pds
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I hope this is the right place to go with this. I am not getting a lot of response at other sites about my problem. I hope you helpful folks may have a clue that I could follow up.
I am installing an opensource library automation service at my school's library here in Cairo. I'm using openbiblio if you are wondering - seems ok, at least for my modest needs. (BTW installing it on my iBook was a snap, but it took over thirty hours to get it going on the AMD box at school.)
The library is a mess, old crappy volumes that should hit the trash bin, but we have no money to replace the books.
My problem is where to find MARC records for all our books. I have found lots of sites that will sell me marc records for 30 to 85 cents a copy, but that comes to a large chunk of change considering the whole library - keeping in mind that we are going with a free program - i.e. no money
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I'm not a librarian (we don't have one). From what I've learned about MARC, it's a simple task to create records from card catalogs, we could just type them up - if we had a card catalog! I told you the place is a mess. So as long as I have to create records from scratch I figure it's best to do it right. I can get most of the records for hardcovers from the Library of Congress and a few other edu sites. It is tedious, but doable. The problem is LOC doesn't seem to list paperbacks and they account for 70 percent of my bibliography.
*cuts to the chase*
Any hint about where to find free MARC records for paperbacks?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
I am installing an opensource library automation service at my school's library here in Cairo. I'm using openbiblio if you are wondering - seems ok, at least for my modest needs. (BTW installing it on my iBook was a snap, but it took over thirty hours to get it going on the AMD box at school.)
The library is a mess, old crappy volumes that should hit the trash bin, but we have no money to replace the books.
My problem is where to find MARC records for all our books. I have found lots of sites that will sell me marc records for 30 to 85 cents a copy, but that comes to a large chunk of change considering the whole library - keeping in mind that we are going with a free program - i.e. no money
. I'm not a librarian (we don't have one). From what I've learned about MARC, it's a simple task to create records from card catalogs, we could just type them up - if we had a card catalog! I told you the place is a mess. So as long as I have to create records from scratch I figure it's best to do it right. I can get most of the records for hardcovers from the Library of Congress and a few other edu sites. It is tedious, but doable. The problem is LOC doesn't seem to list paperbacks and they account for 70 percent of my bibliography.
*cuts to the chase*
Any hint about where to find free MARC records for paperbacks?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.