[Koha] how to use marc records displayed on library web pages?

[Mitchell, Pru]

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" <x at vaults.ca> 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 <
> jcamins at cpbibliography.com> 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) jcamins at cpbibliography.com
>> (web) http://www.cpbibliography.com/
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