[Koha] XML cataloging

[tajoli]

Hi to all,

On Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:46:57 -0700, marijane white
<marijane.white at gmail.com> wrote:
> The reference manual implies that Koha once supported formats other than
> MARC, and the setting for this is still described in the manual.  I'm
> curious about what happened with this feature, and what happens if you
> change the setting in current versions of Koha, does anyone know?  Is it
> totally broken in current versions, or what?

Koha, now and in the near future, can manage every MARC format.
More exactly could manage any data expressed with a ISO 2709 format
as physical format.
Using the generic label 'MARC' you mean two different thing:
-- a physical format based on ISO 2709
-- a logical format arranged by a national/international library agency
(MARC21, Unimarc, CNMARC, UKMARC, etc.)

ISO 2709 physical format is a format with Leader, fields, subfields,
indicators.
ISO 2709 has 3 hierarchical levels, so you use XML and you have no more of
3 levels is quite easy to to transform from XML to ISO2709
without loose information. With more levels is still possible but much more
difficult.

So if you can define your date in a structure with fields, subfields,
indicators and so you create your private MARC, you can use Koha.
You need to do specific setups in many places, change templates, change
Zebra definitions and probably same code fixes.
To do it you need a quite good knowledge of Koha at all level
(Configuration, Web templates, perl API, Zebra setup).

But is it possible.

Bye
Zeno Tajoli