i'm not a coder but i undertook a study of XML some years after it came onto the scene and with a likely confused notion that it would be the next significant technology, I learned some XSL and later was able to weave PubMed Central journal information (CSV transformed into XML) together with Dublin Core metadata of journal articles into MARCXML during harvest with MarcEdit (which the inestimable Terry Reece continues to tweak). Also used the same XML journal data to augment NLM journal records with PubMed Central holdings and other data with a transform in my IDE though it took me weeks to get right..so, no asperations to become a coder. Probably did not get all of the MARC cataloging rules right and I can empathize with those who come to MARC and cataloging standards without cataloging training, experience. My library experience was primarily as library director...my expertise on library specializations would always be under question. regards, dana -- Dana Pearson dbpearsonmlis.com