Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 16:36:51 -0700 From: Bob Pritchett <BOB@logos.com> Subject: MARC to XML to MARC To: "'usmarc@loc.gov'" <usmarc@loc.gov>
Gerry McKiernan's email about MARC and XML the other week prompted us to finish up a tool we'd been playing with.
MARCXML is a small utility that "round-trips" MARC records to well-formed XML and back. It uses a very simple XML format that isn't designed to contain any knowledge of the MARC records other than the basic structure. (IE It doesn't know what's allowed to repeat, what's obsolete, etc.) There is a small DTD, but the converter doesn't require it in order to rebuild the record.
The resulting XML file can be shown in a browser or edited in a word processor and then recompiled back into a (structurally) valid MARC record. The XML parser is built into the converter, so the whole thing runs as one small program.
A demonstration of the conversion in both directions can be run directly from our web site at http://www.logos.com/marc and the utility can be downloaded for free. We also still have the free MARCType Parser (which parses USMARC records into an annotated human-readable document) online as well as samples of our experimental MARC Report Generator/MARC Query Language.
We'd appreciate any feedback on our tools as well as suggestions on how to make them more useful. (In particular, we're curious if anyone thinks the MARC Query Language would be useful as the foundation of a MARC find/replace utility....)
Also, we've recently set up a resources/links sharing site about digital libraries and related technologies at http://www.digitallibrary.net which may be of interest.
Thanks!
-- Bob
Bob Pritchett -- bob@logos.com Logos Research Systems, Inc. 715 SE Fidalgo Avenue - Oak Harbor, WA 98277-4049 (360) 679-6575 - Fax (360) 675-8169 - http://www.logos.com