Contributing to Copac
Information for contributors
Background
This document contacts information for new contributors to Copac, about the processes involved in contributing your records to Copac.
Copac is a physical union catalogue, which means that we need to gather your data, process it, and load it onto our databases.
If your data comes to us in MARC format, we write a program which will check that it is standard MARC21 as far as possible. Data in other formats (such as XML) requires us to map the data to MARC21, and produce a transformation.
All libraries tend to have some non standard data so we try and tidy these up as much as possible. Reports are produced detailing any records which have been rejected which we will send to you so that these records can be amended if necessary. There will also be warning files, which details potential errors as identified by our automated process, but which aren’t serious enough for the record to be suppressed. These can also be sent to you if you feel they would be useful.
Our aim is to have Copac reflecting your local catalogue as closely as possible, which is why we ask you to send us all records which are visible on your local system.
Record requirements
Ideally the files sent will meet the following requirements – please let us know if you anticipate problems meeting any of these requirements, and we will work to find a solution.
- Files in batches of maximum 50,000 records
- All records displayed on your OPAC in collections to be contributed
- This should exclude any which aren’t displayed on your OPAC such as order records
- If you can’t exclude such records from an export, then we should be able to remove them, as long as they are consistently identifiable.
- Each record must have a unique control number, to ensure it is possible to update the data reliably.
- We would like both bibliographic and holdings records
- Even if you’ll be providing circulation data via Z39.50 this is still useful as if we are not able to connect to your system for any reason we can still display the holdings. It can also be useful back up for you – if your system is down staff and users can use Copac to find location information.
- Please inform us if the file will be in any format other than MARC exchange
- If you have records from suppliers which retain the intellectual property rights and places conditions on their use, the supplier must be consistently identifiable in the records.
- to our knowledge, this applies to records obtained from OCLC, Talisbase, ESTC, and EEBO suppliers; it may apply to others.
Record information
Please provide the following information to help with the data processing:
1.Whether holdings are in a field within the bibliographic record or in a separate holdings record
2.Whether the character set is marc-8 or utf-8
3.Where the unique system control number is held
4.If any local fields (e.g. 9XX etc.) are used
5.If any standard MARC fields are used in a local way
6. Your MARC organisation code. If you do not have a MARC organisation code, you can obtain one from
Sending files
Please send us your files via secure ftp.
Naming files
Please name the first file you send using the format:
<lib code>01 e.g. abc01
Subsequent files can then be named <lib code>02 etc.
If you decide to change your file name format please let us know, so we can update our programme.
Information page
We produce pages on the Copac website for each contributing library, including information such as contact details, location, whether readers can visit your collection, and whether you supply inter-library loans. We also like to have an image of your library. When your data is nearly ready to be loaded onto Copac, we will contact you and ask you to supply this information.
Updates
Once your data is one Copac, you will need to supply updates to keep your data current and accurate.
- The frequency of these will depend on the size and nature of your collection.
- Monthly updates which should be sufficient for most libraries
- Larger libraries may find weekly updates more appropriate
- Smaller libraries may want to discuss frequency with Copac and we can agree a suitable interval between updates.
- Updates should contain new, updated and deleted records.
- Once the updates are established any email you send reporting an update supplied should go to
If you have any questions or comments, please email or ring us on 0161 275 6789.