MARC Records into Small DB Systems

[Bobb Menk]

We have a need for pulling the results of various specialized or
otherwise "too-complicated-for-end-user" searches out of our OPAC into a
smaller database system in order to create some more user friendly tools
for this kind of stuff. We use SIRSI on the OPAC side and Filemaker Pro
v5 on the small systems side. The nub of the problem is finding the best
way to take MARC and turn it into Filemaker.

So in the interest of work avoidance... oops! I mean, in order to keep
from re-inventing the wheel>;

...have any of you on the list explored parsing plain text MARC records
for import into smaller database systems such as Filemaker Pro? Or some
other method of importing tagged records in into them? Or perhaps you're
happy with some 3rd party MARC translator like Data Magician, et al.?

Any solutions or products recommendations you're willing to share would
be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Bobb Menk
Electronic Resources Librarian, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
bmenk at ll.mit.edu