I had some one ask for a hit on the replies that I got about MARC Magician.
It looks like everyone is very pleased with MARC Magician. The sales rep.
called me today and gave me a reasonable quote so I think I will go ahead
and purchase it based on the glowing reviews that you gave it.
A big thank you to everyone who took the time to respond.
Vaneesa
____________________________________________
We've used it...it worked real slick and was easy to use. The only drawback
is that the sales rep calls monthly, which isn't really too bad...wondering
if we want to upgrade. We never do but we were very pleased with the
original product.
____________________________________________
MARC Magician is extremely easy to use -- when you transfer records into the
program, you can set what standards you want to use, and the program will
then highlight in red what needs to be corrected. Also, you can do global
editing if you have several records that need the same common corrections,
such as capitalization, etc. When you finish updating your records, it's
easy to import them back into your catalog, all ready to go. I would highly
recommend MARC Magician.
____________________________________________
It is exactly what is says it is- Magic!
I had to clean up records for a library that had not been weeded in about
14-15 years and when they went to an automated system in 1984- the people
hired to do the input of information were not librarians. There were all
sorts of typos- inconsistencies. We worked long and hard for about 3 1/2
months weeding and cleaned up 23,000+ records. We would still be working on
those now if it weren't for Marc Magician! The tutorial provided is worth
the time spent. I usually sit through it once-twice a year to refresh my
memory since I do not do cataloging that often.
____________________________________________
Love it. It is easy to use and not every expensive if they have a deal
going on, which I think they currently do.
____________________________________________
This program is fabulous! I absolutely would not be without it. This is
our first year to use it, and now I wonder how I got along without it for so
long.
____________________________________________
My library aides and I have used Marc Magician for several years. We
originally purchased it to help clean up our records for a union
catalog. We now use it to make sure all our records are in compliance,
even those that we purchase from vendors. It is very easy to
use--especially if you use Follett. Last year we added MarcAccess which
gives us access to records so that we don't have to write our own for
those incidental books that always show up without records. This spring
we have also added MarcRecon which is supposed to add subject heading,
etc to our existin records. We haven't received it yet, but I'm sure
that it will be just as simple to use as their other products.
They are real good about offering huge discounts for new features to
existing customers, for example, our discount on MarcRecon was 96%. Last
year we got a year's support for participating in beta testing of Marc
Access. I have never been contacted by a rep except through email, but
when I needed customer support, they are always very helpful.
I wholeheartedly support their programs.
____________________________________________
We were one of the first guinea pigs. There were some definite problems but
they did try to work with us. Make certain you S-P-E-L-L out specifics as
to what you expect in return. If you are having a school done things will
go better. We were attempting to do the entire district all at once. Good
luck.
____________________________________________
I inherited two such libraries and I have MARCMagician. I
like it, but it is still a lot of work when you have messed
up records to fix. It guides you through proper field tag
and indicator choices and formatting. You can do some big
batch jobs, like adding your school name to all the
holdings or changing all the $9.99 book costs into
10.00usd, change all your F or Fic to FIC. However, I have
not found a way to view, say, all the ISBN fields to see
which books don't have them, and that is crucial to fixing
your collection. You have to access each title one at a
time, which is time consuming and tedious. It would be
helpful to be able to sort by ISBN so you can find which
ones need them, but I don't see that option anywhere. I can
see all the barcodes at a glance, but I still have to open
each individual record and then open the holdings of that
record to take the leading zeroes off the barcode numbers,
which are a problem in Athena, rather than being able to
correct them in the list format like normal databases, or
have a command that will do that for you. MARCMagician is
very good for standardizing and customizing new records
coming in.
You can import your whole collection into MM, but you will
not be able to refresh your collection back into your OPAC
if the original does not have the same ISBN as your
repaired record, at least with Athena, our OPAC. I didn't
know that when I started working on my horrid Spanish
language book records (almost 1000 books, most with nothing
but title, insufficient call number [460 or 468, no
descriptive Dewey #, E, B, or FIC, and the alpha part] and
barcode). I worked for months fleshing out the records in
MM the days I was at that school, but they wouldn't refresh
back into the OPAC. That's when I figured out the ISBN
thing. Now, I'm going through each record in both my OPAC
and MM making sure both records have the same ISBN. It is
slow going, and this is just the Spanish section in one of
my schools. I'm printing new barcode labels and spine
labels, too. You can't do that in MM unless you buy that
part.
MARCMechanic is something else again. Some people have
bought that in my district, but it really wasn't an option
for my libraries until I get the ISBNs in correctly. That's
my goal right now, get the records in sufficient condition
to send off to MARCMechanic, but I just don't have the time
to work on it that it would take. Still, it seems that it
only corrects existing data, it doesn't add what isn't
there at all. The way the sales people present it, you
could get the impression that it will somehow go out and
find all the data you don't have and enter it for you. That
would be nice, but I don't see that on the website
description for it.
www.marcmechanic.com
____________________________________________
MARC Magician is FABULOUS. I did go ahead and upgrade this year. They've
got AccessMARC (which hunts down records in their databases for your to
use), and MARCReCon--which is my favorite. It quickly helps you fix
incomplete records by either matching to existing or helping you pick the
right records from a set of "close" matches. I just fixed 500 records
this morning, in 1/2 an hour.
I've never had trouble with the reps calling. Until this year, I was the
only campus in the district that even had it. I pretty much just pay the
renewal fees for the support, and go about my business.
____________________________________________
I use MARC Magician all the time. It is well worth the money.
____________________________________________
I love Marc Magician. I can do hundreds of records at a time. Be sure to get
Access Marc with it.
Vaneesa Thompson
Library Media Specialist
West Morgan Elementary/ High
Trinity, AL
vwthompson@morgank12.org
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