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Jun 25, 2026

MARC21 / MARCXML Import

Heratio can import MARC21 bibliographic records expressed in MARCXML (the Library of Congress XML serialization of MARC21). Use this when a library partner ships its catalogue as MARCXML and you need to load those records into Heratio's archival catalogue as Information Objects.

When to use this

  • A partner library has sent you a MARCXML export of one or more bib records.
  • You ran an external MARCXML editor and want to push edits back into Heratio.
  • You have run a Heratio MARCXML export and need to re-import the same file on another instance.

What you need

  • A MARCXML file (.xml) up to 50 MB. The file must validate against the LoC MARC21 slim schema (http://www.loc.gov/MARC21/slim).
  • An admin login on Heratio.

Steps

  1. From the main menu, open Metadata Export (or browse to /admin/metadata-export/index).
  2. Click the MARCXML Import button at the top.
  3. Choose your .xml file.
  4. Pick the language / culture code for the import (default: en).
  5. Click Validate & Preview.

Heratio will:

  • Validate the file against the LoC schema (vendored offline).
  • Parse every <record> element.
  • For each record, look up an existing Heratio Information Object by its MARC 001 control number (matching io.identifier, or io.id as a fallback).
  • Show a table with one row per record:
    • CREATE badge if no existing IO matches the 001 - a new IO will be inserted.
    • UPDATE badge (with the matched IO id) if an existing IO will be overwritten.

Review the preview. If anything looks wrong, click Cancel and start over with a corrected file.

When you are happy, click Commit Import. Heratio will:

  • Insert or update the IO + i18n rows.
  • Emit a tamper-evident audit row per record (action name marcxml_create or marcxml_update).

The results screen shows the new IO id, the action taken, and the audit row id for every record processed.

Fields imported

MARC field Heratio column
001 information_object.identifier
245$a information_object_i18n.title
300$a information_object_i18n.extent_and_medium
506$a information_object_i18n.access_conditions
520$a information_object_i18n.scope_and_content
540$a information_object_i18n.reproduction_conditions
541$a information_object_i18n.acquisition
544$a information_object_i18n.related_units_of_description
561$a information_object_i18n.archival_history

Subjects (650), places (651), genres (655) and creators (100/110/111) are parsed and captured in the audit metadata payload. Direct insertion of new terms/actors is not in scope for Phase 2 - operators should reconcile those via the existing access-point tooling.

Round-trip

Records exported via Heratio's MARCXML serializer round-trip cleanly through this importer: title, identifier, scope, extent, dates, access/reproduction conditions, archival history and acquisition are all preserved.

Troubleshooting

  • "Schema validation issues" warning: the upload is not valid MARC21 slim. Open the file in an XML editor and fix the highlighted lines.
  • "No 245$a title" warning on a row: that record is skipped on commit because MARC21 requires a 245.
  • All rows show CREATE but you expected UPDATE: the MARC 001 value does not match any existing IO. Either the source 001 was never set by the partner system, or it differs from Heratio's io.identifier. Edit the MARCXML so 001 matches the target IO's identifier and re-upload.
  • Audit column shows -: the chained audit writer was unavailable (signing key not installed). The IO write still succeeded; the audit fallback is unsigned.