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Using MARC with Your Existing MLM Data |
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We encountered some problems as we were testing the new MARC Lookup function. The MLM database we used was the one from our church. We encountered some problems because of the way we entered our material. I will give some examples of the types of problems we found. Had we been using the MARC Lookup function from the beginning we would not have had any problems.
First is with some of the author names. It is possible we did not enter the author name exactly as it appeared on the books title page. A good example is Tim Lahaye. We entered Tim Lahaye and it is displayed as Lahaye, Tim. The Library of Congress will return Lahaye, Tim F, including his middle initial. To avoid a second author record being added to the database and to overcome this problem the program looks first for the first and last name of the author. If both are found the program then will compare the middle initial returned by the MARC Lookup function and the middle initial in the MLM database. If they do not match the LC fields are used and the MLM database is corrected.
Another area that may be a problem is the series name. Another example we encountered: we entered the Left Behind series as just Left Behind. The Library of Congress has The Left Behind Series. This will create a new series record in the database. There is no easy way around this, you just have to be careful when adding new volumes for a series you know you already have in your library.
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