[Koha] some thoughts about cataloguing and acquisition

[Rachel Hamilton-Williams]

Hi 

I should say IANAL (I am not a librarian :-)


> I got the impression that Koha "simpler non-MARC interface" form would not
> allow the "simpler" libraries to see the record in MARC compatible format.
> I apologise if I have misunderstood! 

I think this is a misunderstanding.  Aquisitions (full) is full because it 
deals with Budgets and bookfunds - MONEY, nothing to do with MARC. It assumes 
that you order books, wait around a bit, get the books delivered, then complete 
the catalogueing of them and put them on the shelves.

It assumes that you want to do the minimum amount of data entry necessary 
*before* you get the book to enable people to see that you have it on order, 
but that you don't want to spend a bunch of time entering in data for a book 
you may never receive (something not uncommon here at the end of the world :-). 
You don't do the full catalogue record until you have the physical book in your 
hand.

 The simple Aquisitions system assumes that you don't really order books - or 
at least that you account for that in another system, that you just enter them 
when you get them, so it does the full record in one go - more like a 
"standard" catalogue screen I assume (But IANAL :-).  

I *hope* and I haven't been involved in the MARC project, so I'm not sure, that 
EITHER acquisition system will do the whole MARC bit, and that all you are 
choosing, is the aquisitions system that best fits your libraries business 
process.


Hope it helps

Cheers
Rachel
_____________________________________________________________

Rachel Hamilton-Williams             Katipo Communications            
WEBMISTRESS                          ph  021 389 128 or +64 04 934 1285 
mailto:rachel at katipo.co.nz           PO Box 12487, Wellington
http://www.katipo.co.nz              New Zealand
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