Latin1 vs. Unicode (UTF-8)
Greetings- Opinions please. MARC records we plan to load into our Koha database are encoded in the MARC-8 format. This document tells us to use UTF-8 encoded records. http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?do=show&id=encodingscratchpad (nice work, Josh, but we have test loaded some records in MARC-8 that seem to work fine, but we respect your knowledge, so now we are questioning ourselves as we move closer to a production environment) We have read many items on this issue. Any additional opinions on what is the correct thing to do will be appreciated. It is my intention to leave this question open-ended in hopes of getting several points of view from the Koha community. Thanks. Gary +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Gary L. Harris, M.L.S. M.A. Director, Technical Services Bureau New Mexico State Library 1209 Camino Carlos Rey Santa Fe, NM 87507 (505) 476-9730 gary.harris@state.nm.us http://www.nmstatelibrary.org <http://www.nmstatelibrary.org/> "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." -- Buckminster Fuller This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
Dear Gary,
Opinions please. MARC records we plan to load into our Koha database are encoded in the MARC-8 format. This document tells us to use UTF-8 encoded records.
<http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?do=show&id=encodingscratchpad>http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?do=show&id=encodingscratchpad (nice work, Josh, but we have test loaded some records in MARC-8 that seem to work fine, but we respect your knowledge, so now we are questioning ourselves as we move closer to a production environment)
We have read many items on this issue. Any additional opinions on what is the correct thing to do will be appreciated. It is my intention to leave this question open-ended in hopes of getting several points of view from the Koha community. Thanks.
MARC-8 is not avaible as option to encode data into Koha db. In fact koha db engine is MySQL that dosen't understand really MARC-8. But it appears working because often (in the latin word) MARC-8 code is the same of UTF-8. Tecnicaly speaking you can setup Koha to use Latin1 encoding (ISO 8859-1). But I don't suggest you this option. My suggestion is to translate your data from MARC-8 to UTF-8. But remeber to do a correct setup [read all http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?do=show&id=encodingscratchpad] Cheers Zeno Tajoli Zeno Tajoli CILEA - Segrate (MI) tajoliAT_SPAM_no_prendiATcilea.it (Indirizzo mascherato anti-spam; sostituisci quanto tra AT con @)
It is fine to use MARC-8 as the communication encoding on a z39.50 connection. Most MARC21 sources will use this. This should not be confused with the display or underlying storage encoding that is surely not MARC-8 on either end. --Joe 2009/3/16 Harris, Gary, DCA <Gary.Harris@state.nm.us>
Greetings-
Opinions please. MARC records we plan to load into our Koha database are encoded in the MARC-8 format. This document tells us to use UTF-8 encoded records.
http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?do=show&id=encodingscratchpad (nice work, Josh, but we have test loaded some records in MARC-8 that seem to work fine, but we respect your knowledge, so now we are questioning ourselves as we move closer to a production environment)
We have read many items on this issue. Any additional opinions on what is the correct thing to do will be appreciated. It is my intention to leave this question open-ended in hopes of getting several points of view from the Koha community. Thanks.
Gary +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Gary L. Harris, M.L.S. M.A. Director, Technical Services Bureau New Mexico State Library 1209 Camino Carlos Rey Santa Fe, NM 87507 (505) 476-9730 gary.harris@state.nm.us http://www.nmstatelibrary.org
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." -- Buckminster Fuller
participants (3)
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Harris, Gary, DCA -
Joe Atzberger -
Zeno Tajoli