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MS Access databases



Bonita

For moving strings of text, such as those exported from Access, to
the Marc Communications format, I recommend the program Data Magician
published by Folland. I've used the Data Magician to migrate files from
dBase, Access, and comma delimited files, such as those exported by
Pro-Cite, to Inmagic db/Textworks import format and Marc communications
format. I have not moved records from Access to Marc because I've never
kept bibliographic records in an Access database.  A functional,
demonstraton version of Data Magician is available for download at
http://www.folland.com.

The downside of Data Magician: it is an MS/ DOS program, with a learning
curve. The upside is that, correctly configured, Data Magician will move
data between formats with remarkable flexibility. It is a great tool for
information professionals who migrate bibliographic data on a regular
basis.

Another way to achieve similar results, probably with more work, is a free
program called MarcMakr, available from the Library of Congress website,
http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/marcutil.html.  MarcMakr will input a precisely
formatted comma delimited file and output a valid Marc Communications
file. A companion program called MarcBrakr will input a Marc
Communications file and output a comma delimited file of the type needed
by MarcMakr.

Since I purchased Data Magician before encountering MarcMakr and
MarcBrakr, I've never used the free programs to do any real work.  The
input requirements of MarcMakr translate to extensive massaging of the
text file one might export from Access. Data Magician can automate or
eliminate that massaging. (MarcMakr is also a DOS program. It will run
under Win95 but not under NT.)

If the libraries and historical societies using Access were to submit
cataloging records to your agency in a standard comma delimited format,
with fields in an order defined to your specification, you could probably
work out a Marc translation routine in a few hours.  However, if data were
submitted with the fields in different sequences, and some fields missing,
it might be more efficient to forget about migration software and instead
cut and paste the records into a MARC data entry window of your local
system or bibliographic utility.

Steven Johnson
Librarian and archivist
Wildlife Conservation Society
sjohnson@wcs.org

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