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Bringing in a Record from Alma

  1. Copy the MMS ID from Alma.
  2. Go to Tools >> z39.50 >> Connect.
  3. If you are already connected, choose Search instead.
  4. Paste the MMS ID into the Record ID Number field and click Find.
    1. The new record will have "NEW" instead of an OCLC master record number in the top left hand corner. This record cannot be used to create a new master record without editing it.

  5. A recommended practice is to derive a new master record from the "NEW" record. Go to Edit >> Derive >> New Master Record.

    1. Harvard defined Alma 9xx fields will be deleted automatically.

    2. 040 will be supplied except for $b which will be blank.

  6. Delete any remaining local fields, including, but not limited to, 035__(MH)[Aleph number]HVD01-Aleph ; 852 ; holdings 5xx fields.

  7. Edit and save new master record as usual.

 

(red star) Known Issue with Diacritics / non-Latin Characters

If the record has diacritics or non-Latin characters, the characters will not come through correctly unless you first load a record from OCLC. This issue is specific to the way Connexion brings in records from Alma and is not within our configuration control. It is recommended that if you are going to bring records into Connexion from Alma, you need to follow these steps:

  • You must have your "File - Import Records - Record Characteristics" set to UTF-8.

  • When you first open Connexion, please log onto OCLC, search for, and display a record in Connexion. What this does is force Connexion to check your preferred character set (which you should already have set to UTF-8 Unicode) so that records you get from Alma will be in UTF-8, not in MARC-8.

  • You can use a macro, as described below, to perform the OCLC load so that you don't have to remember to do it each time you log on.

  • If you do not load a record from OCLC before loading a record from Alma, you will get your Alma record in MARC-8, which means that almost all special characters will appear as garbage.

Note that there are NO issues with exporting records to Alma from Connexion.

Summary:

  • Exporting from Connexion to Alma is fine
  • Bringing in OCLC records into Alma via Search External Resources is fine
  • From within Connexion, bringing in Alma records is problematic unless you follow the above steps
  • If you still have trouble, it could be because you need to have the right font. Attached here is the Arial Unicode MS Font, which you need to put in the C:\Windows\Fonts folder.

An On-Startup Macro for Automatically Loading a Record from OCLC

Below is a simple macro that should automatically log you in, open a UTF-8 record, and then close the record, leaving you able to work with UTF-8.

To install the macro in Connexion:

  1. Select Tools >> Macros >> Manage
  2. Click the New Macro button
  3. Type a name for the macro
  4. Select the new macro and click Edit
  5. Copy the following script and paste it into the macro window.
    1. Note: You'll need to fill in your authorization number and password into the script on the CS.Logon line. Remember to keep the quotes, but not the angle brackets < >.
------------

'MacroName:UTF8
'MacroDescription: Start UTF8 automatically

Sub Main

   Dim CS As Object
   Set CS = CreateObject("Connex.Client")
   CS.Logon "<autho>","<pass>","default"
   CS.Search "WC","no: 1032264758"
   CS.CloseRecord False
   CS.Logoff

End Sub

------------

Optional: If you will want to use only that one logon, you can delete the line “CS.Logoff” and the macro will not log you off.

To make the macro run automatically when you open Connexion Client, choose Tools >> Options >> General >> Startup Options and select the macro in the Run a macro drop-down. You'll have to restart Connexion client for it to take effect.

 

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