Copying a Variable-length Field

Choose Copy variable-length field from the Choose Command Type dialog box to open the Copy a Variable-length Field dialog box.

Global Update uses the data you enter in the Find text boxes to identify the field in the selected records to copy to the field specified by the Add text boxes.

To copy variable-length field data:

  1. In the Find text boxes, enter the field group tag, MARC tag, indicators, and data that define the field you want to copy. The system copies only the fields in the selected records that meet all of the specified criteria.
Using Special Characters in the Find MARC Tag Data Field

You can use special characters in the Find MARC Tag data field:

  • Use commas to separate multiple tags, for example, 240,245.
  • Use a hyphen to enter a range of tags, for example, 700-730.
  • Use wild cards to specify a family of MARC tags. The characters 'X', 'x', '?', '*', or '.' are valid. Enter a wild card character at any position in the MARC tag, up to two wild cards per tag. For example, 5** designates all MARC tags in the 500s, including 500, 535, 590, and so forth.
  1. In the Add data text boxes, identify the destination field for the copy.
  2. Choose the Use Displayed Field, Match Case, Match Whole Field, and Match Whole Subfield check boxes as desired.
  3. After specifying the Find and Add criteria, choose OK to close the dialog box and return to the Command input tab. The command you created appears as a single line, for example:

The command row includes a Command column and an Action column. The Command column indicates the type of command you specified. (Copy = copy variable-length field.) The Action column indicates the copy target field criteria and the destination criteria in the format target criteria ==> destination criteria. MARC tags appear in parentheses and indicators appear in brackets. A wild card character or word, such as a period ('.'), an equal sign ('='), or <any>, may represent some data fields with unspecified (default) content. Selected options check boxes appear as a letter following a slash at the end of the command:

f Use Displayed Field
w Match Whole Field
c Match Case
s Match Whole Subfield

In the example above, Global Update identifies selected records with a 245 MARC tag in the 't' field group and copies the content of that field to the 'u' field group, MARC tag 222. For example:

t - "24500|aCalifornia Street."
copies as
u - "22200|aCalifornia Street."
  1. To create more change commands, see Creating Commands for Changing Records. Choose the Preview tab to view the effects of your commands. Choose the Process button in the Preview tab to apply the changes.

Options Check Boxes

The following check boxes appear in the Copy Variable-length Field dialog box. Select (check) the check boxes to enable the following options.

Use Displayed Field
If you retrieved records using an index search, the specified changes apply to all fields corresponding to the displayed field on the Select Records tab regardless of the MARC tag of the field in which the search term occurs. Other limiting specifications on the command input tab can affect the result. For example, a search of the author index may retrieve records in which an author appears both as a personal name main entry (MARC 100) and as a personal name added entry (MARC 700). If you check the Use Displayed Field check box and enter no other command specifications, Global Update changes both the 100 and 700 fields. Be sure to review the Preview tab list to confirm your results before processing.
If you retrieved records using an Advanced Word Search or a review file, the specified changes apply to the field appearing in the browse list of the Select Records tab. For bibliographic records, Global Update displays the Title field by default. To display a different field in the browse list as the target for change, toggle to the desired field.
Match Whole Field
Information in the Find Data text box must match the entire field or Global Update makes no change.
Match Case
The text case of the information in the Find Data text box must match the text case found in the corresponding record field or Global Update makes no change.
Match Whole Subfield
Information in the Find Data text box must match the entire subfield or Global Update makes no change.