[Koha] 090 Fields

Steven F. Baljkas baljkas at mb.sympatico.ca
Tue Sep 9 06:30:15 UTC 2003


Tuesday, September 9, 2003   01:15 CDT

Hi, Ed,

I don't think anyone could claim Koha is doing something non-standard with its usage of MARC. The decision to use the 090 in the way that it has, however, was ill-advised given (as I just told Greg) the 090 was actually used by LC itself for the call number in the past and several systems out there in the market make use of it, causing potential migration problems that then get dumped squarely on poor Koha. 

# From what Chris C. and others have said since I've been on the list-serv, I gather that the H* (I won't even try to attempt the spelling at this late hour) Trust didn't care about MARC and that consequently, the developpers might not have appreciated fully how MARC-reliant much of the library world is and that there is a whole complicated history behind that.

Anyway, I like your suggestion, Ed, about moving the item type to a 9xx field. The developpers could designate one of the tags for it and then that would become a Koha feature.

# From the cataloguing side of things, this could still get screwed up in the future if one of the 9xx tags did get taken over eventually (that is not supposed to happen but ...).

I think Koha was brilliant for wanting to include more meaningful item (format) types. Kudos to whoever thought of that. There may be a more permanent and pleasing solution to the problem of moving that info to a 9xx. Hence the following modest proposal:

     Perhaps for those of you who qualify as real librarians
     (unlike yours truly), one might humbly suggest
     something some my paraprofessional colleagues and I
     have discussed over the years,
     *** a prescribed localised tag for more meaningful
     format types (and/or possibly other information) *** than
     are prescribed by the beloved AACR2R.
     Any suggestion/s would have to be submitted to CPSO
     but perhaps there would be interest enough to have a 
     tag added.

I realise that one could do this through a note and that, yes, it is technically coded in the 007 and 008, but it would be nice to have a simpler (if sometimes redundant) and recognisable statement of the item's format for patrons (and for us, too). As with 6xx fields, an indicator could be used to denote whether the term used was from a standardised thesaurus (something that might happen one day), or purely of local use.

Just a thought, anyway.

Steven F. Baljkas
library tech at large
Koha neophyte
Winnipeg, MB  CANADA


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: COURYHOUSE at aol.com 
  To: shedges at skemotah.com 
  Cc: lambert at amigos.org ; koha at lists.katipo.co.nz 
  Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 10:29 PM
  Subject: Re: [Koha] 090 Fields


  I guess what we have to analyze ... "is Koha doing something non standard that impacts the integrity of the MARC record? "  if so perhaps the non standard 
  information needs to  be at the end of the record past where the MARC data is kept? if there is no area present perhaps one needs to  be created  as a 'stash'

  Just a thought....

  Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC



    Subj:Re: [Koha] 090 Fields 
    Date:9/8/2003 5:24:04 PM US Mountain Standard Time
    From:shedges at skemotah.com
    To:lambert at amigos.org
    CC:koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
    Sent from the Internet 




    Greg Lambert/Amigos said:
    > As I was reviewing the bulkmarcimport I noticed that the 090 MARC field is
    > used by Koha as the ITEMTYPE fields.
    >
    > In the MARC data I am importing, the 090 "a" and "b" subfields are
    > assigned
    > local LC call numbers.
    >
    > Since Koha assigns  "a" as Koha Itemtype (NR)
    >                                          "b" as Koha Dewey Subclass (NR)
    >                                          "c" as Koha biblionumber (NR)
    >                                          "d" as Koha biblioitemnumber (NR)
    >
    > What will happen to my original 090a and 090b fields?  Will they still be
    > in the database?  If so, will this cause item "issues"?
    >
    > My limited cataloging knowledge tells me that the 001 field is used for
    > the
    > item number information (at least in the colleges I've worked).  Is that
    > not the case with MARC21?
    >
    >
    > Thanks!
    > -Greg

    Hmmm.  Do you mean your existing MARC records use an 090 field?  Koha has
    to store some important non-MARC information, primarily the biblionumber,
    biblioitemnumber and the itemtype, in the MARC record in order to
    interface with the "old" Koha databases.  The 090 tag was chosen because
    neither MARC21 nor Unimarc define any use for this tag, so it was
    considered to be "safe."  If you have existing MARC records that have data
    in an 090 tag, then you have a problem.  You could move the data to a new
    tag using MARC::Record.

    -- 
    Stephen Hedges
    Skemotah Solutions, USA
    www.skemotah.com  --  shedges at skemotah.com
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  Thanks Ed Sharpe, Archivist for SMECC

  See the Museum's Web Site at

  www.smecc.org

  We are always looking for items to add to the museum's display and ref. library
  please advise if you have anything we can use.

  mail:

  Coury House / SMECC
  5802 W. Palmaire Ave.
  Glendale Az 85301  USA

  623-435-1522

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