On Wed, 23 May 2001, Chris Cormack wrote:
we may be at that point someday ... I guess the biggest question is how to load the marc records into the database can you point me somewhere for this? thanks for all the advise! And I love the way the software works....
Ok Steve Tonnessen who is on this list has been working on this and I think he has a working marc importer running. Ill cc him in this reply.
I have a couple of schools who have been downloading marc records for their books and importing then one at a time. They check my automatic conversion of the marc records and make whatever modifications they need. Since the site they have been getting marc records from is Canadian, they have needed to modify the ISBN to the canadian publication's ISBN in every case anyway. I've also started working on Z39.50 support. Just signed the contract for access to the National Library of Canada's Z39.50 services today. I've got a perl module called Zeta working for Z39.50 searches, but it only seems to return SUTRS format (unstructured text) and not MARC format results. It seems that Net::Z3950 is a better module, but I haven't got it working yet. Also the YAZ toolkit also has a perl-based Z39.50 server that would really be nice to tie into Koha. LCCN should not be just overwritten on the dewey field, it should have a new field created for it. I guess the hitch with this is reworking the scripts for entering and editing books... Here comes some long rambling on my part... I think Koha really needs to be moved to a system that is at least partly based on Marc. I think that the records for each bibliography should be in MARC format, and that changes can be made either to the Koha Mysql tables, or the underlying MARC records and changes will be made in both places. The way that Koha stores records currently (broken into biblio and biblioitems) might make this a little difficult, but we could maybe associate particular MARC records with biblioitems, I guess, and then just have groups of MARC records associated with one biblio, as is done now. I'm thinking maybe about having one module that is used for modifying records. Something like: modifybibitem($env, $bibitemnumber, "author=Doe, Jane"); would change the author for biblioitem $bibitemnumber to Jane Doe. The modifybibitem routine would be responsible for modifying both the MARC record, and the MySQL tables. This all gets a little tricky when you consider that the MARC record stores a fair amount more information than the MySQL tables, for example, if a particular MARC record has a subject added entry like: 650 a Extinct animals x Encyclopedias, Juvenile. The corresponding entry in the MySQL bibliosubjects table would be: Extinct animals -- Encyclopedias, Juvenile Now if I edit the bibliosubjects entry to read: Extinct animals -- Encyclopedias It would be difficult to determine how to modify the MARC record automatically in a generic way. If the entry was changed to: Extinct animals -- dinosaurs It becomes even more difficult to incorporate the change back into the MARC record. I suppose the web interface could pop up a form saying something like, --- Need more information for MARC record modification: 650 a Extinct animals __ Encyclopedias --- with an 'x' as a suggestion for the text entry box. Steve Tonnesen Coast Mountains School District
Hi Steve,
I think Koha really needs to be moved to a system that is at least partly based on Marc. I think that the records for each bibliography should be in MARC format, and that changes can be made either to the Koha Mysql tables, or the underlying MARC records and changes will be made in both places. The way that Koha stores records currently (broken into biblio and biblioitems) might make this a little difficult, but we could maybe associate particular MARC records with biblioitems, I guess, and then just have groups of MARC records associated with one biblio, as is done now.
Yep I think you are right. And I think if we do it carefully, maybe by use of the systemprefs table, we can set it up so that koha uses the MARC records, or its existing system. At least for the time we are developing the MARC compatibility anyway. What do you think? Chris -- Chris Cormack Programmer 025 500 789 Katipo Communications Ltd chris@katipo.co.nz www.katipo.co.nz
While we're (on list, at least) considering possible major-code-change wishlists, is there anything else :) anyone wants? Also, would anyone consider addition of a text based front end for users a valid item? I know there is a text based front end for the library staff... but a text front end would permit use of serial terminals. I think it may be possible to create a linux boot+install-config floppy, and a cheat sheet for answering questions for install, thereby getting us closer to a turnkey system. Or is having a linux person on hand still a better idea at the moment? Thoughts? Nick
Hiya On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 12:38:45PM -0400, Nicholas Stephen Rosasco said:
While we're (on list, at least) considering possible major-code-change wishlists, is there anything else :) anyone wants?
Also, would anyone consider addition of a text based front end for users a valid item? I know there is a text based front end for the library staff... but a text front end would permit use of serial terminals.
Yup this is true. I started (again) a rewrite of the text based circulation frontend last weekend. Using slang instead of CDK and using Steve's excellent circulation API, which is making life a ton easier. Id really like to drop the CDK modules out of koha. As they are error prone. Perhaps after this we might want to work on a console based opac?
I think it may be possible to create a linux boot+install-config floppy, and a cheat sheet for answering questions for install, thereby getting us closer to a turnkey system. Or is having a linux person on hand still a better idea at the moment? Thoughts?
Id like to make the install much simpler personally. I have no set ideas how to achieve this, so discussion on this area would be good. I like the idea of making koha into .deb's or .rpms to make the install easier. We could perhaps use debconf to prompt the user for values such as htdoc root, server name, ip etc .. to customise the installation. Anyone else have anything to put on the wishlist? Chris
On Sat, 26 May 2001, Chris Cormack wrote:
Anyone else have anything to put on the wishlist?
How about abstracting the book information behind an API of some kind. The API needs to be generic enough to support the current Koha way of storing information, as well as MARC format type data. I haven't given this a whole lot of thought yet. As Koha works now, when you get a biblio, biblioitem, or item object, it basically contains all of the fields from the MySQL tables. MARC record data, I think, should be associated with the biblioitem objects. We need some way of referring to MARC data from that object: $biblioitem->{'marc'}->{'245'}->{'a'} = 'Tails that talk and fly'; $biblioitem->{'marc'}->{'100'}->{'a'} = 'Swanson, Diane,'; This is a little simplistic, as many fields and subfields are repeatable. Thus, the values may have to actually be arrays of values. {$biblioitem->{'marc'}->{'650'}}[1]->{'a'} Would return the 'a' subfield of the second 650 field for $biblioitem. The API should be capable of reading and writing data to the underlying database tables. Thus, the acquisition modules should be able to create a $biblioitem object and pass it to the API for insertion into the database, or the cataloguing module should be able to modify a subject entry for a biblio that is already in the database. Somebody wrote to me privately and pointed out this database schema which is quite elegant, and allows full storage of a MARC record in SQL tables: http://osdls.library.arizona.edu:4000/design.html Steve Tonnesen Coast Mountains School District Hazelton, BC, CANADA
----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Cormack" <chris@katipo.co.nz> To: <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 11:02 PM Subject: Re: [Koha] Re: marc and stuff!
Hiya
On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 12:38:45PM -0400, Nicholas Stephen Rosasco said:
While we're (on list, at least) considering possible major-code-change wishlists, is there anything else :) anyone wants?
I think a good idea would be to include i10n and i18n so koha is really usable in many non-english speaking countries. Benedykt
Hi, I'm looking for a script that will let me insert new biblio items without going through the acquisitions process. Someone mentioned a webbased way of doing this? Or, what are the fields that need to be altered for a new item to be fully inserted? thanks suresh
participants (5)
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Benedykt P. Barszcz -
Chris Cormack -
Nicholas Stephen Rosasco -
Suresh Naidu -
Tonnesen Steve