Batch Loading and Editing of
Vendor MARC records
Anastasia (Nastia) Guimaraes
University of Notre Dame
Presented at the ALA Midwinter meeting in
Philadelphia, PA, on January 25, 2014
Hesburgh Libraries at the
University of Notre Dame
• Over 8,000 undergraduates; 3,500 graduate
students
• $10M+ annual materials budget
• Aleph, SFX, Metalib, Primo & Primo Central,
CORAL ERM
• Went through organizational redesign in
September 2012
Ebooks landscape at Notre Dame
• Started buying ebook collections in 2007
• Current annual budget: approx. $1 million
• Systematically process and load vendor MARC
records in catalog since 2010
2.5FTE dedicated to batch loading activities
• Number of MARC records loaded in catalog to
date: 720K records
Batch loading workflow steps
• MARC records negotiated as part of electronic
resource ordering/licensing workflow
• Records downloaded from vendor sites, ftp’d,
received as email attachment, or ordered from OCLC
WorldCat Collection Sets
• Automatic pre-processing using Access Level Record
guideline and MarcModifier program
• Record sets analyzed by catalogers and instructions
for changes created
Batch loading workflow steps, pt.2
• Changes implemented to record files using MarcEdit
• Record sets loaded and reviewed on a test server of
library catalog
• Record sets loaded in catalog production
• Post load clean up performed if needed
• CORAL ERM entry updated to reflect completion of
all batch loading workflow steps
Pre-processing steps
Using Access Level Record as a guideline
Pre-processing steps, pt.2
Automatic pre-processing of vendor record files
with MarcModifier
• Locally developed program that we utilize as an
automated record validation process
• Written in Java; has configuration file written in XML
consisting of conditions and rules
• Customizable -- configuration file can be duplicated
and modified
• Makes set changes to all records in the file
• Provides reports about records for staff doing analysis
Records analysis
• Catalogers analyze each set and create change
instructions
• Examples of issues identified by staff dedicated to
analysis activities:
Following RDA implementation, some Project Muse
records lacked fields 260/264
SPIE distributed records containing unresolved DOIs
 OUP’s Oxford Scholarship Online collection files with
updates contained records for incorrect content
World Bank e-Library record file had hundreds of URLs
mixed up pointing to wrong content
Identifying records that lack call numbers and subjects
MarcEdit
• Free software program used to facilitate batch processing
of records
• Developed by Terry Reese of the Ohio State University
• Converts raw MARC files into human-readable, editable
files
• Once file is edited, MarcEdit is used to convert file back
to raw MARC for loading in library catalog
• MarcEdit Listserv hosted by George Mason University. To
subscribe go to:
http://metis3.gmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=MARCEDIT-L
Keeping track of batch loading
workflow
• ERM system CORAL
• Developed at Hesburgh Libraries by Ben Heet and Robin
Schaaf
• Open Source program http://erm.library.nd.edu/
• Consists of several modules (Resources, Licensing,
Organizations, etc.) that are interlinked
• Seamlessly links acquisitions, licensing, and MARC
records information
• Transparent way to share batch loading activities
CORAL
CORAL
Title-level records in
discovery layer systems
• Not all records are loaded manually by the
Batch Loading group in our ILS
• Some records are loaded directly into PRIMO,
but not in Aleph
HathiTrust (1.6 million records for public domain
titles)
CRL (will be reviewing as a possibility)
Project Gutenberg (maybe a possibly)
Final observations
• Vendor records quality continues to present
issues for cataloging community
• Replacing AACR2 with RDA introduced new
record quality issues
• Display of data in discovery layer systems vs
traditional library catalogs
• Opportunities for traditional catalogers to
participate in batch loading activities
Questions?
Anastasia (Nastia) Guimaraes
Head, Batch Processing, Data Support, and Metadata Services
Hesburgh Libraries
University of Notre Dame
aguimara@nd.edu