[Koha] marc import

[Joshua Ferraro]

Hi Christine, Steven,

On Wed, Feb 22, 2006 at 06:26:35PM -0600, Steven F. Baljkas wrote:
> > i've got several files of marc records i downloaded from oclc.  i would
> > like to do a bulk import, but have been reading about the need to add a
> > 952 subfield.  will i need to change something in these oclc records?  or
> > can i just do a bulk import?  
> 
> ... yes, you can bulk import them. I would recommend decompiling them into 
> editable text outside of Koha first though, using a free tool like 
> MARCEdit (about which see URL <http://www.loc.gov/marc/marctools.html>)
> then adding the necessary 942 and 952 information, editing or deleting any 
> other fields you like, and then using MARCEdit to reconvert the whole back 
> into valid MARC21 which you will then be able to bulkimport easily.
That sounds like a bit too much work to me, editing every field. I 
would recommend using a small Perl script to parse the record and mirror
your holdings data (wherever it may be located) to the default fields
that Koha uses (942 for the record-level and 952 for the item-level).

Another perfectly valid way to proceed is to map the koha holdings fields
to the fields where your holdings data lives. With that approach, you
wouldn't need to edit the records at all.

> Plus, doing things this way you will save any trouble trying to edit with 
> Koha's editor.

> As has been cautioned before (many times), Christine, please remember to 
> keep your original (in this case OCLC) MARC records, as there are elements in 
> MARC records which Koha does not currently handle correctly and some which 
> it just plain ignores.
I don't see any value at this point in keeping the original MARC records
as the bulkmarcimport tool doesn't rely on the frameworks to determine which
elements of the MARC record to save. In the 2.2 series, there is 0 loss 
while importing. No ILS makes full use of MARC, it would be absurd if
one did. The important questions to ask is "is the system going to lose
information on import" and "can the system export the records again in
valid MARC". Koha will not lose information and it will export in valid
MARC.

Where there is a problem, is when a library does not properly set up
the framework to meet their needs (adding control fields, etc.). See
below.

> 
> (Given your library type and depending on your long-term interest in 
> keeping with Koha, Christine, you may well want to spend the time 
> configuring Koha to include display of the MARC control fields it would 
> otherwise ignore: see Thomas Dukleth's blessedly helpful explanation 
> on this in the comments to the defining Systems Parameters section in 
> Stephen Hedge's Koha User's Guide at
>    URL <http://www.kohadocs.org/usersguide/ch01s03.html#lowtags> .)
If you'd like an example of how this might look, please see this MARC
edit screen:
http://koha.liblime.com/cgi-bin/koha/acqui.simple/addbiblio.pl

> > i'm pretty sure they're all sitting in the breeding area right now waiting
> > to be uploaded,  (must i do this one at a time?)
The breeding farm is for records that don't have any holdings information
attached, not for records that already have holdings. I'd follow Stephen's
advice and use bulkmarcimport (though I would recommend against manually
editing the files to update the holdings location).

Cheers,

-- 
Joshua Ferraro               VENDOR SERVICES FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE
President, Technology       migration, training, maintenance, support
LibLime                                Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS
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