attached below is a perl script that "fixes" codebooks.
  specifically: 

 Default operation is:
	- read file with newlines
	- replace octal 342 and 343 with brackets
	- remove leading formatting characters (+-01)
	- replace bad ASCII chars (high and control cahrs) with spaces
	- strips trailing blanks off lines
 Each of the above default operations can be overidden (see flags below). 
 In additon the -w flag tells the program to strip leading blanks
 (number specified after -w).  
		-l <LRL> Logical Record Length of input (default is newline)
 		-b 		do not replace 342, 343 with [,]
		-n		do not remove leading formatting chars
		-r 		do not replace bad ascii with blanks
		-s		do not strip trailing blanks
		-w <num> 	strip <num> leading blanks
		-v	 Verbose mode
		-h	 Help (prints this message) 
		--	 Treat remaining arguments as filenames
		-	 Use stdin as input


#!/usr/local/bin/perl

# $Source: /u3/ssdb/asinger/bin/RCS/chunks,v $
# $Revision: 1.6 $
# $Date: 91/09/23 17:30:39 $
# $State: Exp $
# $Author: asinger $
#------------------------------------------------------------------
# Abe Singer (abe@ucsd.edu) modified by Jim Jacobs (jajacobs@ucsd.edu)
# Central University Library, Mail Code 0175-R
# Social Sciences Database Project 
# University of California, San Diego 
# San Diego, California 92122 
# (619) 534-5758
#------------------------------------------------------------------
# This perl(1L) script fixes codebooks by adding newlines, removing
# trailing blanks, changing the first character to a space, and
# removing any stray ^Z's.
#
# Options:
#
#	-l <num>	Logical Record Length of infile (default is newline)
# 	-b 		do not replace 342, 343 with [,]
#	-n		do not remove leading formatting chars
#	-r 		do not replace bad ascii with blanks
#	-s		do not strip trailing blanks
#	-w <num> 	strip <num> leading blanks
#	-d		Debug mode
#	-t		test mode (bails before processing)
#	-v		verbose mode. Prints out settings and stuff
#	-h		help. Prints usage message and exits
#
#
#
#------------------------------------------------------------------
#

# Globals...
chop($progName = `basename $0`);
$chunk = 32000 ;
$brackets = 1  ;
$replace_bad = 1 ;
$strip = 1;
$noForm = 1;
$leading = 0 ;
$test = 0;
$verbose = 0;
$debug = 0;
$lrl =  0 ;

#*******************************************************************************
# Name             : Usage
# Purpose          : Prints out usage message and bails
# Arguments        : 1 - String containing useful error message.
# Return Value     : None
# Calls            : Exit
# Globals Accessed : 
# Notes            : 
#*******************************************************************************

sub Usage {
	local ($msg) = @_ ;

	$, = " ";
	$\ = "\n";
	print STDERR "$progName : ", @_;

	print STDERR <<EndOfText;
	$progName [-bnrvsh] [-l <LRL>] [-w <num>] [files]
 This perl(1L) script fixes codebooks.
 Default operation is:
	- read file with newlines
	- replace octal 342 and 343 with brackets
	- remove leading formatting characters (+-01)
	- replace bad ASCII chars (high and control cahrs) with spaces
	- strips trailing blanks off lines
 Each of the above default operations can be overidden (see flags
 below). 
 In additon the -w flag tells the program to strip leading blanks
 (number specified after -w).  
		-l <LRL> Logical Record Length of input (default is newline)
 		-b 		do not replace 342, 343 with [,]
		-n		do not remove leading formatting chars
		-r 		do not replace bad ascii with blanks
		-s		do not strip trailing blanks
		-w <num> 	strip <num> leading blanks
		-v	 Verbose mode
		-h	 Help (prints this message) 
		--	 Treat remaining arguments as filenames
		-	 Use stdin as input
EndOfText

	exit(-1);
}



#*******************************************************************************
# Name             : ParseArgs
# Purpose          : Reads command line arguments, looking for flags.
# Arguments        : None.
# Return Value     : None
# Calls            : &Usage
# Globals Accessed : @ARGV
# Notes            : "--" means to treat remaining arguments as file names
#                    "-" means use stdin as an input file
#                    stdin is used as input if no files specified
#*******************************************************************************
sub ParseArgs {
	local ($_);
	local (@files);
	local ($flag, $rest);
	LOOP: while ($_ = shift(@ARGV)) {

#	"--" means interpret remaining arguments as filenames
		if (/^--$/) {
			@files = (@files, @ARGV);
			last LOOP;
		}
#	A "-" or anything not beginning with "-" is a filename
		if (!/^-./) {
			@files = (@files, $_);
			next LOOP;
		}
#	if we got this far, it must be a flag
		s/^-//;
		FLAGS: while ($_) {
#		Parse individual characters in argument
			m/^(.)(.*)$/;
			$flag = $1;
			$rest = $2;
			$_ = $flag;
			if (/d/) {
				$debug++;
			} elsif (/l/) {
				$lrl = shift(@ARGV);
			} elsif (/w/) {
				$leading = shift(@ARGV);
			} elsif (/b/) {
				$brackets=0;
			} elsif (/r/) {
				$replace_bad=0;
			} elsif (/s/) {
				$strip=0;
			} elsif (/n/) {
				$noForm=0;
			} elsif (/v/) {
				$verbose++;
			} elsif (/t/) {
				$test++;
			} elsif (/h/) {
				&Usage("Usage");
			} else {
				&Usage("Unknown argument: $_");
			}
			$_ = $rest;
		}
	}
#	If no files specified, make STDIN the input file.
	@files = ("-") if ($#files < 0);
	@ARGV = @files;
}


#*******************************************************************************
# Name             : Verbose
# Purpose          : Dumps out settings
# Arguments        : None.
# Return Value     : None
# Calls            : None
# Globals Accessed : All of em
#*******************************************************************************
sub Verbose {
	local($ors, $ofs) = ($\, $,);

	$, = " ";
	$\ = "\n";

	print "$progName: Settings are...";
	print "lrl is $lrl";
	print "strip is", $strip ? "on" : "off";
	print "brackets is", $brackets ? "on" : "off";
	print "test is", $test ? "on" : "off";
	print "leading is", $leading ? "on" : "off";
	print "noForm is", $noForm ? "on" : "off";
	print "replace_bad is", $replace_bad ? "on" : "off";
	print "debug is", $debug ? "on" : "off";
	print "files are:", @ARGV;
	$, = ofs;
	$\ = ors;
}

#*******************************************************************************
#
# Main() starts here...
#
#*******************************************************************************

&ParseArgs;

&Verbose if ($verbose); # Print out stats if requested.


exit(0) if ($test); # Go bye bye if in test-mode


# Now we start reading input files...
# first if lrl is set use "read"
if ($lrl) {
	# Set output end-of-line marker to newline, so's that records will
	# automagically be new-line delimited
	$\ = "\n";
	$, = "";

READFILES: foreach $infile (@ARGV) {
	$recnum = 0;
	print STDERR  "$progName: Reading file $infile" if $verbose;
	open(INFILE, $infile) || die "Can't open input file!\n";
	while ($bytes = read(INFILE, $buf, $lrl)) {
		$recnum++;

# Check for read errors...

		die "$progName: System read error $!, file $infile, " .
			"record $recnum\n" if (!defined $bytes);

# Check to make sure enough bytes are read

		if ($bytes != $lrl) {
			$l = length($buf);
			warn "$progName: Incomplete record, file $infile, " .
				"record $recnum, length $l.\n" ;
		}

		$_ = $buf;
		&fix ;
	}
	close(INFILE);
}

}  # end of if $lrl 

######################################################################
# else if $lrl is not set, assume file has newlines.
######################################################################
else {
#$\ = "\n";
foreach $infile (@ARGV) {
	open (INFILE, $infile) || die "can not open $infile" ;
	while (<INFILE>) {
		&fix ;
	}
	close(INFILE);
}
}

# We're outta here!
exit(0);
######################################################################
# here is where the work is done.
######################################################################
sub fix {
# replace 342 and 343 octal with [ and ] 
		tr/\342/[/ if $brackets ;
		tr/\343/]/ if $brackets ;

# replace bad chars with blanks if desired
	($_ =~ s/[\000-\011]|[\013-\037]|[\177-\377]/ /g) if ($replace_bad);

# Strip trailing whitespace if desired
		($_ =~ s/  *$//) if ($strip) ;
		
# Strip out leading formatting characters replace with blanks
		s/^[01+-]/ / if ($noForm);

# remove leading blanks if desired
		s/^ {0,$leading}// if ($leading);

# Print out the line
		print $_;
}


sub first_check {
	open(INFILE, $infile) || die "Can't open input file!\n";
	while (read (INFILE, $tmp, $chunk) ) {
		if (!( $tmp =~ /\n/ )) {
			$length = length($tmp);
			print STDERR "
ERROR: No Newlines!  $progName exiting.
	$length bytes, had no newline delimiter, and no lrl set.

	Use the -l flag to set the logical record length of files
	that have no newline characters.
";
			exit (1);
		} # end of if
		else { 
			close (INFILE) ;
		}
	} # end of while
} # end of sub first_check