Penn State University Libraries - 541 Update (August 2009)

Serials and Acquisitions Services recently made a policy change to the date format in MARC field 541, subfield d. This field previously displayed a five-digit date in the form "20089" (meaning 2008/09 fiscal year). They have changed this date to a four-digit format (e.g. 2009). 2009 refers to the 2009/10 fiscal year, 2010 refers to the 2010/11 fiscal year, and so on. The fiscal year will continue to change on July 1 as it always has in the past.

This affects two macros in the Common macro file: 541 Paterno and 541 UP Default. These macros formerly filled in a five-digit date and calculated the date based on your computer's clock (i.e. in July the date would flip for the new fiscal year). Due to the above policy change and the fact that we still process material long past July 1 for the previous fiscal year, both of these macros now have their date field "hard-coded" to 2009. This means that when it is time for you to process material for the 2010/11 and future fiscal years, you will have to edit the macro code in order to update the date. This procedure is actually quite easy to perform. See: Updating 541|d for the New Fiscal Year.

Step 1: Download the following file and save it in your My Documents folder (for some browsers it may default to your Desktop, which is okay).

Step 2: Open the Macro Express window by double-clicking on the blue "M" in your system tray. The system tray is in the lower right corner of your screen (it displays today's date and time). You should see something like the window shown below.

Step 3: Click on the first 541 macro in the list, then hold down the Ctrl key and click on the second 541 macro. You may release the Ctrl key now. This highlights both macros as shown below.

Step 4: Next, go the Macros menu and select Delete Macros. The Macros menu is shown below.

Step 5: After selecting the Delete Macros command, Macro Express will ask you if you really want to delete these macros. Click on the Yes button as shown below.

Step 6: Click on the Import Macros button on the toolbar. It looks like this:

Step 7: A window will now appear (as shown below) that will allow us to import macros from a macro file. We need to find the macro file that we just downloaded. Click on the Open File button.

Step 8: A standard Open File dialog box will appear. Navigate to wherever you saved the symphony-541update.mex macro file (e.g. My Documents or your Desktop if your browser defaults to there), click on it to highlight, and then click on the Open button.

Step 9: The next window that appears will display the contents of the symphony-541update.mex macro file. It should display two macros as shown below. Click on the Select All button. This should highlight both macros. Finally, click on the Import button.

Step 10: Macro Express should give you a notice that the import was complete as shown below. Go ahead and click the OK button, and then click the Exit button. The two new 541 macros should be ready for use. You may close the Macro Express window now.

If you experience any problems following these instructions, please contact Ken Robinson (kjr106@psu.edu).

• After you have imported the new 541 macros, you may delete the symphony-541update.mex file, particularly if you downloaded it to your desktop. The purpose of this file is chiefly as a delivery method.
  
• The symphony-common.mex macro file that is available on the Downloads page has also been updated with both of the new 541 macros.
• If you have made some of your own macros and borrowed the code from both of these 541 macros, you will need to edit the macro by removing all of the lines from "Variable Set Integer %N1% from Current Year" to "End If." You will then have to edit the last line of code by replacing %T1% with 2009.
• If you have a preference for these macros to automatically change the year on July 1, please contact Ken Robinson (kjr106@psu.edu) to have them modified.