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USEMARCON: MARC Converter for Easy Data Exchange

Learn about USEMARCON, a user-controlled, free MARC converter developed in the late 1990s. Discover versions available, necessary definitions, helpful resources, and our experience converting 30 million records. Explore tools for managing data elements, practical tips, and identified weaknesses that may impact conversions. Get insights into two cases of using USEMARCON for effective data exchange in library systems.

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USEMARCON: MARC Converter for Easy Data Exchange

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  1. USEMARCON E-EndUser 2003 5.9.2003 in Helsinki Arne Hedman / Helsinki University Library Thomas Roos / CSC

  2. Agenda • What is USEMARCON? • Versions available • What must be defined before use of USEMARCON? • Where to get help? • Our conversion of 30 million records • Two cases

  3. What is USEMARCON • MARC-converter for any MARC data in exchange format (ISO 2709) • user control • free of charge • USEMARCON is developed in late 1990’s by partners of the consortium from Holland, UK, Germany and France, supported by EU’s Telematics Applications Programme

  4. Versions available • Original Windows-version by Jouve S.I • MS Win 3.1x, MS Win 95 and Solaris 2.4 • Requires XVT C++ toolkit to compile • GUI only • Memory leaks • ftp://ftp.bl.uk/pub/nbs/ec/usemarcon cont…

  5. Versions available • Usemarcon Plus by Crossnet Systems Ltd • Separate MS Win and Linux/Unix versions • API calls possible • Tested by us on Win 2000, Solaris8 and Debian Linux • Builds with VC++ or GCC 2.8, but not GCC 3.X • Used by EISI as a platform for on-the-fly conversions http://www.bl.uk/services/bibliographic/usemarcon.html cont…

  6. Versions available • Usemarcon Plus by ATP Library Systems (ere@atp.fi) • Merged Windows and Linux versions • Elimination of all known memory leaks • Command line enhancements • code restructuring for better readability • build tested with • MS Visual C++ 6 on Windows XP • GCC 3.2 on Red Hat Linux 8.0 • GCC 3.3 on Debian unstable • Will be available from BL shortly

  7. What must be defined before use of USEMARCON? • All files and tables are text files  very easy to handle • Initialization File (.ini) • names of tables and input/output files • Look up tables (.tbl) • codes to be converted • Format checking tables (.chk) • List of fields and subfields allowed and their occurences cont…

  8. What must be defined before use of USEMARCON? • one table for input data and one for output data • Character Set Translation Table (.trs) • only non-standard characters to be defined • conventional ASCII characters specified in a • default character set table • Configuration file (.cnf) • a list of fields without indicators (001-009)

  9. What must be defined before use of USEMARCON? • Rule file (.rul) • conversion rule for all the tags • a tag without a rule will be dropped out

  10. Where to get help? • Guide to USEMARCON in web • http://www.bl.uk/services/bibliographic/guidetousemarcon.pdf • British library email:usemarcon@bl.uk

  11. Our conversion of 30 million records • Elements in records can be handled in many ways: • maintain • change • delete • add

  12. Tools for change are numerous: • Boolean instructions(OR, AND, NOT) • Conditional instructions (if… then) • Loop instructions • Memory instructions • String functions • Number functions

  13. Some experiences • Editing text files technically easy • Quick testing possible, because changing rules in text files with the help of error files is fast • In tricky conversions the manual does not help you very much.There has been bugs in manual, too cont…

  14. Some experiences • Repeatable tags with different subfield structure are problematic • Changing fixed fields can cause problems,if many conditional instructions exist • Do not convert too big files. It’s better to link the files to be converted.

  15. Weaknesses in USEMARCON • Not handy in changing the contents (tag/subfield code/constant/data) in one tag • Character set conversion without other definitions is not possible • No tool to choose and pick certain material from a file for conversion cont…

  16. Weaknesses in USEMARCON • Not possible to merge two files • If USEMARCON goes down becauseof an unqualified record, the corruptedrecord is not easy to find

  17. To make conversions effectively, some tools are needed • A program to browse input and output data for comparison • A hexeditor to remove bad records

  18. Case 1VTLS to Voyager • Conversion of cyrillic data from VTLS (FINMARC) to Voyager (MARC21-Fin) • extracted 2 versions of the databases to ISO2709 • cyrillic and translitterated cont…

  19. Case 1 VTLS to Voyager

  20. Case 1 VTLS to Voyager • 10 conversions later • 7 custom-made programs and 3 usemarcon conversions

  21. Case 1 VTLS to Voyager

  22. Case 2Usemarcon in Voyager • Use of USEMARCON in Voyager • Convert during import • with Pbulkimport • Convert during export • with Pmarcexport • Convert on-the-fly with the z39.50-server • /m1/voyager/lindadb/ini/z3950svr.ini • Finmarc=/m1/voyager/usemarcon/mafi2fi.ini

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