MARCView/MARConvert News

MARCView and MARConvert to become open-source

After 16 years, we have decided to stop developing MARCView and MARConvert in order to focus on other projects. We plan to provide the programs to the community as open-source, free and without obligation. We are currently investigating the best sponsor and location for the source code; your suggestions would be welcome.

Until the source code finds a new home, you may continue to order MARCView from our ecommerce site. Please see the Order Page for prices and links. (We are no longer taking orders for MARConvert.)

We will continue to honor our support policies. For MARCView, we will support release 3.11 until the end of 2008, and the current release (3.12) for at least two years after your purchase. For MARConvert, support will be provided for five years after the initial delivery. All support is free.

We thank all our clients for their business and suggestions over the years. Sixteen years is a long run!

We will continue to provide ways to search and view MARC files through our MWeb Universal product (see next article).

MWeb™ Universal 1.2 beta program

Systems Planning invites you to participate in the beta test of MWeb Universal 1.2. This beta program is open to all. At the end of the beta program we will give sites who provide useful feedback a free copy of the final software.

MWeb Universal 1.2 provides web-based searching of multiple MARC21 files in their native format -- no need to convert or export. Any number of files can be searched at once. All files must be either bibliographic or authority, and either MARC-8 or UTF-8.

A later release will provide the ability to mix formats and encodings. UNIMARC and MARCXML will also be supported in a later release.

Search features include keyword and phrase searching, boolean, truncation, and the ability to restrict searches to specific fields. In addition, searches can be restricted to "subsets" of the files, such as juvenalia, reference, records with specific fields, etc.

We are particularly interested in sites who use the 856 field to store image data. If you do, then the images will show in MWeb search results and full records.

If you wish to participate, please go to our ecommerce site. Be sure to order the free 1.2 beta, rather than version 1.1. You will not need a credit card. After your purchase, you will click a button to download the installation file. MWeb runs on your Windows server.

(The beta software is time-limited, so you cannot substitute it for a purchase.)

Please send all questions and comments to info@systemsplanning.com. Please begin your email subject line with the words "MWeb beta" to bypass our spam filter.

Your feedback will be much appreciated!

More information about MWeb Universal

More Information

For more information, please see the MARCView Homepage or the MARConvert Homepage.

We welcome all comments and suggestions!

MARCView, MARConvert, and MWeb are trademarks of Systems Planning.