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About MARC import

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Discover the main features and overview method for importing MARC records into OLIB.

To enable the import of MARC exchange files, OLIB offers the following features:

  • 2 MARC variants are supplied - MARC21 and E-Books MARC. These are visible in the MARC Variants domain. You can also create new variants based on these existing ones
  • A summary of the tags and data can be generated in advance of the import to illustrate how the data will be handled in the import batch
  • The OLIB import process assumes the import file is MARC21. OLIB has a MARC21 Mappings domain so that the mappings of files can be amended for MARC21
  • A summary of the general file processing and possible problems is given in the Objects record of the imported file. An import log is also created from the import batch and you can check this for any errors relating to individual records
  • Holdings data can also be mapped
  • Reference Data Validation: you can review incoming data during a MARC import to identify data in the incoming records that do not match existing reference data. You can change the non-matching incoming data so that it does match before the records are imported properly.

Overview Procedure

  1. Obtain the MARC Exchange file from your supplier, preferably in UTF-8 format. If the file is in MARC-8 encoding, OLIB will automatically convert it to UTF-8.
  2. OLIB's import process assumes the file for import is MARC21. Use the MARC21 Mappings domain if necessary, to change how the OLIB MARC import process handles certain tags. If required, create a new MARC Variant with configured mappings.
  3. It is recommended that reference data is created in the Record Source Codes domain to later help identify imported records through a refined search.
  4. Imported and matched records can be viewed in Folders. This feature is optional but if required, create these Folders in advance so that they are visible as a drop down when setting up the Import Batch record. The New Items Folder field and Matched Items Folder field should also be added to the Import Batch Layout using Layout manager.
  5. Create a record in the Import Batch domain containing your preferred settings for import. Link your MARC import file to the batch record.
  6. Generate a Summary and Mapping using the Import Batch domain. This illustrates the data that is in the supplied file (ie: before the MARC21 Mapping rules have been applied). It will also generate a mapping for everything it found in the file. These are flagged for removal as no attempt is made to identify the equivalent MARC21 subfield automatically.
  7. Configure MARC tags as required in the MARC Mappings domain.
  8. If importing a large batch of records, the Keyword indexer should be disabled prior to import and the index recreated afterwards. It is important that the Normalise server is running.
  9. Import the data using the Import Batch domain.