MARC Report Features

MARC Report is your best defense against common coding and cataloging errors in your MARC database.

As more and more libraries rely on copy cataloging and outsourcing for their cataloging data, and more and more libraries enter into resource-sharing agreements and virtual catalogs, MARC database quality control has never been so important.

MARC Report was designed to meet this need by validating MARC records (and entire MARC databases) against the most current MARC21 standards.  As well as validation, MARC Report includes hundreds of cataloging cross-checks that catch problems that cannot be found simply via MARC validation. And all of this error-checking is available in a manner that is completely customizable by you.

MARC Report runs in two modes: interactive, and batch mode. With Batch Mode, you can run MARC Report’s unique error checking against a file and get a customizable report of all of the cataloging and coding problems in that file.  In interactive mode (which we call ‘Record-by-Record’ mode), you can load a file into the program and navigate through it one record at a time, viewing the actual record in one window, and a list of errors (that link to complete descriptions of each error) in another window.


And MARC Report doesn't stop there.  The interactive mode of MARC Report now includes an editor capable of editing any record in MARC files of any size, so that you have a tool not only to identify problems, but to fix these problems on the spot.

We also wanted to design a program that is so easy to use that simply clicking ‘Run’ will provide many libraries with all the information they need. For example, if you receive vendor records on floppy diskettes, MARC Report can be configured so that just doubleclicking on a filename will provide you with a thorough cataloging analysis of each diskette.

Finally, our goal is to make MARC Report the most comprehensive MARC utility available to the library world. Check out the list of features and utilities below, and you will find many items that may by themselves make this program worthwhile to you. 

 

And we are constantly adding new features to MARC Report.


Validation Highlights

We make any changes in MARC21 available as program updates to our customers within 30 days of their announcement by LC.


MARC Report Highlights

Edit Session:  We call it an ‘Edit Session’ when a file of MARC records is loaded for editing in MARC Report.  Unlike other products that work on only one record at a time, or require a complex environment to be able to work on a database, MARC Report can load and edit any MARC file any time you open it.  And by navigating through a file, say, received on a vendor diskette, you can quickly use the validation features of MARC Report to create a perfect batch of records. Simply click on each validation message that appears, and a list of valid data elements will display, and your cursor will be positioned on the error in the MARC editor. Make the appropriate change(s), click Save, and you’re done. And if you want, you can load your whole database into an Edit Session in a minute or two--there are no limits.


Easier to Configure: Along with the strongest possible validation, we also want to offer the most customizable MARC software available.  We have made it much easier for you to configure the program by implementing the Windows "Properties" feature for every one of the tens of thousands of reviews that MARC Report runs on every record. Simply right-click on any validation message and a menu will pop-up giving you the option to disable the review for the current session, or even disable it forever!  And, of course, any review disabled in this manner is saved to a database so that you can re-enable it at any time.

Easier to Update:  MARC isnt a static entity, and we designed MARC Report from the beginning with this in mind.  LC makes changes to their MARC definitions almost every month, and although these are often minor changes, sometimes they are not. And we are constantly adding new Cataloging Checks and program enhancements suggested by our customers.  And yes, if someone finds a bug, we fix it right away.  To deliver these changes to you as quickly as possible, we have developed a web update system.  All you have to do is click on ‘MARC Report Update’ under the Help menu, and a web page will be returned telling you if an update is available for your version.  If it is, just click on the Update link that appears, and you are on your way to the latest version.

 

MARC Help: Simply right-click (or use a function key) on any MARC data when you are running the program in Record-by-Record or Edit mode and a context-sensitive list of MARC data elements and their meanings will appear, along with links to the corresponding examples on the LC and OCLC MARC documentation websites.


ISBD Spacing and Punctuation Check: MARC Report includes, as part of the Cataloging Checker, an ISBD Spacing and punctuation check module.  It can be turned off with a single mouse click if these messages about colons, semi-colons and missing end-of-field punctuation become annoying.

 

MARC Import: The current version of MARC Report will import records (in an Edit Session) from the LC Catalog (either Z39 version, or OPAC version, and either Bibliographic or Authorities).  All that is needed is to select the record in your web browser, then click ‘Import’ on the MARC Report Edit menu, and voila!, you have added an LC record to your file.

 

MARC Copy and Paste: You can copy the current MARC record as text to the Windows clipboard, where it can be printed, pasted into an email, or even imported back into MARC.  You can also copy the current MARC record to a file of your choice...in MARC Format!  If the file doesn't exist, you can create a new one; if it does exist, you will have the option of appending to it.  With one click, you can also attach the current MARC record (as raw MARC) to an email message and send it to ...

Jump to next record with errors: Some catalogers have configured the program so that most of their records are perfect!  As a result, they want to be able to quickly and easily jump through a file.  To do this we have developed a special navigation button that, instead of going to the next record, goes to the next record 'with errors'.

Find next record with same problem: With a single right-click on a validation message, you can now browse to the next record in the file that has the same problem.

 

Associate a File Type with MARC Report:  You can associate a Windows file extension with MARC Report using the program options. This is useful if your MARC files always end in an extension like '.mrc', or '.001'. Once you associate a file extension with the program, you can doubleclick on any similar file and it will open with MARC Report.

The following UTILITIES come with MARC Report at no extra charge.


MARC Review: We first released MARC Review, a DOS-based utility for USMARC files (and our first software product), in 1993. Some people still use it! We have now added MARC Review as a free utility in MARC Report. MARC Review can search any MARC file for any MARC data pattern and output a bewildering variety of reports, export records to HTML or popular database formats, or split a MARC file into two MARC files based on the presence of the search argument. And there are no limits: any file size, any record size, any tag length, any number of tags, any MARC format. Some customers have said that having MARC Review alone is reason enough to buy MARC Report.

MARC Analysis: This utility provides extensive and in-depth statistics on the MARC elements used in your data.  You can even add your own data elements to be reported on.  Here are just a few uses of MARC Analysis: find out what tags/subfields are used in every record; find out what tags are not used at all; find out what subfields are used in a tag and how often they appear; get a ranked list of tags in a file; find out the age of your collection (by analyzing date strings); find out the strong and weak areas of your collection (by analyzing call number strings); find out how many record have good match keys; find out …

 

MARC Sort:  This utility will sort any MARC file on any tag/subfield combination you can come up with.  It will even dedupe a file, and put all the dupes in one file, and all the non-dupes in another. Again, like all of our software, it is completely customizable and without any limitation.

 

MARC Verify:  Our Verify utility will quickly run through a file of MARC records and let you know if you have any serious structural problems.   If it does find a record that cannot be loaded, and cannot fix it on-the-fly, it will dump it to a textfile which you can edit and then easily add back to your file using the MARC Import function described above.

 

MARC Split: This utility splits a  MARC file into many smaller files, either by the number of records, or the number of bytes. Very handy when setting up an upload to someone who requires your file be split up into smaller pieces, or just to put a big MARC file on floppies.

 

Concatenate files: This utility is the reverse of MARC Split; it will join separate MARC files together into a single MARC file.  For some reason, we seem to use this utility quite a bit.

 

UTILITIES available for an additional charge:

 

MARC Global:  We first released our DOS-based version of MARC Global in 1995, and it quickly became the tool of choice for anyone who needed a standalone tool to make serious changes to MARC files. We are pleased to announce (April 2003) that MARC Global is now available as an add-on module to MARC Report. Please visit the following link for more information about MARC Global.

 


Download a 30-day free trial now and and try it out on some of your own records.