Tip of the Week

Tip for: 03.29.2004

Downloading from the LOC & Other Options

Summary: There has been some discussion on Alex Net regarding downloading from the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, about two years ago, the Library of Congress changed their website and the program they currently use has some issues with the newer versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. We realize that the Library of Congress is a respected source for bibliographic records, but we wanted to offer some comparable options for those who cannot save records from the Library of Congress.

The first and most obvious option is to reinstall an older version of your web browser. If this is an option for you, follow the directions below to download a record from the Library of Congress.

To download a record from the Library of Congress:

Open up your older web browser and type in the address http://www.loc.gov.

Click on the Search Our Catalog link.

From the next window, select Basic Search.

Type in the desired search term and click on the appropriate index to search.

When the search results appear, double click on the title of the desired record, or highlight Search Type and click Begin Search.

Click on the MARC Tags tab to show the record in MARC format.

To save the record, click on the Print or Save Search Results button.

For Mac OSX users, utilize the OS 9 (classic) application of Internet Explorer. This will allow you to have up-to-date applications while also having access to the older version of a web browser that can be used to download records.

Please note that there are other online resources for downloading records. Many public libraries offer Z39.50 access to download MARC files. To locate these sources, link to them through the Other Library's Catalogs link from the Library of Congress website, or do a web search for Z39.50 servers. The Taylor Public Library is one example of another source that can be found online.

Finally, COMPanion's SmartMARC software makes searching many different Z39.50 servers a cinch. Rather than relying upon being able to save the records properly from the Library of Congress's website, SmartMARC makes saving records and modifying them very simple. It also offers a wide array of libraries that can be selected to search and can save records directly to your Alexandria Database. If you are looking for an easy way to find and download records for importing into Alexandria, SmartMARC is a great option.

For more information about SmartMARC, contact our Sales Department at 1-800-347-6439.