[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] SQL help needed

[Jason Stephenson]

Quoting Mary Llewellyn <mllewell at biblio.org>:

> I see 2 ways to go: find and export all the bibs involved, delete the
> obsolete 856s in a third-party MARC editor, then load the bibs back in and
> replace the bibs in the database. Or, develop some backdoor way to remove
> the 856s using SQL, just for the one library. It helps that each library has
> a unique URL, such as http://smalltownct.oneclickdigital.com. Only trouble
> is I'm not sure how to write a query incorporating a MARC tag and a
> particular string.
>
> I'd appreciate some guidance.


Bill gives some good advice regarding using SQL to make the edits, so  
I won't repeat his advice here.

This is the sort of thing that I'd do with perl, since there is the  
nice MARC::Record module and the OpenSRF/OpenILS modules used by  
Evergreen's backend have all the routines that you need to do this.

It is also easier to test your work as you go with perl, since you can  
dump a record before and after making the change to your screen before  
you add code to update the records.

Granted neither SQL nor perl are beginner solutions, but time spent  
learning to use the OpenSRF/OpenILS libraries in perl is time well  
spent. You'll realize that there are so many things you can do to fix  
little problems in your data once you know how.

HtH,
Jason



-- 
Jason Stephenson
Assistant Director for Technology Services
Merrimack Valley Library Consortium
Chief Bug Wrangler, Evergreen ILS