Converting CDS/ISIS database records to KOHA

Dr. Mohan Raj Pradhan

Member-Secretary
HealthNet Nepal
and
Lecturer,
Central Dept. of Library
and Information Science
e-mail: mpradhan@healthnet.org.np

Abstract
Conversion tools are heavily used in libraries for data exchange. The advent of Internet has brought
the concept of digital libraries. In Nepal, CDS/ISIS is mainly used to create bibliographic database.
In recent years, with the trend of open source software and web based system, librarians are
moving towards web based system. However, exchanging data already created has created problem
to move towards new system. MarcEdit is a tool which can be used for such conversion among
databases. This paper is a tutorial for exchanging data between CDS/ISIS and MARC21 format of
KOHA.

1. Introduction

Libraries maintain their Machine Readable Catalogue (MARC) in the form of databases. In most of
the libraries of Nepal, Unesco developed CDS/ISIS database is used. The CDS/ISIS database
supports fields and subfields. The bibliographic data elements in the form of fields and subfields is
known as MARC. The standard used in creating data entry form in CDS/ISIS is CCF (Common
Communication Format). In KOHA (integrated library system), data entry form used is MARC21.
The data entered into CDS/ISIS is not compatible with KOHA. A GUI (Graphic User Interface)
based third party tool MarcEdit is available for such conversion.

2. Features
2.1 Editing of MARC Records
MarcEdit includes Marc Tool which contains:

MarcBreaker

MarcMaker

Marc-MarcXML

MarcEdit provides a mechanism to edit MARC records. MARC records can be edited using any
native editor.

It converts native MARC format file to editable Mnemonic format using MARC tools or vis-a-vis
using MarcBreaker and MarcMaker, respectively.
 Fig1: Input file in ISO format

Fig. 2: Output file in Mneonic format

2.2 UNICODE Compatibility

MarcEdit is UNICODE compatible. It can convert MARC-8 records, which is native MARC format
to code multilingual characters, i.e. to. UTF-8. It can read and wirte UNICODe code characters,
thus Indic scripts can be used in data manipulation. But once the data is entered in UTF-8 it can't be
changed to MARC-8 character set.

2.3 Import/Export

It can import and export records in MARC format. One can export any
selected MARC records.

Fig. 3: Export selected MARC records

3. Procedure for CDS/ISIS to MARC21 format compatible to KOHA

3.1 Prepare conversion table.

. Prepare CDS/ISIS=>MARC tag map file which will map ISO tags with MARC tags. For this
open, notepad and type in the following format: ISO tags i.e. CDS/ISIS FDT (left side) =>MARC21
Tags on the right side as follows:

012=>111
024=>245
025=>250
026=>260
030=>300
044=>490
050=>500
069=>650
070=>100
071=>110
072=>111
2. Export in ISO -2709 Format:

Open CDS/ISIS database. Then choose option export. In the option separator, give the subfield
separator sign (^) as shown below:

Fig 4: Export in ISO 2709 format

Then click ok button. After completing the procedure in CDS/ISIS then open the MarcEditor.
 Fig 5: MarcEditor Tool

Click on Add-Ins and select the option Special Format Translator.

Fig6: Add-Ins option

Click on the option (Special Format Translator) another window will be opened. Click on Next
button.
 Fig. 7: MarcEdit Special Translator

MarcEdit Translation window will appear. Select the option CDS/ISIS to MARC and click on Next
button

Give the saved iso file path in new window as shown below. Select advance Translation option.
Check all three options as shown in the following window.

Fig 8: MarcEdit Special Translator option

Click on Advance Translation, which will show the following table

 Fig. 9: Load Mapping

Click on load mapping and give the file name of tag mapping of CDS/ISIS =>MARC21. Tick all
check boxes. Then click OK

Now Click Process button of fig.8 and click close button of Fig. 9

Fig 9: Converted data screen

Open the the MARC Tools dialog. This can be accessed from two locations. The first by selecting
the File/MARC Tools option in the menu and the second by selecting the MARC tools Icon on the
main screen (Fig. 10 below):

Fig 10: MARC Tools dialog box

When the MARC tools Dialog open, the following option can be seen:

MARC Tools Main Window

MARC Breaker
MARC maker
MARC=>MARCXML
MARC Editor

Click on MARC Tools Main Window, which opens the following window:
 Fig. 11: MARC Tools main window

Click on MarcBreaker. In the Input file, write the location of the test.mrc created as per instruction
given in fig 9. Fill the output file as test.mrk. Click on Execute.

Open MARCEditor and open test.mrk file created recently as given in Fig. 11. Then perform the
following process:

Click on Edit
Click on Replace
Put { in Find What and a space in Replace with
Click Replace all
Put } in Find What and a space in Replace with
Click Replace all.

Now Click on File of MarcEdit

Click on Make Current File into MARC
Save the output as the finaldata.

Now MARC data can directly be imported in to KOHA Reservior through the web interface.
However, importing MARC data into KOHA throw Intranet Interface doe not create the biblio table
within KOHA. To create biblio table you have to use the bulkmarcimport.pl scrript.

The steps are as follows:

Create directory inside /usr/local/src

copy bulkmarcimport.pl and finaldata.mrk file just created into /usr/local/src/migrate

Run bulkmarcimport.pl script as follows:

[root@healthnet.org.np/]# ./bulkmarcimport.pl -d -file finaldata.mrk -n 1

The converted data will be shown as the record is converted. Then you are ready to use the
converted data from KOHA with searching and editing facility.

References

1. MarcEdit Homepage: Your Complete Free MARC Software.

http://oregonstate.edu/~reeset/marcedit/html/
2. MARC-8 environment. Character sets: part-1.
http://www.loc.gov/marc/specifications/speccharmarc8.html
3.Pakistan Library Automation Group. Manual of Library Automation.