USEMARCON MARC converter

Hi,

At the recent ZIG meeting in Boston Spa, some of you were interested in the
MARC conversion software, USEMARCON, which has been made available by the
British Library. I've included some background information and a link to the
pages on the BL website for downloading.

USEMARCON is a software application that allows users to convert
bibliographic records from one MAchine-Readable Cataloguing (MARC) format to
another e.g. UKMARC to UNIMARC. A European Union funded project was
successfully completed in 1997 with the development of the USEMARCON (User
Controlled Generic MARC Converter) software. The software was designed as a
toolbox-style application, allowing users with detailed knowledge of the
source and target MARC formats to develop rules governing the behaviour of
the conversion. Rules files may be supplemented by additional tables for
more accurate conversion of MARC-specific character sets or coded
information. The tables and rules files are simple ASCII text files and can
be created using any standard text editor such as MS Windows Notepad.

USEMARCON Plus
The British Library has since further developed the USEMARCON application.
This work was carried out on behalf of the Library by Crossnet Systems
Limited. In co-operation with CERL (the Committee of European Research
Librarians) the application was further enhanced. Following the completion
of this phase of development, the British Library is making the USEMARCON
Plus program and the related USEMARCON Plus Developers' Kit available as
unsupported freeware. The application is available as an executable program
for 32bit MS Windows operating systems and as a source code package for both
32bit MS Windows and Linux operating systems. 

The British Library is making the new software and related documentation
available free of charge to users and application developers in order to
promote usage of USEMARCON. Potential users are, however, asked to complete
a freeware licence to cover the use of the software. The British Library
will not be maintaining the software though it may be able to provide
consultancy services for the development of specific conversion rules. For
further information or to download the software please see

http://www.bl.uk/services/bsds/nbs/usemarcon/usemarcon.html

__________________________________________________

Jan Ashton, Research & Development Officer
National Bibliographic Service, The British Library
Boston Spa, Wetherby, W. Yorkshire, ENGLAND LS23 7BQ

E-mail: jan.ashton@bl.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1937 546603
Fax: +44 (0)1937 546586
__________________________________________________






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Received on Wednesday, 17 October 2001 07:01:43 UTC