[Koha] How to get MARC biblio export to work? 2.0.1RC1

[Baljkas Family]

Wednesday, November 3, 2004    09:38 CST

Hi again, Michael,

Well, I don't know about how to get it to display -- I thought that it just did 'automagically' (as one Koha'ite put it earlier on) -- but I can answer your query about MARC record structure.

> > [snip]
> > The record attached is for:
> >    The hidden encyclical of Pius XI / Georges Passelecq and
> >      Bernard Suchecky ; translated from the French by Steven
> >      Rendall ; with an introduction by Garry Wills. --
> > 
> 
> Thanks. I have the attachment fine but I'm wondering if there are some 
> character encoding probs. It appears on a single line in either Windows 
> or Linux and there are control characters in the text. I was expecting 
> ASCII or 7 bit stuff. Would that be correct?

I take it when you say control characters, you mean the little box-like things (or other symbols). These indicate the beginnings of subfields (well, that, and a few other things). They are supposed to be there. BTW, different systems -- ILS and editors -- will display different symbols to show these delimiters, but all amount to the same thing.

As for the single line: MARC records are usually short enough to fit on one line in a text editor.

If you take a look at the record, it begins with a set of fixed position-coding data called the Leader, which is immediately followed by a set of numbers called the Directory.

If you took a really careful look at the Directory you could see that the different MARC tags you have in your record are encoded there, along with the number of spaces the data in the fields takes up. The Directory essentially encodes the data matrix, allowing for unpacking of the information.

For a better explanation than I am giving, please see: 
<http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/um11to12.html>

In terms of ASCII or 7-bit stuff: as far as I know, the character set has always been ASCII. In one section of the General Introduction to MARC21 Concise Bibliographic Format 
<http://www.loc.gov/marc/concise/concise.html#general_intro>
(i.e. what is used for item records), there is a note stating "ASCII is used for the structure elements of the record, with most coded data also specified within the ASCII range of characters."

In fact, in the formal explanations there, one sees references to specific ASCII codes (e.g. "The Directory ends with a field terminator character (ASCII 1E hex)" and, under Variable fields, "The data in a MARC 21 record is organized into variable fields, each identified by a three-character numeric tag that is stored in the Directory entry for the field. Each field ends with a field terminator character. The MARC record ends with a record terminator (ASCII 1D hex)").

Anyway, I hope that helps clarify, Michael. If I am missing what you meant or misunderstanding it, please let me know and I'll try again.

> I tried it anyway and received:
> Import into Breeding Farm, 2 imported records, 2 records parsed.
> This suggests then that its in the "Breeding Farm" and that when I do a 
> MARC search it will find it.
> When I go to the catalog and search on 245a - Title contains 'hidden' or
> 100c - Title and other words contains 'hidden' I dont get any biblios.

As you stated elsewhere that you are using MARC21, the 100c definitely should NOT have the word 'hidden' in it. That occurs in the 245a. The 'title' in the 100c is not the title of a work but rather a title in the sense of honorific!

If you look at the examples for proper coding of the 100 field on the LC site at <http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdmain.html#mrcb100> 
you would find the following 2 illustrations of what is meant:

100 0#$aJohn,$cthe Baptist, Saint.

100 0#$aJohn$bII Comnenus,$cEmperor of the East,$d1088-1143.

Hope that helps.

> It's a bit hard to see what's what as it's all on one line.

True, but then again, MARC communications format is really not meant for us to read, but for computers. ;-) They don't need the spaces our brains like to have. It takes some time, but, if you want to, eventually you could get used to reading raw MARC just as easily as the more user-friendly tagged (matrix) form.

In the meantime, continued good luck with your work.

Cheers,
Steven F. Baljkas
library tech at large
Koha neophyte
Winnipeg, MB, Canada