Most of these utilities are meant for simple and straightforward MARC record changes. For more complex situations, we recommend using one of our Mitinet services or manually modifying records in Alexandria or via a text editor.

Use(s)

If an author or series name is commonly misspelled, you can add another MARC tag with the misspelling. That way, the title will still show up in Researcher results even if the search criteria are misspelled.

Use(s)

Run this utility to change your series titles. For example, if you wanted to change a series title from "The Hunger Games trilogy" to "The Hunger Games," you would enter these options before running the utility:

• Change Tag_Subfield: 830_a
• From: The Hunger Games trilogy
• To: The Hunger Games

Use(s)

Run this utility to standardize all of your series' volumes, which will make it easier for patrons to find what they're looking for in Researcher. Here's an example of how you could run this utility to standardize the volume numbers of your Harry Potter series:

• Selections – Titles in the Series: Harry Potter
• Options – Add Volume Prefix: HP
• Results: HP 001, HP 002, HP 003, etc.

Data Conversions

How will your old volume numberings convert? Here are some before and after examples using the prefix "Book." Examples that don't convert well are in pink, and the ones that don't change are in blue.

Researcher uses the 655_a tag to display and search by genre, so it's important to have genres listed there. The 650_v tag is sometimes used for genre but is considered outdated.

Use(s)

Run this utility if you have imported new MARC records that only list the genre in the 650_v tag. 

Selections

Alexandria uses the 830 tag for series searches in Researcher, so it's important for your series information to be in that tag.

Use(s)

Run this utility if you have imported new MARC records with series information in the 490 tag instead of the 830 tag.

Selections

There aren't any selections or options, so it will run on all of your titles.

Use(s)

Run this utility to identify areas in your MARC records that can be improved with a Mitinet cleanup 

Selections

Accessing the Diagnostics Report

Although the process is generally fast, it could take up to 24 hours to receive your report. To find it, go to  Operations Management and make sure Show All Operations is selected at the top. Look for the operation titled Mitinet AnalyzeMARC Report and click on its  summary file. The file will contain a link to your report.

Use(s)

Run this utility when you want to use BestMARC's advanced tools to clean up and update your MARC records. You can even add new records while in BestMARC. When you are finished in BestMARC, you’ll simply check a box to Send to Alexandria, and the records return to Alexandria in the background. This will improve your catalog's quality and searchability!

Use(s)

Run this utility once a quarter to quickly clean up and update your MARC records. This will improve your catalog's quality and searchability!

Use(s)

Run this utility to change a tag number if you find information is mistakenly stored under another tag. For example, you notice the 500 tag in some of your title records contains the series, which should be in the 830 tag. Instead of manually fixing this, simply run this utility with "500" as the From tag and "830" as the To tag on the Options tab. This will change all of your 500 tags to 830 tags for selected titles.