, the program will “break” the file.\u00a0 The results of the process will be placed into the Results box and the Edit Records Button will become enabled if the conversion was successful.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n As long as the record data in the specified input file is valid, the process described above will allow a user to take their MARC file and “break” it into the MarcEdit mnemonic format.\u00a0 At this point, the user will have two files — their original source record provided by the vendor and the .mrk file created by MarcEdit when the MarcBreaker “broke” the file and generated a mnemonic file for editing. <\/p>\n How do I edit my MARC file<\/h2>\n So, again, MarcEdit’s MarcEditor doesn’t edit MARC records directly…it edits the MarcEdit mnemonic file format.\u00a0 In the paragraphs above, I described the process for taking a vendor supplied MARC file and “breaking” that file into the MarcEdit mnemonic format.\u00a0 Using the MarcBreaker, MarcEdit will generate a .mrk file — a file the MarcEdit has designated to represent a mnemonic file.\u00a0 It is at this point, that the user can edit their MARC data, using the mnemonic file, in either the MarcEditor or in another tool like Notepad, Notepad+, or UltaEdit.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Once a set of records has been successfully loaded into the MarcEditor, the user has the ability to utilize a wide variety of global editing tools and utilities.\u00a0 For more information on the tools and utilities available within the MarcEditor, please see Book III. <\/p>\n I’ve made my changes, now what?<\/h2>\n Once a user has made their changes to the mnemonic file, what’s next?\u00a0 What happens when I save the file?\u00a0 Can I load the .mrk file back into my local system?\u00a0 These are great questions.<\/p>\n What happens when I save my file? <\/em>One of the most common misunderstandings comes around what happens when you save a file within the MarcEditor.\u00a0 There is a misunderstanding that saving the record will automatically convert the record data back to MARC.\u00a0 This actually isn’t the case.\u00a0 When a user saves a file within the MarcEditor, the program will save the mnemonic file and does not<\/strong> convert the data back into MARC.\u00a0 The conversion process is normally a separate operation.\u00a0 The only exception to this rule is when a user selects the Save As<\/em> option and select the MARC Binary (.mrc) file type.\u00a0 In that case, and only that case, will the MarcEditor automatically convert the data in the MarcEditor into MARC.<\/p>\n Can I load the .mrk file back into my local system? <\/em>The answer to this question is no.\u00a0 The .mrk file represents MarcEdit’s mnemonic format, and would be incompatible with your local MARC system.\u00a0 The file in the MarcEditor must first be “compiled” back into MARC, before it can be loaded back into one’s local library catalog.<\/p>\n Once a user has editing a set of MARC records in the MarcEditor, they have a number of different options for converting that data back into MARC.\u00a0 I’m going to detail the most straightforward process that can be utilized from within the MarcEditor.<\/p>\n Step 1: <\/strong>Save your changes.\u00a0 You don’t have to save your changes prior to compiling the mnemonic file back into MARC, but it’s a good practice.<\/p>\n Step 2: <\/strong>Select the “Compile Records” icon from the\u00a0toolbar or select “File\/Compile File into MARC” from the menu. <\/a><\/p>\n Step 3: <\/strong>When prompted, select a save file…the file where the MARC Data will be generated.<\/p>\n Step 4: <\/strong>When completed, the file generated through the “Compile” process will be compatible with MARC systems.<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/h2>\n By no means do the above methods represent the only workflows for “making” and “breaking” MARC data for editing.\u00a0 One of the strengths of the application is the MarcEdit supports a wide variety of workflows, allowing users to utilize a process that fits the way that they work.\u00a0 Rather, the above methods demonstrated some of the most common workflows for taking vendor supplied data and transforming it into MarcEdit’s mnemonic format for\u00a0editing within the MarcEditor and then compiling that data back into MARC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In This Chapter: I’ve got a record, now what How do I edit records in the MarcEditor I’m made my changes, now what? 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