[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Importing Bibliographic Information

Tue Oct 23 10:45:25 EDT 2007

On 15/10/2007, Dan Scott <denials at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 15/10/2007, Sperr, Edwin <sperr at nelinet.net> wrote:
> >
> > Don --
> >
> > Could you provide any more details on the item import process?  I'm
> > looking at holdings info in the standard OCLC scheme, but I don't know
> > how to translate the holding codes into EG branches.   Is it just a
> > matter of setting a flag on import?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Ed Sperr
> > Program Director, Digital Solutions
> > NELINET, Inc.
> > 153 Cordaville Rd. Suite 200  Southborough, MA
> > sperr at nelinet.net
> > (508) 597-1931  |  (800) 635-4638 x1931
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org
> > [mailto: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf
> > Of
> > Don McMorris
> > Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 10:33 AM
> > To: kcollier at kent.lib.md.us; open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org
> > Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Importing Bibliographic Information
> >
> > Karen et al:
> >
> > As Deanna said, MARC21 tag 852 is for item holdings.  The LC site has
> > some explanation of this at
> > http://www.loc.gov/marc/holdings/echdloca.html.
> >
> > If your current ILS can export data into the standard MARC format with
> > holdings information stored in this standard way, Evergreen can import
> > it.  Bulk imports (generally) take place using a script at the command
> > shell.  This script can be customized to adapt to your current vendors'
> > verison of "standard".
> >
> >
> > As far as patron information, most ILS vendors don't follow /the/
> > standard MARC21 Community Information records
> > (http://www.loc.gov/marc/community/eccihome.html).  However, they can
> > usually export in /some kind of/ standard (such as
> > tab/comma/space-delimited ASCII database).
> >
> > Transactions... Current transactions should be importable (again,
> > depends on how they are exported from your existing ILS).  Statistical
> > information should be included on the bibliographic information, and
> > thus importable.  In general, if the data can be exported in an open
> > format, it can be imported into Evergreen.
> >
> >
> > Regarding your question of import success... In the 2006 PINES migration
> > to Evergreen, millions (billions?) of bib, item, and patron records were
> >
> > successfully imported.
> >
> >
> > There are some example scripts in the source tree for importing data.
> > If you'd rather 'outsource' your data import, companies like Equinox
> > Software Inc. have much experience importing data like this.
> >
> > Hope this answers more questions than it makes ;).  If you have any
> > more, please don't hesitate to contact the list again.
> >
> > Sincerely Yours,
> >
> > --Don McMorris
> >
> > On 7/25/07, Karen Collier < kcollier at kent.lib.md.us> wrote:
> > > Deanna,
> > >
> > > Thank you for replying.  That's great to hear it has been done
> > successfully!
> > > If you find any more details about how he did it, I would love to
> > hear.
> > > Meanwhile, I'll pass that info about field 852 along to my coworker,
> > > and we'll see what we can do with it.  :)
> > >
> > > Out of curiosity, have you had any success yet with importing patron
> > > and/or transaction information?  Has anyone else?  We're not at that
> > > point yet, but we're looking ahead and wondering.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Karen
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Deanna Frazee [mailto:dfrazee at ci.killeen.tx.us]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 1:44 PM
> > > To: kcollier at kent.lib.md.us ;
> > > open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org
> > > Subject: RE: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Importing Bibliographic Information
> > >
> > > Karen,
> > >
> > > We exported 10,000 of our bib and item records from Horizon and loaded
> >
> > > them successfully to a test of Evergreen.  I know he had some problems
> >
> > > initially, but it looked great when it was done.  Basically, he just
> > > transferred the item information to one of the 800 tags; for some
> > > reason, I'm thinking it was 852.
> > >
> > > Deanna Frazee
> > > Killeen City Library System
> > > (254) 501-8995
> > > (254) 501-7704 (fax)
> > > dfrazee at ci.killeen.tx.us
> > >
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org
> > > [mailto:open-ils-
> > > > general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org ] On Behalf Of Karen
> > > > Collier
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 12:27 PM
> > > > To: open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org
> > > > Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Importing Bibliographic Information
> > > >
> > > > I found a page in the Wiki on Importing Bibliographic Records
> > > > http://open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=evergreen-
> > > > admin:importing:bibrecord
> > > > s
> > > >
> > > > It looks like good information, but there's a point not yet covered
> > > that
> > > > my
> > > > coworker and I were wondering about.  Specifically it states:
> > > >
> > > > "You can add a copy manually through the staff client via the
> > > > Holdings maintenance screen, but if you're bulk-importing MARC
> > > > records you
> > > probably
> > > > want to bulk load the associated copies, call numbers, and barcodes
> > > > as well.
> > > > To be written - sorry!"
> > > >
> > > > Our question is, can you import copies, call numbers, locations, etc
> >
> > > in
> > > > bulk?  Our existing ILS (Horizon) will let us export our MARC
> > > > Records
> > > and
> > > > holdings info together, but the question is what to do with this,
> > > > and
> > > will
> > > > the instructions from the wiki page above still apply, or how would
> > > they
> > > > differ?
> > > >
> > > > Going through thousands of bib records one at a time, adding
> > > > holdings
> > > info
> > > > is just not practical, so I'm sure there's got to be a better way.
> > > Any
> > > > guidance is appreciated.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Karen
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > >
> > > > Karen Collier
> > > > Public Services Librarian
> > > > Kent County Public Library
> > > > 408 High Street
> > > > Chestertown, MD 21620
> > > > 410-778-3636
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
> Edwin:
>
> I've been scuttling towards this, crab-like.
>
> Thus far, the closest I've got is to follow the documented "importingbibliographic records" process to populate all of the
> biblio.record_entry & metabib.* tables, then use a slightly hacked version
> of the import_holdings.pl script in the Evergreen/src/extras/import
> directory to populate the asset.call_number and asset."copy" fields.
>
> When I get the hacked version of the script working, I'll commit it to the
> repository and further document the process. My primary downfall at this
> point seems to be that my metabib.rec_descriptor table, which is supposed
> to be populated as part of the currently documented "importingbibliographic records" process, is empty. So I'm pretty close.
>
> --
> Dan Scott
> Laurentian University

Well, I got import_holdings.pl working for a set of our Unicorn-exported
data, have committed the results to the Subversion repository trunk, and
updated the basic instructions at
http://open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=evergreen-admin:importing:bibrecords

The import_holdings.pl approach is still pretty brittle, but should work
reasonably well for a Unicorn library. Part of the challenge, I think, is
that the MARC holdings format is unnecessarily complex for basic monograph
items (spreading information around between 852 and 876 fields, for
example), so I can't really blame vendors for reinventing the wheel.

Mike has suggested that a simpler and more generically applicable approach
would be to create two staging tables, load the volume and copy information
into those tables, then propagate the information to the asset schema
tables. At this point, I think I need to either see an example before I can
write anything up on this alternate approach, or take a break - my head is
pounding :)

-- 
Dan Scott
Laurentian University
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