Using MarcEdit to Search and Download Records from Alma

Owned by Thomas Ventimiglia
Last updated: Sept 02, 2021 by Minjie Chen

Initial Setup

1) After opening MarcEdit, open the Z39.50/SRU Client Utility by either selecting the icon or menu option from the home screen (see screenshot below).

2) The client window will open.  From the Action menu, select Add New Z39.50 Server

3) Configure the settings as shown in the screenshot below, then click Save.

4) This will return you to the main dialog.  Be sure the Retrieve Unicode box is checked.  Then, click Select Database, select the Princeton Alma Z39.50 DB you just created, then click Select.  Your client is now set up to search the Princeton Alma catalog.

Standard Search

The client allows you to search the catalog with one or two search keys connected with a Boolean operator (AND, OR, or NOT).  The example below shows a combined title/author search.  After entering the search keys and selecting the appropriate indexes, click Search.  If you only want to use one search key, you may simply leave the other one blank.

After the search is complete, the Results pane will populate with the results.  Double-click on any individual result to view the full record.  You can also click Download All Items which will prompt you for a filename and then download all records to that file.  Another option is to select one or more records (you can select multiple using the CTRL or SHIFT keys), then right-click and select Download Selected Items to download the records you selected.

There are ways to perform more complex searches as well - please contact Tom Ventimiglia (tventimi@princeton.edu) for further details.

Batch Search

The Batch Search option allows you load a file of identifiers and perform the same search for each one.  For example, you could search for all ISBNs or MMS_IDs in a list and download all the results to a file.  The list must be in plain text (TXT) format with one identifier per line.  To perform this search, check the Batch Search option below the search boxes.  The second search box will go away and a folder icon will appear.  Clicking this icon will allow you to select the text file with identifiers.  You can then use the drop down menu to the left of the search box to indicate what kind of identifier is in the file.  (Use Record Number for MMS_IDs or OCLC IDs).

After selecting the file, click the Search button.  Rather than populating the search results window, you will simply be prompted for the name of a file to download the results to. 

Downloaded Records

For either the standard or batch search, when you download records, they will be saved in binary MARC format (MRC).  You will need to re-open the saved file in MarcEdit and convert it to Mnemonic format (MRK) to actually view the records in the MarcEditor.

The records retrieved via Z39.50 are identical to the bibliographic records found in Alma with one exception: If a record has attached holdings data, then the 852 field from each holdings record will be appended to the bibliographic record.  This is true even if the bibliographic record already has an 852 field.

Resource

Ex Libris > How To Use The MarcEdit Integration To Edit Records In Batch