Improving MARC Records and Using Z-Import to import records into OPALS

Refer to the Preferred MARC Record sheet and the Recommendations of the Standards Committee sheet when cataloging items.

There are several sites from which you can download good MARC records (e.g. Library of Congress, OhioLINK, New York Public Library). But you must first add the site to your list of Z3950 servers:

  1. Go to Administration  Preferences  Z39.50 Servers.
  2. Click Addat the bottom of the screen.
  3. To add the LOC site, enter the Host, Port, Name, Syntax, Encoding, etc. exactly as shown in the screen shot below.

  1. Click Save. Your list of Z3950 servers should look similar to the list below.
    You can add other servers for MARC records using the Host, Port, Name and Syntax settings shown below:

To import a record from the Library of Congress:

  1. Go to Items  Z-import.
  2. Pull down the list of library sites to the left of the “anywhere” box and select the Library of Congress.

  1. Pull down the “anywhere” box and select ISBN.
  2. Click in the Keyword box and type the book’s ISBN or scan the ISBN with your barcode scanner.
  3. Click Search. The title of the item displays as a blue underlined link.
  1. Click the title to display the MARC record.
  2. Check that the record has information in all the fields as shown on the Preferred MARC Record sheet. Include a good Summary in 520, a Contents note in 505 if available, and at least three 650 Subject Headings.
    If these fields are empty, you may be able to find good information at:

1)WorldCat OCLC FirstSearch ( your login/password is on your pink sheet

2)Follett Titlewave (

3)Michigan eLibrary (

Note: You can copy and paste information from one of those MARC records into fields in your record, but you cannot download MARC records from these sites.

For example, if the record that you import doesn’t have a Summary in 520#a, you can copy and paste a Summary from FirstSearch or Titlewave into your MARC record in OPALS:

  1. To copy text from Titlewave:

1)Hold down the mouse button and drag to select the text that you want:

2)Right-click your mouse and select Copy:

3)Click in the corresponding field in your OPALS MARC record.

4)Right-click your mouse and select Paste.

  1. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the MARC record and enter information in the 852 subfields, including your barcode in 852#p.

  1. Click Save. The MARC record for that item is now in your catalog.

PM 01/27/101