In-house Marc
Our UKMarc utility was developed in 2005 with assistance from Bradford Central Library. It was tested with Concerto, Dynix and DS Galaxy systems.
Our Marc21 utility was introduced in 2007 with assistance from Leicestershire and Auckland Libraries. It was tested with Talis, Innovative Millennium and SrsiDynix systems.
Our Marc records are free of charge, emailed as a single file with each order.
We are registered with The British Library with MARC Organisation Code UKBfBA and ISIL Code GB-UkBfBA.
Sample UKMarc and Marc21 files
Our sample Marc files contain titles of various Origins, Languages, and Age Groups across Books, DVDs and CDs. They can be used to confirm compatibility with your systems.
BA-UKMarc-d180210-r4-i2925.mrc
BA-UKMarc-Summary-d180210-r5-i2925.txt
BA-Marc21-d180210-r5-i2925.mrc
BA-Marc21-Summary-d180210-r5-i2925.txt
We thought a 'human readable' version of a 'machine readable' file would be useful. Our Marc Summary files are a handy way of validating you have the correct files, with the anticipated number of records.
Many systems generate and assign 'unique' filenames to the Marc records. In contrast, our filenames tell you d-InvoiceDate, r-Number of Records and i-InvoiceId for your Order.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) is an organisation promoting the widespread adoption of interoperable metadata standards for describing resources. Primarily used for cataloguing web pages, the 15 element metadata set is equally applicable for physical resources such as books, video and documents.
At Books Asia we embrace the Dublin Core philosophy - we can supply Dublin Core records as an alternative, or in addition to Marc records. Sample files will soon be posted on this site (a 'beta' sample is listed below).
BA-DublinCore-d280809-r7-i2794.xml
Dublin Core uses RDF (Resource Description Framework). This allows the metadata to be read by humans as well as parsed by machines, hence there's no need for a Books Asia summary file with the above example. Our Dublin Core records will be provided free of charge.
Shared Cataloguing
Many libraries share a Master Catalogue with other libraries in their group. Our IT System ensures that duplicate Marc records are not issued, even if the same book is ordered by several libraries in the same group.
Customised Tags
Many libraries have special Tag requirements. Some relating to internal cataloguing procedures, or to function with a Vendor solution, or to be compatible with legacy data.
Our Marc utilities are developed in-house. This means we have the flexibility to implement your Tag requirements. There's no charge for customising. We are happy to help.