Tomas, Your response helps me some. Thanks. I just wonder why this sort of explanation isn't more readily available. Maybe I haven't searched the right places.

The authorities module actually works well. Perhaps there is some misunderstanding on how authorities work in Koha. And how Authorities are linked to records.

Well, first of all, I’m not on the newest release of Koha, so my experience is probably different from yours. But ... if the authorities module works well, then: 1. Why does Koha create its machine-generated authority records with characters in the authority record’s 008 field that mark the record as not valid for use? (specifically a "|" in positions 11, 14, 15, and 16; whereas an “a” or one of the other valid letter codes would be more helpful) 2. Why does clicking on the "…" symbol or icon or whatever it is in a biblio record next to a 1XX, 6XX, or 7XX often generate a search in the authority records that Koha cannot execute? (specifically, if the bib record has a 600 with a $a and a $d [name and date], or a 650 with a $a and $x [subject and topical subdivision], Koha splits them into separate boxes in the search window and returns an error message if you don’t delete the content of one or the other box before searching the authority file) 3. Once you’ve gotten the authority searching figured out, why does clicking “choose” on an authority record that has two subfields of the same kind put them into a single subfield back in your biblio record? (specifically, say you have a topical subject divided by 2 geographic subheadings – 650 $a Topic $z State $z City – choosing that authority record will get Koha to move it back into your bibliographic record as 650 $a Topic $z State|City) 4. Why can’t I import authority records using the staff client? It’s apparently only something that can be done on the command line. This means that front line catalogers cannot download authority records they need for the work in front of them. Sure, some department head, or I.T. person, or the folks at your hosting service who have command line access can do it, but that doesn’t seem efficient and effective to me. Again, I'm still on an older version of Koha, so maybe all these things have been changed. If so, sorry. If these things continue to be the way Koha authorities module behaves, though, I still think we could say the Koha authorities module doesn't work well (AND that there's some misunderstanding about how authorities work in Koha!!). Kurt Kurt A. Bodling Technical Services Librarian George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate, Museum & Gardens P.O. Box 110 Mount Vernon, VA 22121 Phone: 703-799-6835 Fax: 703-799-8698 Email: kbodling@mountvernon.org

-----Original Message----- From: Tomas Cohen Arazi [mailto:tomascohen@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 1:26 PM To: Kurt Bodling Cc: Amber Amland; koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Unlocking MARC Fields in Koha 3.06

2011/11/18 Kurt Bodling <kbodling@mountvernon.org>:

...

The authorities module doesn’t seem to work so well.

The authorities module actually works well. Perhaps there is some misunderstanding on how authorities work in Koha. And how Authorities are linked to records.

...

That said, it sounds to me like perhaps your particular situation might be spoken to in the manual at: http://manual.koha-community.org/3.6/en/administration.html#authprefs ... Is your preference set to “don’t allow”?

If you want to *use* authorities (i.e. using them when cataloguing), there are actually two ways of dealing with the case 'the authority is not previously catalogued and hence not available when searching for it'.

1- Open the authority cataloguing module of koha (I do it on a new tab) and catalog it, wait at least one minute for the record to be indexed. 2- Allow the cataloguer to type the 'value' for the authority within the desired field in the biblio cataloguing form (i.e. allow the cataloguer to type the subject directly in the 650$a field) and let koha create a new authority record with that info.

Option 1 is the case when the field is 'locked'. Option 2 is related to the BiblioAddsAuthorities just mentioned preference set to 'allow'.

- No authorities (field in framework not related to authority type): type the values in the form - Authorities (field in framework related to authority type) | - Field locked: need to search for authority, if doesn't exist, add it, then search again [1] | - Field unlocked: BiblioAddsAuthorities is set to 'allow'. Then typing a value makes koha create a new (incomplete data) authority.

Wheter authorities usage is encouraged or not its more like a personal decition. I think using authorities, and enabling fast-authority-add option makes pointless the use of authorities. Just my 2 cents.

Regards To+

[1] If searching for an authority is not working it might be related to other issues (indexing?,bad cataloguing?), more info needed to help.

Koha 3.01.00.061 Linux bluehillils 2.6.18-6-686 #1 SMP Fri Dec 12 16:48:28 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux Perl 5.008008 MySQL Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.32, for pc-linux-gnu (i486) using readline 5.2 Server version: Apache/2.2.3 Zebra 2.0.34 (C) 1994-2007 All ably hosted, as Owen pointed out earlier today, by PTFS -- which IS (I should add) in the process of upgrading us a newer version of PTFS/LibLime Koha. Kurt

-----Original Message----- From: Tomas Cohen Arazi [mailto:tomascohen@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 4:23 PM To: Kurt Bodling Cc: Amber Amland; koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Unlocking MARC Fields in Koha 3.06

On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 4:03 PM, Kurt Bodling <kbodling@mountvernon.org> wrote:

...

Again, I'm still on an older version of Koha, so maybe all these

things have been changed.

What version exactly, BTW? It can mean a lot (or not). As you write about your (uncomfortable) experience with authorities in Koha, you should provide us with that info, otherwise you could be making people incorrectly think Koha is bad :-(

Regards To+

Follow up to my own earlier email: I've been playing around on one of the demo sites that lets us preview Koha 3.06.00.000 (specifically the one at bywatersolutions.com). My earlier email had 4 "problems" with Koha's authorities module. Two of those problems appear to be FIXED in Koha 3.06! Fixed: #2 clicking on the "…" symbol or icon or whatever it is in a biblio record next to a 1XX, 6XX, or 7XX [etc.] #3 authority record that has two subfields of the same kind [etc.] Still a problem (in my eyes): #1 Koha create its machine-generated authority records with characters in the authority record’s 008 field that mark the record as not valid for use #4 can’t import authority records using the staff client Kurt A. Bodling Technical Services Librarian George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate, Museum & Gardens P.O. Box 110 Mount Vernon, VA 22121 Phone: 703-799-6835 Fax: 703-799-8698 Email: kbodling@mountvernon.org