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February 2011

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From:
Hans BKK <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
MarcEdit support in technical and instructional matters <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 1 Mar 2011 01:16:03 +0700
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On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 9:51 PM, Reese, Terry
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> (Side note - it would be great if such functionality were available as a
>> MARCedit add-on - put multiple MARC records side by side (all for the same
>> biblio), tic which fields you want to keep from which sources and merge
>> them all into one - sorry I'm not a coder nor have the resources to sponsor,
>> just putting the idea out there (as if it's a new idea I'm sure 8- and I realize it
>> wouldn't be that easy to code, and maybe not many people would want to
>> do this)
>
> Actually, there is one.  In newer versions of MarcEdit, there is a Merge Records tool.  The tool works with either a control number for matching or not -- but essentially, you can merge data from one set of MARC records (you select the fields to merge) into another set.  My guess is that this probably would work much better than doing all this in Excel.

Thanks very much for your reply Terry.

I did have a quick look at the merge tool, but bailed once I formed
the impression that although it looks like a great tool for when I
have two sets of files and know in advance which files contain which
desired data in which fields, it doesn't work for the interactive
process I outline in a bit more detail below. I will however have
another more detailed look at it when I get a chance though, and am
sure I'll be using it in different parts of my workflow.

However, at the moment here's a bit more detail on what I'm doing;
it's more of a manual, one-title-at-a-time process. I have anywhere
from 3 to a dozen MARC records per biblio record - say I'm cataloging
Disney's Snow White - I have one MARC record each from IMDB, AFI,
CLIO, WorldCat, and some subject headings from Classify.

I want to first of all see the structural differences between them
visually, so I can see if I can improve my use of MARC for our video
collection in general (I'm really just figuring this stuff out ATM).

Then I want to pick and choose fields from each, in some cases cut and
paste data from the same field in multiple records, combining them
into a single field in my target "master" record (e.g. 508/511),
sometimes selecting multiple instances of say 650/655, and say
bringing in *all* the 700's.

I reckon this functionality *requires* a GUI, and would be ecstatic if
such a tool existed, even if it only allowed for only merging one pair
- I could build up a "master" record one comparison at a time. But I
completely understand the cost/benefit, difficulty vs perceived
"market" need, etc. issues.

I have given up on the spreadsheet idea for any editing, since it does
seem very difficult if not impossible to maintain round-trip
integrity. However IMO this remains the best way to review all the
different records' structural differences all in one place -
read-only.

For editing, I am currently doing this:

  Use MarcEdit to join all the MRCs for a given biblio into one
combined file, then "break" it to MRK
  Open the MRK in my text editor and add a column just to the right of
the tag number to identify the source record
  Sort all the lines, edit everything in place into one "master" file,
delete the "ID" column added just above, save it (still as valid MRK).
  Use MarcEdit to make it to MRC and stage it for import into my ILS.

Any feedback and further suggestions would be greatly appreciated (from anyone).

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