Wikicat Import Function/MARC Import
The MARC Import feature of the Wikicat Import Function allows bibliographic data in MARC-flavored formats to be imported into Wikicat. In particular, it allows data from the open catalogs (OPACs) of such institutions as the Library of Congress and the National Library of Medicine to be imported into Wikicat.
Functionality
editFormat Support
editThe import function only directly supports the MARC 21 record format as this is the most commonly used among major open catalog (OPAC) servers. MARC 21 is only 1 among a family of related MARC formats, however. While obviously similar to one another, the differences between them are major enough to make supporting formats besides MARC 21 a major undertaking. The import function will thus make indirect use of the Universal MARC Record Convertor software developed by the British Library to convert all incoming formats to MARC 21.
Currently no MARC format supports Wikicat's 4-tier FRBR-derived data model, though it is still possible to create sufficiently-populated Wikicat entries based on such flavors as MARC 21. In particular, OCLC and the Library of Congress have performed an extensive analysis of MARC 21 and FRBR and come up with an algorithm for reliably determining the Work for each particular Manifestation (the FRBR entity traditional bibliographic record formats describe). This is the basis of the OCLC's xISBN service. Reliably discerning the particular Expression of each record has been found by a case study to be impossible, however.
OPAC Router
editTechnical Details
editPHP Libraries
editThe MARC Import Function requires the activation of the PHP/YAZ extension within the PHP engine executing Mediawiki. PHP/YAZ in turn requires the Yaz Toolkit when compiling from source.
Proxy
editFormat Mappings
edit- see MARC21 Mappings for the mapping between MARC21 and the Wikicat datamodel
List of OPAC Targets
editThe import function will fetch from multiple targets (see List of Wikicat OPAC Targets).