Moving Files to and From LTI Using FTP

Library Technologies, Inc. has an FTP server under the name FTP.LIBRARYTECH.COM. LTI customers can use this service to send files to LTI and to receive files from LTI.

To use this service, you must have access to the Internet and FTP client software.

User Names and Passwords for the LTI FTP Server

Before you can use the LTI FTP server, you need a user name and password.

One-time and infrequent users are given a limited-use user name and password. Call or e-mail LTI to obtain this user name and password.

If you will be regularly using the FTP service (e.g., you subscribe to Authority Express or Authority Update Processing), LTI will assign a user name and password to you when you subscribe. These users have a private directory which other FTP users will not be able to access and which is the only place where you can read or write files.

Guidelines for Moving MARC Files

Always use "Binary" (not "ASCII") mode when FTPing MARC files to/from LTI. This will prevent the corruption of the MARC records. Netscape and Internet Explorer handle this automatically, see instructions for use with Windows NT and Windows 95/98 Command Line Client.

The file of MARC records should contain MARC communication format records placed end-to-end with no additional control information between the records (as per the Library of Congress specification for "electronic file transfer").

Guidelines for Other Files

If the file is an executable file or contains binary information, be certain to use "Binary mode" for the FTP transfer.

If the file is a text file containing ASCII information, you may need to use "ASCII mode" so that end-of-line data is interpreted correctly.

Using common FTP clients to access the LTI FTP Server

If you are not using a specialized FTP client application, here are three widely-available programs that you can utilize to access the LTI FTP server.

Whatever client you use, the user name and password must always be in upper case.

Firefox

Enter ftp://ftp.librarytech.com in the URL field of the browser. You will be prompted for username and password. Once you log in, the browser will display a list of the files in your directory at LTI. To download a file, right-click its name, choose "Save link as…", and specify where on your local disk the file should be saved. Firefox does not support the uploading of files.

Netscape

If the user name on your FTP account at LTI is "username", and the password is "password", you would enter the following in the URL field of the browser: ftp://username:password@ftp.librarytech.com. For LTI, the user name and password must be in upper case. The browser will display a list of the files in your directory at LTI. To download a file, right-click its name, choose "Save link as…", and specify where on your local disk the file should be saved. To upload a file, click on File, then on Upload File, and then select the file to be uploaded. To logout, exit the browser.

Internet Explorer

Some users will experience difficulties when attempting non-anonymous FTP access via IE. You may need to obtain additional software components from Microsoft to support this use of IE. For IE 4.0, use the URL shown above for Netscape. For IE 5.0 and IE 6.0, use ftp://username@ftp.librarytech.com, and you should be prompted for the password. Once connected, select the file to be downloaded and right click on it. Select Copy to Folder and select the target location for the file. To upload a file, open the ftp connection, and then drag and drop the file from your local hard drive to the ftp window.

Windows Command Line FTP Client

(Windows 98 through Windows Vista)

Go to a command prompt ("DOS box") and enter: ftp ftp.librarytech.com. Enter your username and password when they are requested. To enter binary mode, type bin <Enter> at the ftp> prompt. Once logged in, you can use FTP commands to manipulate the files in your directory; among others, "dir" lists the files in your directory, "get <filename>" downloads a file, and "put <filename>" uploads a file. Files are downloaded to and uploaded from whatever local directory you were in when you started the command line client. Enter bye to logout and exit the command line client.