Copying MARC Records
You can locate bibliographic or authority records in remote databases (such as the Polaris ZMARC database) and copy them into the Polaris database. To search a remote database, it must be configured in Polaris Administration and identified for your organization in the Search Database policy table. See Controlling Database Access in the Staff Client. To subscribe to the Polaris ZMARC database, contact your Polaris Site Manager.
If you want to remove specific MARC tags from remote records when they are saved to your library’s local database, the tags must be defined in the Bibliographic Tags to Retain/Delete policy table, and the Delete MARC tags when saving Z39.50 records to local database profile must be set to Yes. See Deleting MARC Tags from Incoming Bibs.
To copy bibliographic or authority control records from a remote database:
Important:
When you are copying records, you should always check for potential duplicates that may exist in your database, and you should check the format and headings.
- From the Polaris Shortcut Bar, select Cataloging and select Bibliographic Records or Authority Records
The Polaris Find Tool appears.
- In the Search by box, select the access point by which to find the record.
Note:
You can search for a 10-digit or 13-digit ISBN. The search process checks for a matching ISBN in the 020 tag and in the 024 tag with a 3 in the first indicator.
- Select the type of search in the Type box.
Note:
The target database may not allow some of the Find Tool search types. Many remote catalogs support only keyword searches. Also, sorting search results may not work with remote databases. See Results Returned from Remote Databases.
- Type the description of the item in the For box.
Note:
Implicit truncation is not supported when searching remote databases. End the search for text with the wild card symbol (*) if you are unsure of an exact match. For example, type Asimov, Isaac*.
- Select Databases to display the remote databases.
- Select the check box next to the remote database or databases you want to search.
- Click Search to start the catalog search.
A dialog box appears with a list of the bibliographic records in the selected database that match your query.
- Double-click the record, or right-click and select Open from the context menu.
The selected record appears in the Bibliographic Record or the Authority Record workform. The Record status and Control Number boxes are blank because this record does not yet belong to your Polaris catalog.
- Do the following checks as needed:
Note:
These checks are automatically done when you save the record as final. You do not necessarily need to do these checks as part of your workflow.
- To check for duplicate records, select Tools > Check For Duplicates (see Checking for Duplicate Records).
- To check authority headings, select Tools > Check Headings on the Bibliographic Record workform or Tools > Check See Also From References on the Authority Record workform. See Checking Authority Headings for detailed instructions on checking headings.
- To check MARC format, select Tools > Check MARC21 Format. See Checking MARC Format for detailed instructions on using this tool.
- Make changes to the record as needed.
- Select File > Save, press CTRL+S, or click
to save your record.
Polaris checks the MARC 21 format and headings, and checks for any duplicate records. If no errors are found, Record was saved successfully appears in the status bar. If any problems are listed, correct the problems as directed by your library cataloging policy to finish saving the record. When the record is saved, a control number and record status are assigned automatically.
Results Returned from Remote Databases
| Most Likely to Return Results | May Not Be Indexed in Target Catalog (Less Likely to Return results) |
|---|---|
|
All indexed fields (both searches) |
CODEN |
| Author (bibliographic search) | Dewey Classification |
| Heading (authority search) | General Notes |
| ISBN (bibliographic search) | Genre |
| ISSN (bibliographic search) | Gov Doc Classification |
| LCCN (both searches) | LC Classification |
| Series (bibliographic search) | NAL Classification |
| Subject (bibliographic search) | NLC Classification |
| Title (bibliographic search) | NLM Classification |
| Tracing/Reference (authority) | Other system control number |
| Publisher | |
| Publisher's Number | |
| STRN | |
| UDC Classification |
Related Information
- Set up a remote database target - See Set up a server record for a Z39.50 or other search server.
- Polaris ZMARC - Innovative Interfaces offers a subscription to the Polaris ZMARC database that gives you access to over 11 million bibliographic records and 7 million authority records cataloged by the Library of Congress. Innovative Interfaces sets up ZMARC as a Z39.50 target in Polaris Administration. You can select the ZMARC databases from the list of established targets on the Database tabbed page of the Polaris Find Tool. After ZMARC is established as a remote database that you can search, you can set it up for a source of authority records for automatic authority control. See Checking Authority Headings.