Importing existing barcodes

DiscussionsTinyCat

Rejoignez LibraryThing pour poster.

Importing existing barcodes

1BerkshireInstitute
Juin 22, 2020, 8:17 am

Is it possible to do a mass import of my books including their existing barcode #'s? On the sample import sheet I only see fields for: title, author, date, ISBN, publication information, tags, rating, review, entry date.

I'm migrating to TinyCat and almost all of my 5,000 volumes have current barcode labels and I have those #'s stored in an excel spreadsheet. Would be nice to use those existing labels -- especially for those without ISBN's!

2kristilabrie
Juin 22, 2020, 9:12 am

Are you able to run a MARC export of your library where you're moving from? If so, you can import your collection and custom-map your barcodes as needed using our MARC Import. If you can only use LibraryThing's Universal .csv Import, then I'm afraid you'll need to import your barcodes as "tags" on LibraryThing, just to get them into the system, and then work on moving them over manually from the tags to barcode field thereafter. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience.

If you can do the MARC export, you can use our MARC Import here: https://www.librarything.com/more/importmarc. (Check out the Help page for MARC Import if you need it: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/LibraryThing_and_MARC.)

Let me know if you have further questions!

3BerkshireInstitute
Juin 24, 2020, 11:24 am

Thank you! I didn't think I had Marc capabilities but then discovered I did (via an old version of ResourceMate Plus). I exported the file but now have been unable to upload the file. (It didn't export with a .marc extension, but even when I added that it still wouldn't upload). Any ideas?

4kristilabrie
Juin 25, 2020, 1:09 pm

Can you try emailing me the original export file (before you changed the end to .marc) at tinycat@librarything.com? I can try taking a look.

Thanks!

Kristi

5BerkshireInstitute
Juin 25, 2020, 2:25 pm

Just did! Thank you!

6kristilabrie
Juin 26, 2020, 11:47 am

Great, I think I've got it figured out for you. You should have my email! :)

7ActonKL-Library
Modifié : Mar 24, 2021, 4:01 am

kristilabrie I have a similar problem having existing barcodes to import, but all my data is in a spreadsheet. A quick search online not sure which one to attempt.

Wondering if you may have any suggestions for me to look into.

Thanks.
CT

8kristilabrie
Mar 24, 2021, 9:39 am

>7 ActonKL-Library: Hi CT,

Are you able to run any type of MARC export from your current setup? You'll want to look at all the export options you have. This would be your best option if you have it.

If you only have the spreadsheet with you, then your best option from there is probably to follow LibraryThing's custom .csv import file on the Universal Import page (https://www.librarything.com/import). We don't have a barcode import option here yet, so you'll need to import your barcodes through one of the fields in our sample import file such as custom call numbers. Then, you'll need to move those over to your barcodes once everything's imported. This may still be quicker than manually applying barcodes to your records after you add them.

If the .csv import option sounds like what you need, you can download the sample .csv file on the right side of the Universal Import page, so you can follow the file format exactly. I hope this helps. Please also read over our Help page for how to format your .csv file to match our sample import file: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/HelpThing:Import, if you need it.

Let me know if you have further questions!

9lesmel
Modifié : Mar 24, 2021, 12:00 pm

>7 ActonKL-Library: If you are familiar with MarcEdit, I think you can convert your spreadsheet into a MARC file. I'm assuming from >8 kristilabrie: that a MARC file can import barcodes. Maybe that's a terrible assumption.

10kristilabrie
Mar 24, 2021, 3:05 pm

>9 lesmel: It's a good assumption! To be clear, our MARC import does allow barcode mapping, while our Universal Import does not.