Setting Up Import Profiles and Importing Records

Innovative Interfaces provides read-only import profiles (identified by the owner PolarisExec) designed for specific purposes, such as importing brief records for purchase orders or importing updated authority records. Although you cannot change the settings in a PolarisExec import profile, you can copy the profile, rename it, and then modify the settings. See Polaris Read-Only Import Profiles for a list of the PolarisExec import profiles and their uses.

Tip:
For information on implementing the Authorities Weekly service, contact your Polaris Site Manager.

Staff members with the appropriate permissions can set the following automatic processing options, among others, in the Import Setup window:

Perform MARC validation
Save records as provisional or final
Check duplicates based on system- or profile-defined rules
Specify tags to retain from overlaid records using system- or profile-defined tags
Specify tags to delete using system- or profile-defined tags
Check the preferred cataloging source A code stored in tag 040 $a that tells who created the record. These codes are governed by the MARC code list for libraries. when merging duplicate authority records
Create or update item records from embedded holdings data in the bibliographic records
Protect the incoming records from being overlaid in the future
Group the imported records in record sets for easy retrieval and bulk processing.

Before you can import bibliographic or authority records, the MARC or MARCXML record files must be downloaded from the cataloging source or materials vendor to your computer’s desktop or another accessible network location. Then, select the import profile and specify the location of the files to import.

All import processing takes place on the server, so once an import is launched, the Polaris Staff Client can be used for other tasks. Users with the required permissions can manage import jobs and specify blackout times when importing jobs cannot be run. For more information, see Specify import blackout times.

When you import bibliographic records with a LDR/05 of d (deleted), a bibliographic record with a status of deleted is created and saved if the Polaris Administration profile Retain deleted bibliographic records is set to Yes. If the incoming bibliographic record is a duplicate of an existing record, the incoming record overlays the existing record (unless it has unbreakable links to other records). Both the incoming record with a status of deleted and the existing record with a status of deleted are put into a record set, if one is specified. You can then permanently delete all the records in that record set, or you can use the purge process to remove records with a deleted status from the database. See Purge cataloging records. If the Polaris Administration profile Retain deleted bibliographic records is set to No, imported records with a deleted status overlay existing duplicate records, and both the incoming and existing record are removed from the database.