Tip of the Week

Tip for: 03.27.2006

Unicode or Non-Unicode, That is the Question

Summary: This past week, we received a question from Alex-Net regarding the difference between the Unicode MARC format and non-Unicode MARC format records and which one should be chosen to import into Alexandria. This week's tip will discuss the differences between these two formats as well as outline the steps for saving a record from the Library of Congress to import into Alexandria, as the website has changed slightly.

So, what is the difference between the Unicode and non-Unicode MARC formats? Simply, the non-Unicode records contain only Roman characters, while the Unicode format contains non-Roman characters from JACKPHY languages such as Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Hebrew and Yiddish, as well as diacritics. Currently Alexandria only supports the non-Unicode format, but some time in the future we will include the Unicode format as well.

To download a record from the Library of Congress:

Open up your Web browser, and go to http://www.loc.gov.

Click on the link to Library Catalogs.

Select Basic Search.

Type the text to search for in the Search Text field.

Use the list of Search Types to select the type of information to be searched (i.e. Title, Author/Creator, etc.)

Click the Begin Search button or press your Enter/Return key.

To save from the Title List, put a check in the box in the # column of the desired entry and skip the next two bullet points. To save from the individual record, continue to follow the outlined directions.

Select the desired record from the results list by clicking on the Full Title link.

Click on the MARC Tags tab.

Scroll to the bottom and use the Select Download Format drop-down menu to choose the desired format. Alexandria can currently import the MARC (non-Unicode/ MARC 8) format.

Click the Press to SAVE or PRINT button.

The MARC information will appear in the Browser window ready to save.

Select Save As from the File menu at the top of the window or screen.

Name the file and select the location to save it to.

A dialog window will come up asking if you wish to append .TXT to the file name.

Click the Append button.

You can then go to Alexandria and import the file(s).

Thank you,

The Alexandria Staff Librarians

Contact us for a free consultation. Find out how you can benefit from Alexandria!
Phone: 1-800-347-6439 (U.S. & Canada) | General Phone: +1-801-943-7277 (Worldwide)

Copyright©2006 COMPanion Corporation. All rights reserved.
Site Map | Privacy Statement