THL Toolbox > Reference > Bibliographies > Entering SPT Data Into An Excel File
Entering SPT Data into an Excel File
Contributor(s): Ben Deitle
Using Excel Spreadsheet
Whether entering bibliographic data directly into SPT, or using a spreadsheet and then mass importing data, it is necessary to follow the guidelines set forth in the THL SPT User's Manual. For THL staff: as of December 2009, import only works through the interface on dev.
If you have harvested bibliographic records from another database and have them in an Excel spreadsheet, these records should be proofed. Particularly you should check that the records adhere to SPT standards regarding such things as controlled names, capitalization, use of diacritics.
It is more than likely that the source from which you import records will not provide all the required fields for SPT records. These will have to be entered into the spreadsheet. If you have PDFs of the journal uploaded to the server, you will need to add the URLs for the files into the “URL” field. Another required field to be entered is “classification.” All journals, journal issues, and journal articles, must have at the least their respective journal classifications (see the classification section of the SPT Editor’s manual).
If entering more than one item into a spreadsheet cell that corresponds to a controlled name field or an option list field in SPT, you must separate the items with semicolons (;), but no spaces. For example, Joe Schmo and Susie Queue are the authors of a single article. In the spreadsheet cell for that resource under the Author/Creator column write:
- Joe Schmo;Susie Queue
Controlled name and options list fields in SPT include:
- Language of title
- Other language
- Language of alternate title
- Original/Translation
- Author/Creator
- Editor
- Publisher
- Normalized Publisher Place
- Publisher Country
- Subject
- Classification
- Genre
- Keyword
- Cultural coverage
- Temporal coverage
- Language
- Original Language
- Interface Language
- Series Title
- Series editor
- Source Type
- Source Editor
- Frequency of Publication
- Compiler
- Illustrator
- Annotator
- Other Agent Type
- Format
- Resource Type
- Media Type
- Digital encoding
- Website Rating
- Release Flag
Be careful when entering data into columns that correspond to SPT option list fields that you are using the exact terms that are given as options. Otherwise, when you import the record it will create a new, slightly different, option item which is problematic and undermines the usefulness of the system.
Import Excel Records into SPT
To import records from an Excel file into SPT, you have to convert the file into a delimited text file using a handy macro. See the detailed directions for this procedure under Importing Data into SPT. Note that you must have administrator privileges as an SPT editor to import the records. If you don’t have these, just send the converted file to someone who does.
