UTF-8 Encoding for Sierra Export Profile for Pika

Owned by Ashley Sneesby, created
Jul 17, 2021
2 min read

This documentation describes how to update your library’s Sierra Export Profile to UTF-8 encoding to support diacritics display in Pika.

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Table of Contents

Why update to UTF-8 encoding?

Diacritics are best supported in Pika when MARC records are exported with UTF-8 encoding. When other encoding schemes can be used for MARC record exports (such as MARC8), Pika experiences issues translating diacritics into readable characters. 

Example of preferred displays with UTF-8 encoding

UTF-8 encoding in Pika displays diacritics as expected, as seen in the examples below.

Example of issues with MARC8 encoding

MARC8 encoding in Pika displays poorly, as seen in the examples below.

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Requesting changes from III

To ensure your Sierra export profile has UTF-8 encoding, you will need to contact III via Supportal and request the following change be made :

Add this line to the export profile:  |||0|0| | |0|n|G|0|@diac_sub_table="utf8"

 

The change that III will make has the following action :

When the diacritic sub table is set to "utf8" the export profile will export characters as UTF-8 and set byte 9 of the MARC leaders to indicate Unicode.

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