Codelist customization in MARC Report

Over the years, we have distributed a simple text file called 'codelist.txt' that contains, in a variety of formats, an aggregation of the various MARC source code lists that are managed by the Library of Congress.

The current format of this file contains four tab-delimited columns:

  1. Column 1 contains the name of the codelist, vocabulary, or scheme
  2. Column 2 contains the code or source code
  3. Column 3 contains the title of the codelist, or the name of the institution responsible.
  4. Column 4 contains either a url, or the number zero

Note: up until version 249, our codelist contained 3 columns only (the url was appended to the third column).

Over the years, we have also provided various ways for the user to customize this file, usually involving copying the whole codelist to a local folder and making any changes needed there.

Beginning in version 244, codelist customization has been handled using an overlay file named 

codelistLocal.txt

and user customizations to the distributed 'codelist.txt' will be ignored.

The new 'codelistLocal' file must be located in the 'lists' subdirectory of the user's MarcReport folder; the usual location for that folder in Windows is 

My Documents\MarcReport\lists

The local version of the file should contain only the items that the user wishes to customize, and not the whole codelist.

For example, to add support for a new subject source code, e.g. 'mythes':

  1. open or create the file 'codelistLocal.txt'
  2. add the line:
subject    mythes    My Thesaurus (Melbourne Beach, FL: TMQ, Inc.)    Url, or '0'

Remember to use the tab character to separate the columns.

The fourth column should contain either a url for the list, or the number zero.

If you are not sure of the name ('subject', in this example) for the source code list, look it up in the MARC Report codelist.txt file (which you will always find in the program installation folder) 

C:\Program Files (x86)\TMQ\MARC Report\defaults\lists

Notes

It is not possible to use this method to modify an existing codelist code or term.

It is not possible to 'make up' your own codelist and add it to the codelistLocal file. Only those codelists that are named in the first column of the main codelist will be recognized by the program.

RDA Appendix J in version 244

In version 244 of MARC Report we added support for customizing Appendix I terms to the program options.

In order to support adding local terms to Appendix J, we made it possible to use the 'codelistLocal' for this purpose.

But with the addition of complete Appendix J support in version 245, this usage of 'codelistLocal' is no longer available.

The documentation link that follows, thus, applies only to MARC Report version 2.44.

Using CodelistLocal for Appendix J terms