[LM_NET] HIT: [LM_NET] TECH: Alexandria: Import Marc Records

[JaKay Greer <JaKay_Greer@GBSD.GRESHAM.K12.OR.US>]

Thank you for all who responded.  I have posted two of the responses I received.   
As you all have proven,  you all are great resources. Jakay

1. THIS was the best response I received.  Thank you Pam.

Here goes:
First, create a folder on your desktop to save into, label it LOC
downloads or something.

Go to LOC
http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First

search for your item by title, ISBN, author, whatever

I searched for "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus" by title; one entry
came up, you can leave it on brief entry (yellow tab at the top) OR
switch to any of the other tabs, makes no difference.

Scroll down to the yellow box that says "select format"; Click MARC
format, only save, click white bar that says print or save search
results

An interesting group of mostly numbers, some letters, appears on a web
browser page...this is good...click file, save as (an error message may
come up that says it won't save right...ignore this), switch "save as
type" to TEXT file (.txt), make sure it is saving into the LOC download
file on your desktop, add something to the file name to make the file
identifiable (pigeonpwebrecon_cgi). Once you have adjusted all three of
those items you can click save.

Use your back button if you want to continue to search and save from the
LOC. If you save each item with a discernable name into the LOC file on
your desktop, you can easily pick and choose when actually importing
into Alexandria.

When you are ready to import these files into Alexandria:

Click File, Import in Alexandria
Click the white paper with the red plus sign at the bottom left of the
pop-up import box.
Make sure you are looking in the LOC download file you created on the
desktop, click the file you want to import (if you are importing more
than one MARC record, you have to click on them one at a time using the
paper with the red plus sign, WARNING! It always seems to CRASH if I try
to import more than three files at a time)

Once you have your 1, 2 or 3 MARC files in that white box, click the
green, go arrow on the bottom right.

It archives and then imports your record. Click OK when it is done. Then
go to Show, Items to look at the record you just imported. Search for it
by using Items, Find. Adjust the lacking information (cost, location,
sometimes number of pages, call number, AR information, etc). Save.
Viola!

It seems like a lot, but once you have done it a few times it goes
pretty quickly.

Good luck!


2.  This was from Companion
(Personal note---when I originially contacted the Tech support on this, I was NOT 
given this information, but just told that I did not understand how to find the 
Save feature of LOC.)
JaKay,

I know the Library of Congress  website has a feature that you can download MARC 
records.  I have used it many times on behalf of our customers.  We are very 
knowledgeable about our own programs and have a good understanding on how the LOC 
website
works.  Most of the time when people have a problem downloading MARC records it's 
because of the way they have chosen to download MARC records from the LOC website.  
Actually it's the way the LOC has set up their site.  Seems they made a change
about 2 years ago that affects saving and downloading. If you are using IE, 
Netscape, or Firefox you're out of luck.  The only browser that downloads the MARC 
correctly from LOC and doesn't add HTML garbage is Opera.  Download a copy of Opera 
and
then browse to the  LOC.gov website.  Search for your items and save as MARC.  Once 
you get the record on your computer, import it.  I know this works well, I just did 
it while composing this E-mail.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact
us.

Thank you
COMPanion tech support
1.800.347.4942

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