Convert an Excel Spreadsheet into MARC Data

with MarcEdit: Tutorial

Last Updated: 7 Aug. 2019

Contents
1 Initial Steps 2
1.1 Edit the E-bib File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Change Some Column Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 Steps with MarcEdit 5

2.1 Select Your Source File and Set Basic Parameters . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Map the Excel Metadata into MARC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.1 Join Common Items (264 $b and 264 $c) . . . . . . . 11
2.2.2 Save Template Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3 Save Your MARC File and Review It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 Make Edits to Your Mapped File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4.1 Delete “Placeholder” Record At Head of File . . . . . . 14
2.4.2 Change 264 Field’s First Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4.3 Add 264 $a (Place of Publication) . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.4.4 Add 336 / 337 / 338 Fields (for Books) via the RDA
Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.5 Recompile Your .mrk File into .mrc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3 Import the Final .mrc File into Your ILS 19

4 For Additional Information 19

Abstract
This tutorial explains how to use MarcEdit’s Delimited Text Translator
feature to convert a book vendor’s Excel file with metadata into MARC
records. This capability can be helpful when there are not MARC

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 records available from “typical” bibliographic sources (such as OCLC
WorldCat, the Library of Congress, etc.).
Although this tutorial uses a sample spreadsheet from Tsai Fong
Books, you should be able to apply the procedure outlined here to an
Excel file from any other vendor and tailor the data mapping (as well
as the post-conversion bibliographic editing) to suit your needs.
The screenshots in this tutorial show version 7.1.180 of MarcEdit,
which is the most current version at the time of writing.

1 Initial Steps
• Tsai Fong Books (a vendor specializing in Asian-language materials)
provides free “e-bib” files which contain bibliographic metadata in
Excel spreadsheet form.

• Before editing your e-bib file, make a copy of it, and save the original
in a safe place.

• You will edit the working copy of the e-bib file.

1.1 Edit the E-bib File

When you open the e-bib file with Microsoft Excel, it should contain 24
columns (labeled A-X) and look something like this:

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 • Notice that there are two Author columns: one has a Romanized
version of the author’s name (using pinyin1 Romanization); the other
column presents the author’s name in Chinese characters.

• There are two Title columns: one has the title Romanized in pinyin;
the other column has the title in Chinese characters.

• There are also two Publisher columns: one in pinyin; the other col-
umn with Chinese characters.

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Pinyin is a system to transcribe the sounds of Mandarin Chinese using the Western
(Roman) alphabet. Pinyin was developed in the 1950s in Mainland China and is now the
official Romanization system of China, Singapore, the US Library of Congress, and the
American Library Association.

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1.2 Change Some Column Headers
Change the column headers listed below. This will make it easier when you
are doing the “data mapping” step (which comes later in the conversion
process).

ISBN Change to 020

Author CJKV Change to 100

Title CJKV Change to 245

Publisher CJKV Change to 264 $b

Publish Date Change to 264 $c

• Then, change the date to have only a four-digit year.
• For example, change 11/30/2017 to 2017

Category Tier 3 Change to 650

Language Change to 546

OCLC # Change to 035

English Abstract Change to 520

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 Tip:
For greater simplicity and efficiency in creating these brief biblio-
graphic records, it is recommended that the vernacular CJKa script
metadata columns be used (for Author, Title and Publisher), rather
than the Romanized pinyin columns.
Some previous library studies have shown that end-users are not
well served with pinyin-based searching. Although pinyin is useful
for non-native students who are learning Chinese, it is a crutch—
like training wheels on a bicycle—which will eventually have to be
discarded. Native Chinese speakers / readers are unlikely to be familiar
with pinyin, so they will prefer searching with CJK characters.
a
Initialism for “Chinese, Japanese and Korean.” This term is commonly used in the
library world to refer to materials written in the Chinese, Japanese, and/or Korean
languages.

2 Steps with MarcEdit

2.1 Select Your Source File and Set Basic Parameters
• Open the MarcEdit program.
• At its main screen, choose Tools > Delimited Text Translator:

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• A new window will appear:

• From here, navigate to the location where you saved your e-bib file:

• Open / select your source file. (It should be in Microsoft Excel format).

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• Select the location for your output file (which will be saved in the
program’s ‘mnemonic’ .mrk format):

• Under Excel Sheet Name, it is OK to leave the default value of Sheet1:

• Under the Delimiter Values drop-down menu, accept the default

value of Tab:

• In the Options portion of the screen, click on the hyperlink labeled

Edit LDR/008:

• A pop-up window will appear. From the LDR drop-down menu, select
the Book option:

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• Click on the OK button to close the pop-up window.

• Put a check mark in / activate the option labeled UTF-8 Encoded:

• Click on the Next button to proceed.

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2.2 Map the Excel Metadata into MARC

Tip:
These steps are the most important in the entire conversion process
because they involve mapping the vendor’s metadata from Excel into
MARC 21 format. Please work carefully as you proceed.

• The initial data mapping window looks like this:

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• To begin, select Field 1 (020) and map it to the 020 tag. Remember
to add $a (‘subfield a’) to the MARC tag.
The first and second indicator values are correctly set as \ \ (‘blank
blank’), so they do not need to be changed:

• After mapping each desired field, click on the Add Argument button.

• Once the button has been pressed, you will see the Argument added to
the summary box below:

• Proceed with mapping your other tags as follows:

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 Value 1 Value 2 Value 3
Select: Map To: Indicators:
Field 4 100$a 1\
(i.e., first indicator is ‘1’, second indicator is ‘blank’)
Field 8 245$a 10
Field 11 264$b \\
Field 12 264$c \\
Field 15 650$a \4
Field 16 546$a \\
Field 17 035$a \\
Field 23 520$a \\

• When you complete this part of the procedure, your screen should look
something like this:

• Do not worry that some of the MARC tags are out of numerical order;
just make sure that the Sort Fields option is checked / activated:

2.2.1 Join Common Items (264 $b and 264 $c)

• Join any common items. In the case of the Tsai Fong e-bib records, we
must join the separate 264 subfields: 264 $b and 264 $c.

• To join these subfields, left-click to select them:

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 • Next, right-click and choose Join Items:

• After being joined, you will notice that the 264 fields now have a
preceding asterisk:

2.2.2 Save Template Option

• If you wish, you may select Save Template, to save your data mapping
for future spreadsheets:

Tip:
I have not tried using the Save Template option, so I do not
know how it will behave when used for future data mapping.

2.3 Save Your MARC File and Review It

• Click on the Finish button:

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 • MarcEdit will display a pop-up confirmation window that your file has
been saved in the program’s internal .mrk file format:

• Review your MARC data. Open your file in MarcEdit’s MarcEditor

module:

2.4 Make Edits to Your Mapped File

• When you open your mapped .mrk file, you should see something like
this:

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2.4.1 Delete “Placeholder” Record At Head of File
• The e-bib file’s metadata was successfully mapped and converted to
MARC format.
However, you must delete the empty “placeholder” record at the begin-
ning of the file (circled above, in red ink).

• Make other edits to your ‘mapped’ MARC file, as outlined below.

2.4.2 Change 264 Field’s First Indicator

• Change the 264 field’s second indicator from \ [‘blank’] to 1.

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 • To make this change globally, go to the Tools menu > Edit Indicator
Data (or press the F8 function key).

• Next, fill in the values shown below:

• Click on the Replace button; afterwards, you will see a pop-up confir-
mation window:

2.4.3 Add 264 $a (Place of Publication)

• The bib. records lack a place of publication (MARC 264 $a). We can
globally add that with the following steps.

• Go to the Tools menu > Edit Subfield Data (or press function key
F9).

• Type in the information shown in the screenshot below:

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 Tip:
Pay special attention to the Subfield: box, and enter the data
exactly as shown: [ˆb]
The notation [ˆb] alerts MarcEdit that you wish to insert $a
before $b in data field 264.
(If you fail to add the special notation, MarcEdit will place the
new $a after $c — at the end of the data field).

• Next, click on the Replace Text button in the upper right-hand corner.
• MarcEdit will ask if you wish to continue:

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 • Click on the Yes button to complete the operation.

• The 264 $a will be added, and correctly placed at the beginning of the
field:

2.4.4 Add 336 / 337 / 338 Fields (for Books) via the RDA Helper
Another easy enhancement is to add the “triple” of MARC fields (336/7/8)
identifying content [336], media format [337] and carrier or physical format
[338] of the cataloged items. (The following global example assumes that all
the items in the e-bib file are printed books).

• Go to the Tools menu > MARC Processing Tools > RDA Helper.

• Check the two boxes shown below, then click the OK button:

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 • The selected tags will be added to the records:

• When you are satisfied with your file, proceed to the next step. You’re
almost done!

2.5 Recompile Your .mrk File into .mrc

• Click on the “funnel” icon to recompile MarcEdit’s internal .mrk file
into a standard .mrc file:

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 • Give your enhanced / improved file an appropriate name, to distinguish
it from your original file.

3 Import the Final .mrc File into Your ILS

• Use the appropriate Import utility to import the .mrc file into the
Cataloging module of your integrated library system (ILS).

• Double-check that the records were imported successfully.

4 For Additional Information

There is a clear, concise video presentation available on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LERl6T92jPw
Tripathi, D. P. “3. Data Migration: Convert the Excel File into MARC.”
Youtube 16 Jun. 2017. (16 min., 39 sec.)
I based this tutorial on the overview given in that presentation.

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