Using Excel to Manipulate MARC Publication Dates

This post provides access to an Excel file that manipulates MARC publication dates. Publication dates (i.e., MARC field 260, subfield $c) are commonly exported from an integrated library system as part of a report. Such data can take various forms. A given entry may or may not have a copyright symbol or an equivalent letter c; it may or may not end with a period; and it is sometimes (but not always) enclosed within brackets. And there are additional variations from the norm. Such data need to be reduced to numerical values for purposes such as collection analysis.

The Excel file linked here uses formulas to remove extraneous information. The file is capable of standardizing most dates to a 4-digit string. When confronted with a date range or a pair of dates separated by commas, the file outputs the first date. This level of accuracy is often adequate for the intended purpose.

All that is needed to make the file work is to paste dates—up to 50,000 of them—into the yellow shaded area under the "Original String" header. The file immediately outputs standardized years (expressed as 4-digit numerical values) in the column labeled "Publication Date." The publication date manipulation will look like the image below.

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