April 2004 - Koha - lists.katipo.co.nz

Thesaurus and Authorities Files (and one or two other things)
by Matthew de Gale 24 May '04

24 May '04

Hi Thank you very much for Koha. I have been trying it out a little and have got enough of a sense of it to start capturing for our small NGOs special collection. 1: The one thing that is holding me back is not being able to figure out how the thesaurus should work. This probably immmediatly marks me as a non-librarian (which is true) although I do understand the concept. Unfortunatly none of the sample data packages seem to have anything entered here so I haven't been able to do by example. I wonder is someone would be kind enough to give a few examples of values that would logically fit together in a thesaurus (and perhaps definitions of "DIG" "RELATED" "FREE FORM" "AUTHORITY" "LIB" and "OTHER LIB"). Obviously a pointer to a web resource on these would be wonderful, but I am thinking specifically in terms of what they refer to in Koha 2 : Also: I assume the thesaurus values have an effect on the SUBJECT field: but what exactly? 3 : Off topic note: for a newbie the ability to switch themes made a vast difference in my learning curve: My organisation has a similar subject area to UNIDO and switching to that template really assisted in me getting a handle on KOHA (even if it is a bit incomplete!). More stock templates would really help different types of users get going I think. As soon as I have figured it all out I will try and contribute in this regard (could be a while though!). Once again thanks for the product. Yours Matthew Matthew de Gale Information Manager Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) matthew(a)tips.org.za www.tips.org.za 27-(0)11 - 6456404 27-(0)11 - 4844115

3 2

Koha questions on MARC setup
by Harvey Lee 04 May '04

04 May '04

Hi, I'm using Koha 2.0.0 and have a few of questions that I'm hoping someone can help me answer. The Koha I have set up has MARC on and is using simple acquisitions. 1. biblio-to-biblioitems relationship. I have read about the biblio-biblioitems-items relationship that Koha uses. But from what I can see, there seems to be a strict one-to-one relationship between every biblio record created and every biblioitems record created. In other words, for every book I enter there is always one biblio record and one biblioitems record created. It seems there is no way to have 2 biblioitems associated to the same biblio. Looking at the code, it looks like with the configuration MARC=on and acquisition=simple, this will always be the case. Is this true, or am I missing something? 2. MARC links I've seen in previous posts/documents on the topic of creating links from MARC subfields to Koha fields that, for the items table, all MARC subfields must be in the same tag. This raises some questions: a- Can the other subfields of this tag that is not used for linking to an items field be used in other Koha fields (for instance, for a field in the biblioitems table)? b- Is it legal to map the same subfield to 2 different Koha fields? For example, to map Dewey 082$a to both biblioitems.dewey and items.bulk? c- Out of curiousity, what MARC tag are people using for the items fields? I've seen both 852 and 952 mentioned, but 952 seems very limited in the number of subfields that can be used given the number of items fields that are available t be mapped. d- I think I saw it mentioned that subfields of the same tag cannot be spread across more than one of the 10 tab pages; they must reside on the same tab page. Is this true? 3. editing an items record for an existing entry One field that I would like to have available to the librarian for editing is items.itemnotes. However, it seems that the items configuration page (additem.pl) is hidden behind the MARC configuration page (addbiblio.pl); one must select a biblio to edit and then save it before the items configuration page is shown. Is this the only way to reach this page? 4. creating a call number I would like to have a field in the items record that indicates the call number that patrons can use to search for the book on the shelves. Excuse me if my terminology is not accurate; I'm using call number to mean the text on the spine label, e.g.: REF 200.973 BAR I've seen several posts on this topic in the archives, but I have to ask this: how does one get the info from the 3 fields (item type, dewey, author) mapped to, for example, items.bulk? Can this be done programmatically within Koha, or is this intended to be a manual operation? If it is possible to be done programmatically, ideally this items.bulk field will show this data populated once the user saves a new biblio in addbiblio.pl and is is moved to the items configuration page (additem.pl). Has anyone gone through these contortions before? 5. Quick Search on ItemType When I attempt to do a search on ItemType from the Quick Search menu, I find that the search will always fail with no results found unless I put a space in the Author or Title field as well. Anyone notice this? Any help that anyone can shed on this will be MUCH appreciated. Thanks, Lee

5 6

Basic Koha operations
by jcdick＠cadmed.net 01 May '04

01 May '04

Hello. I am a volunteer IT staffer for a seriously underfunded parochial school, and we have recently installed Koha for the school library. It is my job, now that it is installed, to figure out how it works and to then teach the librarians - also volunteers - how to use it and start entering the books. Is there a good source for any information on things like the system preferences and procedures for entering and deleting biblio information? Keeping in mind that no one is actually a trained librarian, so no one really understands all the terms and such that comes with all of this. I have successfully done a z39.50 search on a book through the LoC and imported the biblio information, but none of it is in the right spot, except the ISBN number and the LC control number. There is one error in my MARC configuration, for the ITEMTYPES table. But I have no idea what should go in that space. Also, changing the acquisitions type to "simple" didn't give me a basic ISBN search on the acquisitions page. Its still the "normal" budget-based acquisitions. Or am I looking in the wrong spot? This is Koha 2.0.0 running on FC1 with MySQL 3.23, Apache 2.0.48, and Perl 5.008003 Any information is greatly appreciated. If there happens to be someone in the metro Detroit area or anywhere in North America, for that matter, that is using Koha that would be willing to lend a hand via direct email or IM or what have you, that would be greatly appreciated. Christopher Dick Wyandotte Catholic Consolidated Schools Wyandotte, MI

3 2

Breeding farm to biblio question
by Gregory Garretson 01 May '04

01 May '04

Hello, I've recently got all my (several thousand) MARC records imported into the breeding farm (in v 2.0.0), and I want to get them into the catalog. As I understand it, using acqui.simple, there are three ways to get records into the catalog: searching on ISBN (which I don't have in most cases, unfortunately), searching on title, and creating an empty biblio, which may be filled in via a Z39.50 search. This last doesn't pull records from the breeding farm, so it's only ISBN and title search that can be used for that. My question is, is there an easier way to create a biblio entry and an item entry for each of these records in the breeding farm without typing the titles in one by one? (It may be that this would violate some standard library practices, but this is really just meant to be a catalog import, not an inventory.) I also have a question about getting the LC numbers I have added to show up in the addbiblio routine, but I'll save that one for later. :-) Thanks, Gregory Garretson linguist, Perl hacker, non-librarian, incipient Koha enthusiast Boston University

2 1

LC numbers--same here
by Gregory Garretson 01 May '04

01 May '04

Hello, I wrote last week about trying to import MARC records missing ISBNs into Koha. I've since upgraded to 2.0.0 and have been able to upload my MARC files. So far so good! Now I'm encountering the same problem that others have recently mentioned, including Bernadette: > I would concur with much of what Steven has said re Koha. As for LC > classification, at our library we've come up with a temporary solution > of including LC numbers in the biblio in the notes section!! Seriously > once the developers come up with a solution to LC numbers will be great. Our books are also catalogued with LC numbers, and I have been trying to figure out either an elegant solution or a hack, to enable me to use those numbers in Koha. Can any one offer any suggestions? Much appreciated, Gregory Garretson Boston University

4 4

installation issues
by Tom 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

Hi, This is my 1st attempt at installing Koha, and I'm having some problems w/r/t the virtual servers it requires. I went thru the installation with the installer.pl, and it wrote the directives for the virtual servers in /etc/koha-httpd.conf. When I try to access the url, I get a seg fault. I've wrestled with this most of the day, and was going to post to an apache group, but thought I'd try here 1st,since anyone who's running Koha prolly has their directives written correctly. Here's my setup: Fedora Core 1-Yarrow 2.4.22-1.2179 smp kernel httpd-2.0.48 Koha-2.0.0 installed in /usr/local/ Here's the relevant lines in httpd.conf: > # Ports to listen to for Koha > # uncomment these if they aren't already in main httpd.conf > Listen 80 > Listen 8080 > > # NameVirtualHost is used by one of the optional configurations detailed > below > > NameVirtualHost *:80 > # KOHA's OPAC Configuration > <VirtualHost wccs.homelinux.org:80> > ServerAdmin tom(a)wccs.homelinux.org > DocumentRoot /usr/local/koha/opac/htdocs/ > ServerName wccs.homelinux.org > ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/koha /usr/local/koha/opac/cgi-bin/ > ErrorLog /usr/local/koha/log/opac-error_log > TransferLog /usr/local/koha/log/opac-access_log > SetEnv PERL5LIB "/usr/local/koha/intranet/modules" > SetEnv KOHA_CONF "/etc/koha.conf" > > </VirtualHost> > > NameVirtualHost *:8080 > # KOHA's INTRANET Configuration > <VirtualHost wccs.homelinux.org:8080> > ServerAdmin tom(a)wccs.homelinux.org > DocumentRoot /usr/local/koha/intranet/htdocs/ > ServerName wccs.homelinux.org > ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/koha "/usr/local/koha/intranet/cgi-bin/" > ErrorLog /usr/local/koha/log/koha-error_log > TransferLog /usr/local/koha/log/koha-access_log > SetEnv PERL5LIB "/usr/local/koha/intranet/modules" > SetEnv KOHA_CONF "/etc/koha.conf" > > </VirtualHost> > -- Tom

3 5

Re: [Koha] LC number : solution in 2.2
by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

Paul, does this mean that when you add MARC records it automatically knows the LC number is to be there? thanks ! Ed Hi everybody, Here is the solution I propose for LC and any other callnumber : * a field has already been added in items table. It's called itemcallnumber. * this field will be "connected" to : biblio dewey OR LoC number OR manual & local classification. if connected to dewey or LoC, it will automatically be filled. So every library can have it's own callnumber system. Sounds this good ?

1 0

RE: [Koha] LC number : solution in 2.2
by Bigwood, David 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

It is not really so odd to have 2 different call numbers for different copies of the same item. We often have circulating and reference copies. The class and cutter numbers would stay the same but the prefix or suffix would vary. In other cases we have a map or other accoampying material that goes with a book but is housed in a seperate location. Once again the class and cutters would be the same but the pre or suffix would be different. I have also heard of cases when a work covers two topics for a library to give each copy a different class number so that folks browsing will find it in either place. I think that is less common, but it does happen. Sincerly, David Bigwood bigwood(a)lpi.usra.edu Lunar & Planetary Institute http://www.lpi.usra.edu/library/whats_new.shtml Catalgoing News http://www.catalogablog.blogspot.com -----Original Message----- From: koha-admin(a)lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-admin@lists.katipo.co.nz]On Behalf Of paul POULAIN Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 3:37 PM To: koha(a)lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: [Koha] LC number : solution in 2.2 Hi everybody, .... NOTE : why put the callnumber in items & not in biblio you may ask ? it's because some libraries may have 2 differents callnumbers for 2 items of the same biblio. Sounds silly (& quite old), but exists. And you can't ask a 100 000 items library to reorganize it's shelves ;-) -- Paul POULAIN Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org) _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha(a)lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha

1 0

ongoing data conversion to MARC format without LCCN's
by Anthony S. 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

Hi, My programmatic method as well as a test (with one filled field per MARC record) allows all records to be imported unsuccessfully. Each record gives the following error message. "Error: Problem with " There must be some validating logic that I am missing out on. It would be nice if I could get some quick education about what is completely required for minimum Koha validation of record(s). Ottawa, Can. ... My notes... MarcEdit Usage instructions... Using the wizard and getting to the "mapping" dialog, please remember to use the format as described below, for example. 245$a After MarcEdit's text wizard generates files, those files need to be re-processed using the MarcMaker feature of the main MarcEdit program, which will in turn produce a newer version of files. those files look to me (i.e. Tony) to be readable by Koha directly. I haven't tried generating a valid record, though using these tools yet. The above instructions are what I learnt from the MarcEdit wizard dialogues which are only available if you have the program installed locally on Windows successfully. Regards, Tony

1 0

RE: Re: [Koha] Export MARC from Koha
by Stephen Hedges 27 Apr '04

27 Apr '04

Don't forget that Koha let's you store item data anywhere you want to -- so long as you tell Koha where to find it by setting up your MARC to Koha links. At Nelsonville, we use a 9xx tag for all this data, but you could just as easily use 876 or 37, or any other (repeatable) tag. The choice belongs to the user, and is not controlled by Koha. Stephen Hedges Nelsonville Public Library > Sunday, April 25, 2004 16:11 CDT > > Hi, Dave, > > I can see what you mean about tags 876-878. > > Most of the records I've seen here don't do > anything towards keeping acquisitions data (which > is a shame), but when they do they invariably > avoid using the holdings data tags you recommend > (from what I see, I wonder if NLC had a policy of > using them only for serials) and instead have > opted for the tag 37 (which is flexible enough to > handle the important information and the limits > of which encourage one to remember not to collude > 2 or more different editions of works) or more > frequently use a 5xx number (sometimes one not > specifically allowed) to keep the information > they want. > > As library manager for a highschool library, I > had to insist with my 'assistant' that such info > not be encoded as a general public note (in 500) > which is what someone had recommended to her > prior to my appointment (not the kind of > information we wanted highschool students to > have: 'oh, this only cost $2.50, I can afford to > lose it' problem). > > The Athena system we were using already encoded > data to an 852 (with unauthorised uses of various > subfields, including a creative $w - we couldn't > find any way to change these peculiarities) and > so we used 37 (repeating for each copy as > necessary, $n beginning with barcode to ID > specific copy) for the additional data we > wanted. > > It would perhaps be good to recommend to users to > adopt use of the 876-878 fields but still leave > open the option of 37 for others. Smaller > libraries, especially school ones, often don't > have more than one copy of many works. > > Could someone from development tell us where/how > Koha is storing that more detailed acquisitions > information and if it could be integrated into > the MARC tag structure that Dave suggests in one > of the near future releases? > > Cheers, > Steven F. Baljkas > library tech at large > Koha neophyte > Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada > > > From: "Bigwood, David" <bigwood(a)lpi.usra.edu> > > Date: 2004/04/25 Sun PM 03:23:40 CDT > > To: <koha(a)lists.katipo.co.nz> > > Subject: RE: Re: [Koha] Export MARC from Koha > > > > Fields 876-878 are a better choice to include > acquisitions data. It includes the cost for each > copy, different copies can have been purchased at > different prices, or one could be a gift. It also > includes where it was purchased, date acquired, > item status and other subfields available for > each copy. > > > > Field 037 is repeatable but not linked to each > copy in the same manner. > > > > Sincerely, > > David Bigwood > > bigwood(a)lpi.usra.edu > > Lunar & Planetary Institute > > > http://www.lpi.usra.edu/library/whats_new.shtml > > Cataloging News > > http://www.catalogablog.blogspot.com > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: koha-admin(a)lists.katipo.co.nz > > [mailto:koha-admin@lists.katipo.co.nz]On Behalf > Of Steve/Ollie/Steven F. > > Baljkas > > Sent: Friday, April 23, 2004 5:39 PM > > To: Chris Cormack; MJ Ray > > Cc: koha(a)lists.katipo.co.nz > > Subject: Re: Re: [Koha] Export MARC from Koha > > > > > > Friday, April 23, 2004 17:30 CDT > > > > Hi, Chris et al., > > > > > Hi Guys > > > > > > Theres also the budget data if using full > acquisitions. This might be > > > useful to export also. > > > > Regarding the budget information kept in full > acquisitions mode, I have to confess I haven't > looked at that function, but there is a MARC tag > available for item cost: tag 37. > > > > I agree that budgetary info would be useful to > transfer, for a whole host of reasons (not the > least of which is providing a base for > determining replacement cost should an item be > lost). > > > > As for fines, maybe I am just (too) grateful > when things have been returned: rather than > fussing about transferring fines, I'd suggest > using the occasion of migration to offer an > 'amnesty', something my local public library > system does at irregular intervals (not dependent > on system upgrades) and it seems to have a > positive effect. > > > > > > >I don't know what is meant exactly by > 'financial records' but I am assuming > > > > >that that is a euphemism for fines. Same > as paragraph above. > > > > > > > > I doubt that these can be exported in a > useful way, but I could be wrong. > > > > Adding the ability to trigger code on fines > to notify another accounting system > > > > may be interesting to someone. > > > > Maybe if one adopted one of the neat ideas Dave > Bigwood suggested (thanks Dave, I think what you > suggested would be super) there would be some way > of transferring the fine information (if > substantial at least) to the patron file format? > Anyway, just another two cents worth. > > > > Cheers, > > Steven F. Baljkas > > library tech at large > > Koha neophyte > > Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada > > _______________________________________________ > Koha mailing list > Koha(a)lists.katipo.co.nz > http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha >

1 0