Converting Tumblebooks to MARC

Converting Tumblebooks to MARC

A step-by-step guide to convert Tumblebook records available in a CSV to MARC using MarcEdit. MarcEdit is a 3rd-party tool provided by Terry Reese. Once the Tumblebook records are prepared as MARC records, the records can be sideloaded to Aspen.
  1. Open xlsx in spreadsheet software. For the purposes of these instructions, I am using and recommend LibreOffice.
  2. Save As > for File Type, select Text CSV > save.
  3. On pop-up, click Use Text CSV Format
  4. Make sure character set is UTF-8. Change Field Delimiter to Tab. In the Fields section, click the top-left corner of the spreadsheet preview to select all columns, then change the column type from Standard to Text. Hit OK.
  5. Change column headers to the MARC fields they should be mapped to:
    1. Book ID (Record #) = 001
    2. Language  = 041$b
    3. Author = 100$a
    4. Title = 245$a
    5. Publisher = 260$b
    6. Duration = 300$a
    7. AR Level = 526$a
    8. Grade Level = 521$a
    9. Lexile = 521$a
    10. Illustrator = 700$a
    11. URL = 856$u
    12. Book Cover Link = 856$uCover (we will fix this in MarcEdit during the mapping)
    13. Type = 942$c


  1. Delete all other columns. Save your changes.
  2. Open MarcEdit. Select Delimited Text Translator from the menu.
  3. Click the folder icon to select your CSV file.
  4. Select the folder icon next to Output File to select the destination for your marc file.
  5. Enter in a file name, then click Save.
  6. In the Delimiter dropdown, select Tab.


  1. In the Text Qualifier field, enter double quotes ("). Make sure the box for UTF-8 Encoded is checked.


  1. Click Import Data.
  2. In the Select field, click to select each column for mapping. Since we've already changed the column headers in the CSV file, this makes it easy.
In the "Map To" field, type in the corresponding MARC field, then click Add Argument.

If there are duplicate MARC tags and subfields, like we have in our spreadsheet with the two columns mapped to 521$a, check the "Repeatable Subfield" box before clicking Add Argument.

**If the spreadsheet has a Cover Image URL field, map to 856$u, and for the Indicators, delete the \\ and enter in:  42



See example syntax:



  1. Continue mapping the fields until all have been added.
  2. You may want to check Save Template if you plan to do this kind of mapping again.
  3. Select Ignore Header Row to exclude the first row in the csv file.


  1. Click Process Data.
  2. MarcEdit will prompt you to save the template. The template will be saved as an .mrd file.
  3. Click Save, and your records will be processed.


  1. Since the file was saved as .mrk, we'll need to change it to UTF-8.
  2. From the main MarcEdit menu, click MarcEditor.


  1. Click File > Open > select the .mrk file we just created.
  2. If you mapped in cover image URLs, you'll need to do a Find & Replace to fix them first.
    1. From the menu, click Edit > Find.
    2. Fill in the find and replace fields with the following (make sure the spaces for "856  42" are correct -- there should be two in between):


Click Replace All. The cover image URL subfields should now be formatted correctly. File > Save to keep your changes.
  1. Click File > Compile Options > Compile File to UTF-8.
  2. Type in the file name with the ".mrc" extension at the end, then Save.


You now have a MARC file ready to side load into Aspen!

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