Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

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mrob
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Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by mrob »

A couple of questions...

(1) I'm able to import references from WorldCat using the Bookends browser, but only a few fields seem to be captured. Question: is there any way to extend this, so that more fields get imported? I'd like at least a URL permalink, notes from WorldCat, abstract, description, details, etc.

(2) For the various import filters that Bookends provides, is there a way to find out which fields get imported?

(3) I would like to have fields in my references for things like the original title of the reference (it's not English), and some other custom fields like original date (which differs from the publication date). Is there a way to do this, or are there any suggestions about how I should approach this? I looked in the user's guide, but if there's a discussion I must have missed it.

Thanks!
Jon
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by Jon »

1. Bookends imports what the source provides. In the case of WorldCat, if Bookends does't find a DOI it uses reference information that WorldCat embeds in the HTML in a protocol known as COinS. Bookends extracts the information and imports it. It imports all the information WorldCat provides.

2. Of course. Look in the Import Filter Manager and you'll see what fields are imported for which filter. In the case of Bookends Browser, Bookends converts the online data into RIS and imports using that filter. Note that the filter just tells you what it will import if the information is provided. If the source doesn't provide a field, e.g. an abstract, then of course Bookends won't import it.

3. Go to preferences, Refs tab, and rename the User fields for a given Type to contain whatever you want. Note that many Types (e.g. Book) have a field for Translated Title and Original Publication. Of course you can rename and repurpose these as well.

Jon
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mrob
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by mrob »

Thanks for clarifying. I was wondering what COinS is about.

I looked at the data on the page I get from WorldCat (@class="Z3988") and indeed it's just minimal.

Any work-around? What about reading other formats? For example, on this page:

https://iss.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002- ... &locale=en

There are links (below right) to provide RDF, JSON, or MARC. Is there some way I can import one of these using the Bookends Browser?

Thanks!
Jon
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by Jon »

From that site, save as MARC tagged and then you can import it into Bookends. You'll have to configure an import filter to deal with the output, but if you start with one of the university filters that should get you most of the way there (most of the filters import MARC records). This is well described in the User Guide (Help menu). If you run into problems you can contact tech support for help.

Jon
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mrob
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by mrob »

I was hoping there might be some way to do this without saving files for each reference.

In any case, thanks again for explaining the steps.
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by Jon »

In the particular example you provided you can import without saving a file. The information shown in the web page is tagged. In the browser, select the reference and copy it. I created an import filter that recognizes the tags and imported the reference from the clipboard. If this is a site you often use it's probably worth doing that.

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mrob
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by mrob »

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but I must be doing something wrong — or maybe several things.

Using the Bookends Browser, I opened the MARC tags link from this page:

https://iss.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I026968769-00

The MARC tags load, the encoding is messed up, but maybe(?) it'll parse okay. It looks like I can select Import Text Encoding > UTF-8, though maybe(?) I should be doing something else.

I selected and copied the MARC info to the clipboard, and tried File > Import References > Import Selected References, but the Import Selected References menu item is greyed out.

Also, I'm a little confused about why there isn't already a MARC import filter and I need to build one. I thought(?) MARC 21 is an important standard.

EDIT: BTW, every time I try to open this page in the Bookends Browser, the app gives me the spinning beach ball of death and I must Force Quit:

https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BN09869846

...though it seems to work fine in Safari
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by Jon »

The user guide has full details about how to import MARC references. You have to use a filter that is set up to do it, of which there are hundreds of examples.

I don't know what you are doing, exactly, but I went to that page -- the first time the text was in English, the second time I had to change it to English. Then I copied the reference (labels and metadata) to the clipboard. I then imported it into Bookends with a filter I created for that site (specifying that references began with the label Title, that data with the label Author should go in the Authors field, etc.) And yes, you should tell Bookends it's UTF-8 encoding.

Finally, I had no problem opening the second URL in Bookends Browser, so I'm afraid I don't know what the problem you had was due to.

Jon
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mrob
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by mrob »

Thanks for the pointer. I'm reading the User Guide now.

If I create import filters for these Japanese academic databases, would you be interested in including them in future updates of Bookends?

As for the other problems, I wonder if they could be caused by the fact that I'm still on High Sierra (10.13.6). I had to wait on Mojave due to some 32-bit apps that couldn't be upgraded. I want to move to a newer version of macOS anyway, so I'll do that and try again.
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by Jon »

Yes, I'd be happy to include them and help you tweak them, if necessary.

Mojave runs 32 bit apps. Catalina was the first to require 64 bit.

Jon
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mrob
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by mrob »

Thanks for your offer to help. I started on it, but the documentation for JAPAN/MARC is a bit daunting.

I'll keep chipping away and post a follow-up after I've made some progress.
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by Jon »

No need to import MARC. Select the text in the browser and import from the clipboard. Use the English tags -- Title, Author, Date, etc. (there are some redundant fields).
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Jon
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mrob
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Re: Importing from WorldCat and Custom fields

Post by mrob »

EDIT: I got to the next step. Will continue chipping away at the Import Filter.
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