Use case 3: Convert bibliographic records

Use

Description

MARC21 is the most common format for storing and transferring bibliographic records, but many systems use other formats. In order to use some systems, the records must be converted between formats.

Illustrative example: The University of Complex Problems employed a student over the summer to develop a new tool, which analyses bibliographic and holdings records alongside course descriptions, to produce suggested reading lists. Unfortunately, the student didn’t know anything about MARC records, so the systems librarian exported the catalogue in RFC1807, to make things easier. The analysis tool has turned out to be very successful, but the student has graduated, so the tool still needs to be fed records in RFC1807 format on a monthly basis. This isn’t a technical problem (the systems librarian has set up a batch job to handle the export).

Record flow

The flow is straightforward: from one institutional system to another, but with a change of format during the transfer (so this is "use", as it is within the institution). The types of record flow are described in detail here.

Current examples

VuFind is an OPAC that imports records from an institutional LMS, and displays them in an intuitive manner. The records are exported from the LMS as MARC, and stored within VuFind in a specialised database format. The records are then indexed to support advanced search capability.

Discussion

This is a straightforward example of an institution using the records it holds. None of the suppliers approached as part of this work would have any concerns about this use.

Please note that the legal implications for your institution of this use case will depend upon your specific contractual relationships - for more information see the discussion of suppliers' and libraries' current viewpoints on what is allowable, and the legal environment. 

...back to the Use Cases overview