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Subject: Re: MARC ==> EAD
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 11:13:49 -0600
From: "Fox, Michael"
Reply-To: Encoded Archival Description List
To: Multiple recipients of list EAD

In his reply to this question, Steve Hensen refers the reader to section 4.3.4 of that indispensible tome, the EAD Application Guidelines, for further information on this subject.

Let me expand briefly on that text to describe how we are implementing this conversion here at the Minnesota Historical Society.

1. The MARC catalog record for the collection is downloaded from the OPAC to a local network drive using a function built into the OPAC- a fairly standard feature of such software. The record is in the MARC transmission format. The collection's id number is assigned as the file name, e.g. P1905 or 1186.
   
   
2. The staff member goes to that directory at the DOS command line (both conversion applications are run from a commnd line) and types "convert filename", thereby executing a DOS batch file called convert.bat.
   
   
3. That batch file executes two operations.
   
   The program marcxml.exe from Logos Research converts the record from the MARC transmission format to the MARC DTD format as an XML document.
   
   James Clark's XT processor software then uses an XSL stylesheet to transform the document from the MARC DTD structure to EAD.
   
   The resulting file is output as a fle named Collection_Number.xml, e.g. p1905.xml or 1186.xml.
   
   
4. The resulting xml file is loaded into an XML editor for enhancement, adding various values required for the section.

The principal ambiguity of this method is that one cannot always predict what went into a MARC 500 field and therefore reliably map its contents to the correct EAD element. Any adjustments are made manually in the xml editing software. There may be other areas in your MARC implementation where there are similar ambiguities.

As others have reported, success may be had with other tools including the perl scripts available from the LIbrary of Congress to do the step of converting the data from the MARC transmission format to XML in the MARC DTD syntax.

The process could be reversed- going from EAD to MARC- though I have not written the stylesheet necessary to do so. However, two additional editign steps would be requried if took this route. You would have to supply default values for the MARC fixed fields during the conversion and edit them afterwards- notably date1, date2 and date type fields. Terms in fields 1XX, 6XX, and 7XX would have to be mapped to a single subfield $a within the appropriate fields with the subfield codes and indicator values being edited subsequently in your MARC editing software. This assumes, of course, that your OAPC has the facility to import locally created MARC records and not simply to receive them from a utility.

Michael

Michael Fox
Head of Processing
Minnesota Historical Society
345 Kellogg Blvd West
St. Paul MN 55102-1906
phone: 651-296-1014
fax: 651-296-9961
michael.fox@mnhs.org