Validation Tool for MARC Records: Identifying Empty Subfields and Delimiters

Functionality

Identifies the following errors:

• subfield code without an alphanumeric value, such as $a in $a$bValue or $a:$bValue
• subfield code that is not a lower case letter or number
• subfield delimiter symbol without a code

Notes error types amenable to batch updates:

• a repeated subfield code, such as $a$aValue
• a terminal empty subfield, such as $b in $aValue$b

Supplements error logging with metadata from the record that may be used for filtering or routing for manual review:

• record identifier
• field tag where error was found
• the content of the field
• the type of error
• the format of the resource (from Leader06/07)
• the language of the resource (from 008)
• batch processing classification

Input

• A file in MARC format, selected through a GUI dialog box

Output

• inputfilename_error.txt: Error log with supplementary metadata
• inputfilename_log.txt: Processing statistics

Dependencies

pymarc

Credit

Script by Arcadia Falcone, arcadiafalcone at gmail
Updated 2014-12-19