University of Calgary Library - Information Technology Services

Exporting MARC records for National Library and OCLC.


Approximately 3 times a year we are supposed to report all our new cataloging records to both the National Library and OCLC. For the National Library we must report medical and non-medical records separately, and once this is done the two files are concatenated together for reporting as one file to OCLC.
The files are sent via ftp to both sites.
A paper record is kept on orange paper on Linda Pearce's bulletin board of the numbers of records sent and the dates they were ftp'd across.

Extracting MARC records

In the shell, in ...Unicorn/Xfer, rename dumpkeys and dumpdate if they exist. This is because they will be overlaid, and you may have needed the old files for something.
In Unicorn Reports, in the Bib group, Create a Prepmarcexp report.
  • Choose itemcat2 / Do NOT contain / MEDICAL
  • Choose #Copies > 0
  • Enter date cataloged range (refer to orange chart for dates)
  • Schedule and run the report ASAP. When this runs, it creates new dumpdate and dumpkeys files in ...Unicorn/Xfer.
  • When the job completes, view it and write down on the orange chart the number of records extracted.
    Record KEYS have been extracted but MARC records must still be created.

    Creating the MARC records

  • In the shell, change directory to ...Unicorn/Xfer
  • mv dumpkeys dumpkeys.yyddmm
  • mv dumpdate dumpdate.yyddmm
  • cat dumpkeys.yyddmm | catalogdump -kf035 > MARA.Dyymmdd 2>nl.erryymmdd
  • check to see that the records in MARA.Dyymmdd look OK
  • To see records as flat ascii, cat filename | marcprint | more
  • WARNING: NEVER do a tail on the MARC file

    Sending the records to the National Library

  • login to the production server as the sirsi user
  • cd Unicorn/Xfer
  • ftp mara-ftp.nlc-bnc.ca
  • username: acu_ft
  • password: acuftp
  • binary
  • put MARA.Dyymmdd

    Finish procedures for non-medical records

  • Fill in the orange chart

    Procedures to send Medical records

  • The medical records must be done the NEXT day because the filename does not distinguish between medical and non-medical records, so they must be distinguished by date.
  • Do all the procedures above EXCEPT in itemcat2 choose CONTAIN MEDICAL
  • To send the medical records to National Library, login as acum_ft and use password acumftp

    Sending files to OCLC

  • After producing the output files for both medical and nonmedical records for N.L., make a backup copy of both files in the shell.
  • cat MARAMED.mmddbak >> MARANONMED.yymmddbak
  • This concatenates the medical records to the end of the nonmedical records
  • change the filename to DATA.Dyymmdd
  • check the file sizes. The new DATA file should be equal to the sum of the old nonmed and medical files combined.
  • DO NOT DO A 'tail' on the MARC file! Bad things happen in unix....

    Creating the LABEL file for OCLC

  • OCLC demands both the data file itself and also a LABEL file that describes the contents of the DATA file.
  • Copy the previous LABEL file with a new date on the end. Change the number of records sent (the second line of the file after RBF) and the date on the end of the UAUD.D line
  • eg of LABEL file: LABEL.D020326
  • DAT 20001103123456.0
  • RBF 18426
  • DSN UAUD.D020326
  • ORS UAU
  • FOR M
  • FDI P123456

    Sending records to OCLC

  • Send the DATA file first and the LABEL file second.
  • login to the Sirsi production server as the sirsi user
  • ftp to EDX.OCLC.ORG
  • login: TUAU1
  • password: this expires EVERY time so you always have to type the oldpw/newpw/newpw unless you just used it in the past few days. Password is attached to the orange chart.
  • cd 'edx.ebsb.uau.ftp'
  • binary
  • put filename
  • check OCLC's website for confirmation that they received the files
  • an email should also be received from them saying they got the file. This doesn't always happen!

    Other info

  • After all records have been sent perfectly, erase the files sent 3 months previously, and erase the prepmarcexp reports from Unicorn as well.
  • Contact person at National Library is Michael Andrassy: michael.andrassy@nlc-bnc.ca
  • Contact person at OCLC is Manon Barbeau: barbeaum@oclc.org
    This page maintained by Linda Pearce. Last updated March 22,2002.