Folks, This is probably going to sound like a very simple question to the real librarians amongst you, but I'd like a little guidance if anyone can spare the time. I'm using Koha to catalogue our family book collection (I hesitate to call it a library). Its about 3000 or so volumes and scattered through various book cases throughout the house. It is vaguely organised by various criteria, like size, suitability for children (low shelves), fiction (by author), non-fiction (roughly by subject) etc. What I would like Koha to tell me is where (bookcase) each volume is located. Which would be the appropriate field in the biblioitem to store this information? If this is a stupid question, then tell me, I'm not a librarian but a computer scientist with an interest in books. Many thanks Nigel
On Mon, 2003-03-24 at 15:19, Nigel Titley wrote:
Folks,
This is probably going to sound like a very simple question to the real librarians amongst you, but I'd like a little guidance if anyone can spare the time.
I'm using Koha to catalogue our family book collection (I hesitate to call it a library). Its about 3000 or so volumes and scattered through various book cases throughout the house. It is vaguely organised by various criteria, like size, suitability for children (low shelves), fiction (by author), non-fiction (roughly by subject) etc. What I would like Koha to tell me is where (bookcase) each volume is located. Which would be the appropriate field in the biblioitem to store this information?
I've had a number of kind replies from various folk on the list, which I summarise here: 1. Designate each of my bookcases as "branches" and use this to indicate the location of a volume 2. Use the "classification" field to specify the bookcase (the suggestion was to designate each bookcase with an alphabetic character). This then ends up being concatenated with the Dewey Number and the subclass to make a combined class which can be used to find the appropriate bookshelf. 3. Use the "notes" field, which can contain anything, to indicate the bookcase. My thoughts on this are: 1. Rather overkill, and shuts off the avenue of being able to set up real remote branches (books in the office for example). 2. Looks good. Only slight problem is that I will have to learn the basics of Dewey in order to roughly classify those books which I don't have a Dewey number for. However I don't mind this. 3. Possible, but the notes field is being used for other things, and isn't searchable. I will probably end up going for method 2. Thanks again to those who replied All the best Nigel
Hi Nigel Sorry I should have asked which version of Koha you're using. If you're using the MARC one, then a whole world of opportunity opens up for you (although it's not ready for production yet). If your using the 1.2 series, then the options are as you've listed Cheers Rachel
On Mon, 2003-03-24 at 15:19, Nigel Titley wrote:
Folks,
This is probably going to sound like a very simple question to the real librarians amongst you, but I'd like a little guidance if anyone can spare the time.
I'm using Koha to catalogue our family book collection (I hesitate to call it a library). Its about 3000 or so volumes and scattered through various book cases throughout the house. It is vaguely organised by various criteria, like size, suitability for children (low shelves), fiction (by author), non-fiction (roughly by subject) etc. What I would like Koha to tell me is where (bookcase) each volume is located. Which would be the appropriate field in the biblioitem to store this information?
I've had a number of kind replies from various folk on the list, which I summarise here:
1. Designate each of my bookcases as "branches" and use this to indicate the location of a volume
2. Use the "classification" field to specify the bookcase (the suggestion was to designate each bookcase with an alphabetic character). This then ends up being concatenated with the Dewey Number and the subclass to make a combined class which can be used to find the appropriate bookshelf.
3. Use the "notes" field, which can contain anything, to indicate the bookcase.
My thoughts on this are:
1. Rather overkill, and shuts off the avenue of being able to set up real remote branches (books in the office for example).
2. Looks good. Only slight problem is that I will have to learn the basics of Dewey in order to roughly classify those books which I don't have a Dewey number for. However I don't mind this.
3. Possible, but the notes field is being used for other things, and isn't searchable.
I will probably end up going for method 2.
Thanks again to those who replied
All the best
Nigel
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
_____________________________________________________________ Rachel Hamilton-Williams Katipo Communications WEBMISTRESS ph 021 389 128 or +64 04 934 1285 mailto:rachel@katipo.co.nz PO Box 12487, Wellington http://www.katipo.co.nz New Zealand Koha Open Source Library System http://www.koha.org
On Tue, 2003-03-25 at 20:45, Rachel Hamilton-Williams wrote:
Hi Nigel
Sorry I should have asked which version of Koha you're using.
1.2.3
If you're using the MARC one, then a whole world of opportunity opens up for you (although it's not ready for production yet).
I'll be upgrading as soon as it enters production :-)
If your using the 1.2 series, then the options are as you've listed
Thanks
Cheers Rachel
On Mon, 2003-03-24 at 15:19, Nigel Titley wrote:
Folks,
This is probably going to sound like a very simple question to the real librarians amongst you, but I'd like a little guidance if anyone can spare the time.
I'm using Koha to catalogue our family book collection (I hesitate to call it a library). Its about 3000 or so volumes and scattered through various book cases throughout the house. It is vaguely organised by various criteria, like size, suitability for children (low shelves), fiction (by author), non-fiction (roughly by subject) etc. What I would like Koha to tell me is where (bookcase) each volume is located. Which would be the appropriate field in the biblioitem to store this information?
I've had a number of kind replies from various folk on the list, which I summarise here:
1. Designate each of my bookcases as "branches" and use this to indicate the location of a volume
2. Use the "classification" field to specify the bookcase (the suggestion was to designate each bookcase with an alphabetic character). This then ends up being concatenated with the Dewey Number and the subclass to make a combined class which can be used to find the appropriate bookshelf.
3. Use the "notes" field, which can contain anything, to indicate the bookcase.
My thoughts on this are:
1. Rather overkill, and shuts off the avenue of being able to set up real remote branches (books in the office for example).
2. Looks good. Only slight problem is that I will have to learn the basics of Dewey in order to roughly classify those books which I don't have a Dewey number for. However I don't mind this.
3. Possible, but the notes field is being used for other things, and isn't searchable.
I will probably end up going for method 2.
Thanks again to those who replied
All the best
Nigel
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
_____________________________________________________________
Rachel Hamilton-Williams Katipo Communications WEBMISTRESS ph 021 389 128 or +64 04 934 1285 mailto:rachel@katipo.co.nz PO Box 12487, Wellington http://www.katipo.co.nz New Zealand Koha Open Source Library System http://www.koha.org
participants (3)
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Nigel Titley -
Nigel Titley -
Rachel Hamilton-Williams