diff --git a/updater/updatedatabase b/updater/updatedatabase
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..ecd7669dcc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/updater/updatedatabase
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+
+# This script will check for required updates to the database.  Would also be a
+# good idea to offer to do a backup at this time...
+
+
+use C4::Database;
+use C4::Catalogue;
+use DBI;
+use C4::Acquisitions;
+use C4::Output;
+my $dbh=C4Connect;
+
+my %tables;
+my %types;
+
+my $sth=$dbh->prepare("show tables");
+$sth->execute;
+while (my ($table) = $sth->fetchrow) {
+    $tables{$table}=1;
+    print "Table: $table\n";
+}
+
+
+
+# Add tables required by Z-3950 scripts
+
+unless ($tables{'z3950queue') {
+    my $sti=$dbh->prepare("create table z3950queue (id int auto_increment primary key, term text, type char(10), startdate int, enddate int, done smallint, results longblob, numercords int, servers text, identifier char(30))");
+    $sti->execute;
+}
+
+unless ($tables{'z3950results'}) {
+    my $sti=$dbh->prepare("create table z3950results (id int auto_increment primary key, queryid int, server char(255), startdate int, enddate int, results longblob, numrecords int, numdownloaded int, highestseen int, active smallint)");
+    $sti->execute;
+}
+unless ($tables{'z3950servers'}) {
+    my $sti=$dbh->prepare("create table z3950servers (host char(255), port int, db char(255), userid char(255), password char(255), name text, id int, checked smallint, rank int)");
+    $sti->execute;
+    $sti=$dbh->prepare("insert into z3950servers values ('z3950.loc.gov', 7090, 'voyager', '', '', 'Library of Congress', 1, 1, 1)");
+    $sti->execute;
+}
+
+
+
+# Get list of columns from biblioitems table
+
+my $sth=$dbh->prepare("show columns from biblioitems");
+$sth->execute;
+while (my ($column, $type, $null, $key, $default, $extra) = $sth->fetchrow) {
+    $types{$column}=$type;
+}
+unless ($types{'lccn'}) {
+    # Add LCCN field to biblioitems db
+    my $sti=$dbh->prepare("alter table biblioitems add column lccn char(25)");
+    $sti->execute;
+}
+unless ($types{'marc'}) {
+    # Add MARC field to biblioitems db (not used anymore)
+    my $sti=$dbh->prepare("alter table biblioitems add column marc text");
+    $sti->execute;
+}
+
+
+$sth->finish;
+$dbh->disconnect;