Library Automation System Instructions
Import New Records into OPALS
If you are unsure about these instructions, check the OPALS documentation for assistance.
OPALS has different procedures for adding new records and updating existing records. If these are existing records that are already in your LAS and you want to update them, follow the Update Existing instructions.
Import Instructions
- Login to OPALS.
- Select Items and choose Import.
- Click on the Choose File… button and navigate to the MARC records.
- Under Record type, choose the appropriate option.
- Under Record source, choose Generic.
- Under Character encoding scheme, choose UTF-8.
- Under Import Option, choose Automatically merge.
- Under Holding Import Option, choose Update.
- Set the Lists and Additional Holdings Subfield options based upon your local policy.
- Click on the Upload button.
- If everything looks correct, click Accept to start the import.
- The upload will process. This may take several minutes. To check on the status of the process, click the Refresh button to refresh the Import page and the status will display “done” when complete. You may navigate away from this page while the processing is running and return to check the status later.
- After the import is done, check to see if there are any records in the Pending column. If the number is greater than zero, click on the number to begin processing the pending records. This process allows you to merge or import the records that OPALS couldn’t make a definitive determination on whether they should be merged into an existing record or imported as a new record.
