At UEA we moved from UKMARC to MARC21 with no problems. A colleague and
I attended a CILIP training course which was quite helpful, but we found
having used UK MARC for a long while that the concept of MARC21 caused
us no problems. The most time consuming task was altering all our
documentation.
We found everyone made the transistion quite easily.
The only things that caused us concern was whether we should continue
with specific local practices that MARC21 does not cater for.
Some we had to abandon and some we decided were too useful to our
particular needs and found ways to keep and make work with
MARC21. We found that making detailed BIB Maps of all formats, fields,
subfields and authorities was invaluable, though they took a long while
to prepare. It meant that when it came to migration we had covered
everything and had one document to refer to and check against.
Other people have referred to the problems (in conversion and in daily
practice) caused by 'subfield punctuation in the data'; weakness of
MARC21 also has a weakness in certain areas such as the 020 field (text
is not put in its own subfield, which can cause serious indexing
problems).
All things considered we found it a fairly painless, if time consuming
process
Meryl Turner
Senior Library Assistant, Systems
Library
University of East Anglia
Norwich
NR4 7TJ
Tel: 01603-593472
Mail: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Bibliographic standards in UK libraries
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Vicky Robertson
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 1:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Moving from UKMARC to MARC 21
Dear all,
At present, we catalogue items at my institution on our library
management system Unicorn in UKMARC format but have been advised to move
to MARC 21.
I would be grateful if people could let me know the following:
- If people have moved from UKMARC to MARC 21 and why they moved
- Experiences of using MARC 21
- the advantages and disadvantages of moving to MARC 21
- any hints or tips at dealing with MARC 21
Thanks very much
Vicky Robertson
School of Pharmacy Library
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