Data Exchange from WINISIS to KOHA: Practical Overview

Ram Prasad Mazumder

Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan e-mail:- mazumdar_ram@yahoo.co.in

Abstract
This article is practical experience based. It tries to focus the spotlight on procedure to convert the data from WINISIS to KOHA through MarcEditor 5.1 GUI based conversion tools. It also focuses on the features of the MarcEditor tools. This article will be helpful to those who are trying to convert their library database from WINISIS to KOHA Marc format. And they can easily move towards open source software and web based system.

1.

Introduction:Most of the libraries maintain their library database in Machine Readable

Catalogue format like CCF, ISO-2709 MARC-21 etc. There should be a simple process to exchange the data from any format to other format for resource sharing. Till now most of the library using CDS/ISIS (WINISIS) database management software. CDS/ISIS (WINISIS) is structural non-numerical database management software. The standard used in data entry form in CDS/ISIS (WINISIS) is CCF format (Common Communication Format). Many libraries like to introduce the KOHA open source integrated software. And there should be simple process to convert their CDS/ISIS (WINISIS) database to KOHA. In KOHA data entry form is used MARC-21 format. The data of CDS/ISIS (WINISIS) is not compatible with KOHA. So third party is required to convert the data from CDS/ISIS (WINISIS) to KOHA. A GUI (Graphics User Interface) based MarcEdit third party software is available for such conversion.

2. Software Requirement for exchange the data form CDS/ISIS (WINISIS) to Koha:1. CDS/ISIS (WINISIS) 2. MarcEdit 5.1 3. KOHA

3. Features of MarcEdit:The following features can be noted.

3.1 Editing:For editing the data MarcEdit includes the Marc Tool which contains the Following:

MarcBreaker MarcMaker MARC=>MARC21XML MARC21XML=>MARC

MarcEdit provided the mechanism to convert the *.iso data to MARC format and to edit the MARC record.

3.2 Unicode support:It is Unicode compatible. It helps to convert the data to MARC-8 and UTF-8. It can read and write Unicode characters.

3.3 Export/Import:It provides the facilities to export and import the data in MARC format.

4. System requirement for MarcEdit 5.1 software:

Operating System: Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP (32 & 64 bit), Vista (32 + 64 bit), Windows 7, Server 2003, 2007, etc.

RAM: Disk space:

8 MB (minimum); 32 MB+ (recommended) 20 MB (setup); 5 MB (application) Windows Requirements: Primary Windows Requirement is the presence of . NET 2.0+.

Steps for exchange of CDS/ISIS (WINISIS) data to KOHA (MARC21 format):There are two main steps to data exchange from WINISIS to KOHA. 1 2 Transfer the data from WINISIS format (CCF) to MARC21 format. Transfer the MARC21data to KOHA database.

5.1 Step.1:- (Transfer the data from WINISIS format (CCF) to MARC21
Format) First it is necessary to observe the WINISIS FDT (Field Definition Table) file to detect the field tags for preparing the CDS/ISIS=>MARC21 tag map file.

Figur:-1

( FDT table of WINISIS Database )

Primarily we have to match ISO tags with MARC21 tags in the notepad in the following format. ISO tags (left side) MARC21 tags on the right side 100=>020 200=>245 300=>100 400=>260 460=>300 480=>440 500=>306 610=>082 900=>952

5.1.1 Export WINISIS data in ISO-2709 format:Open WINISIS database. Choose export option and use (^) sign in the sub field separator text box as shown below:-

Figur:-2 (Export window of WINISIS ) Then click the O.K. Button and save the *.iso file in C:\winisis\work directory. Structure of ISO format data is given bellow.

Figur:-3 (Structure of ISO format data)

5.1.2 Convert the ISO data to MARC format through MarcEditor:After making the ISO file open the MarcEditor 5.1.

Figur:-4 (MarcEdit 5.1 by Terry Reese) Click on Add-ins menu bar and select the CDS-ISIS.iso=>MARC Translation and click on that option and another window will open.

Figur:-5 (Add-ins & CDS-ISIS.iso=> MARC Translation ) In the user input form write down the actual address of the *.iso file like C:\winisis\work\*.iso as a input file and write down the actual path where the *.mrc file will be saved as a output file like:- C:\xx\*.mrc. Put (^) sign on the text box of sub field marker and click on Advance Translation.

Figur:-6 ( CDS-ISIS.iso=> MARC Translation ) After clicking the Advance Translation the following window will open. And copy and paste the previously matched tags with the Marc tags and open the check boxes (Add indicators, Correct LDRs and Add leading sub field) and click OK button.

Figur:-7

( Advanced Option for Tag Mapping )

After matching the tags click OK button of CDS-ISIS.iso=>MARC Translation. It will convert the * .iso file to * .mrc file. Screen shot of *.mrc file is given bellow.

Figur:-8 (Sample of *.mrc file )

Next click on the *.mrc file it will open the Marc Tools new window and then select the source file of *.mrc as an input file and output file as * .mrk. Address of output file is changeable.

Figur:-9 (MARC tool for conversion the *.mrc to *.mrk format ) Then click on Execute button and it will automatically convert the *.mrc file to *.mrk file to the particular address. Format of *.mrk data is given bellow.

Figur:-10 (Sample of *.mrk format )

Next open the *.mrk file and edit and replace where it is required and save it as final .mrk file. Then open the Marc Maker tools and write down the actual path of the *.mrk file in the input file and write down the destination path of the *.mrk file in the output file and open the check boxes of MarcMaker and Translate to UTF-8 to convert the simple MARC21 format to MARC-UTF-8 format. And then click on execute button.

Figur:-11 (MARC tool for MarcMaker & UTF-8 format data structure is given bellow.

UTF-8 translator )

Figur:-12(Sample of Marc UTF-8 format)

Now the UTF-8 format data is ready to convert in KOHA. For the conversion of the above data we can use bulkmarcimport.pl script, which is a small script to import the MARC21 data to KOHA.

5.2 Step.2:- (Transfer the MARC21data to KOHA database)

First create the folder, migrate inside the /usr/local/src and paste bulkmarcimport.pl and finaldata.mrk (UTF-8) files in the following directory C:\usr\local\src\migrate and Run the bulkmarcimport.pl script in the command line as follows: C:\usr\local\src\migrate> Perl bulkmarcimport.pl d file C:\usr\local\src\migrate\ finaldata.mrk n 1 The script automatically imports the MARC21 data to KOHA. The screen shot of data import process is given bellow.

Figur:-13 (Screen shot of process to transfer the data to KOHA ) After complete these jobs we can search, edit, update and delete the data through KOHA interface. Sample of transferred data from WINISIS to KOHA database is given bellow:-

10

Figur:-14 (Sample of transferred data from WINISIS to KOHA )

6. Conclusion:Many libraries are using WINISIS software for creating their library database. Now recent trend to use open source software and web based system, most of the libraries like to move towards this new system. KOHA is one of them open source, web-based software. But existing data created in the WINISIS software are creating the problem to move towards new system. So this article focuses on the solution of that problem and explains step by step to convert the WINISIS data to KOHA-Marc format data.

Acknowledgement:I am thankful to Dr.Mohan Raj Pradhan, Member Secretary HelthNet Nepal and Lecturer, Central Dept. of Library and Information Science, who help me to do this job.

11

References:1. CDS/ISIS for Windows ; Available at < http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.phpURL_ID=5330&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html> (accessed 1st July 2009). 2. Converting CDS-IsIS Database records to KOHA ; Available at < http://www.scribd.com/doc/13073150/Converting-CDSIsIS-Database-Recordsto-KOHA> (accessed 10th June, 2009). 3. MARCEdit Homepage : YourComplete free MARC editing utility; Available at < http://oregonstate.edu/~reeset/marcedit/html/index.php> (accessed 18th July, 2009). 4. Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x86); Available at < http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=79BC3B77-E02C4AD3-AACF-A7633F706BA5&displaylang=en> (accessed 5th July, 2009).

12