Skip to main content
OCLC Support

How do I extract specific MARC records from a MARC file using MarcEdit

Symptom
  •  I have a file of MARC records, I want to extract a specific MARC record or a subset of MARC records from the file.  
  •  If you have the local system numbers/ISBN/ISSN/OCLC Numbers or the titles of the records you want to extract you can use MarcEdit to search large files, batch select the specific records, and send them to a separate file.
Applies to
  • WorldCat Collection Manager
Resolution

If you have the LSN/ISBN/ISSN/OCLC Numbers or the titles of the records you want to extract you can use MarcEdit to search the files, batch select the specific records and send them to a separate file.

Overview

  1. Create a text file that contains information about the titles you are seeking.
  • The file should have one search string per line (no arrow brackets):
  • <ISBN>
  • <ISSN>
  • <THIS IS THE TITLE>
  • <OCLC NUMBER>
  1. Import the file of records you want to extract into MarcEdit** 
  2. Enter the path to the text file that MARCEdit will run against the .mrc file.
  3. Extract just those matched records to a file. MarcEdit may default to a .mrk file. It is recommended you change this to a .mrc file.

Steps

  1. Open MarcEdit
  2. Access Tools > Select MARC Records > Extract Selected Records
  3. Click the yellow folder at the bottom of the box with Source MARC File:
  4. Choose the file you wish to search
  5. Click Import File
    1. You should now see all of the records in the file displayed in the pane. You can set the Display field to the field you want. This defaults to the 245$a but you might want it to be something else depending on your purposes.
  6. Set the Search drop-down to File*
  7. Specify the path to the file of search terms you created earlier in the search text box just to the right of the: FILE#: label
  8. Click on the Magnifying Glass button to the right of the search field.
  9. Click on the Export Selected button to export the records found with your search terms file.

* Note: If you wish to export records with/without a certain field, instead of choosing "File" on step 6, choose "Field" instead, and type the desired field into the box. Then, you can invert your selection to find all records without that field if needed. Finally, export selected as in step 9.

 

Additional information

Download MarcEdit

Demonstration of Extracting Files

**MarcEdit is not owned by OCLC, it is a free utility used by many libraries.

 

Page ID
37121