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Special characters and diacritics appear corrupted in records imported using Import Profile (Repository, New Order, Update Inventory)

Question

In records imported from an Import Profile, special characters and diacritics appear to be corrupted. Corrupted special characters and diacritics are replaced by groups of characters that may resemble: "&#241;" or "&#169;" or "<U+fffd>" etc.

 

 

Answer

 

The default Encoding Format in an Import Profile is UTF-8 (UTF8).  However, some partners provide bib records in ISO-8859-1 (ISO8859_1).  It is important to set the import profile to the actual encoding of the files which are loaded to Alma. 

 

If the import profile's Encoding Format was UTF-8, change to ISO8859_1.

 

As a test, please find the input file and single out one of the problematic records. Load the new file to Alma using a Repository import profile. Verify the Match Profile (it should enable Overlay, otherwise duplicates will exist). Make sure Inventory tab is set to Inventory = None. Once confirmed, reload the rest of the bib records. 

 

 

  • Product: Alma
  • Product Version: February 2016
  • Relevant for Installation Type: All

 

 

 


  • Article last edited: 08-FEB-2016