[Koha] Biblio and Biblioitem

[Andrew Buxton]

The SQL table definitions are just a reflection of the underlying data model.  The theoretical distinction seems to be between the features of a work that are constant across all editions and manifestations (e.g. the author and title) which go into BIBLIO and those which will vary (e.g. edition, number of pages) and go into BIBLIOITEMS.  

However I wonder, as a prospective rather than actual user, whether this works well in practice.  For instance, doesn't the actual title (as opposed to the uniform title) sometimes vary between editions? And the copyright date may be different for a printed book, the audio recording, and the film of the book.  The series title will be different if the same book is published as a member of different series.

It also doesn't seem to fit well with MARC as an exchange format, which combines all these elements into one record, so they might as well be all in one table.

Andrew Buxton
IDS, Brighton, UK

  

-----Original Message-----
From: koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Nicole Engard
Sent: 03 December 2009 13:10
To: Elaine Bradtke
Cc: Koha list
Subject: Re: [Koha] Biblio and Biblioitem

These terms are the names of MySQL tables - and now that I'm looking
at them, I'm not sure why there are two tables - maybe someone else
can explain the why - but if you understand MySQL then maybe the table
structure below will help you out.

This from : http://git.koha.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=Koha;a=blob_plain;f=installer/data/mysql/kohastructure.sql;hb=HEAD

--
-- Table structure for table `biblio`
--

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `biblio`;
CREATE TABLE `biblio` (
  `biblionumber` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `frameworkcode` varchar(4) NOT NULL default '',
  `author` mediumtext,
  `title` mediumtext,
  `unititle` mediumtext,
  `notes` mediumtext,
  `serial` tinyint(1) default NULL,
  `seriestitle` mediumtext,
  `copyrightdate` smallint(6) default NULL,
  `timestamp` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP on update
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  `datecreated` DATE NOT NULL,
  `abstract` mediumtext,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`biblionumber`),
  KEY `blbnoidx` (`biblionumber`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

--
-- Table structure for table `biblioitems`
--

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `biblioitems`;
CREATE TABLE `biblioitems` (
  `biblioitemnumber` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `biblionumber` int(11) NOT NULL default 0,
  `volume` mediumtext,
  `number` mediumtext,
  `itemtype` varchar(10) default NULL,
  `isbn` varchar(30) default NULL,
  `issn` varchar(9) default NULL,
  `publicationyear` text,
  `publishercode` varchar(255) default NULL,
  `volumedate` date default NULL,
  `volumedesc` text,
  `collectiontitle` mediumtext default NULL,
  `collectionissn` text default NULL,
  `collectionvolume` mediumtext default NULL,
  `editionstatement` text default NULL,
  `editionresponsibility` text default NULL,
  `timestamp` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP on update
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  `illus` varchar(255) default NULL,
  `pages` varchar(255) default NULL,
  `notes` mediumtext,
  `size` varchar(255) default NULL,
  `place` varchar(255) default NULL,
  `lccn` varchar(25) default NULL,
  `marc` longblob,
  `url` varchar(255) default NULL,
  `cn_source` varchar(10) default NULL,
  `cn_class` varchar(30) default NULL,
  `cn_item` varchar(10) default NULL,
  `cn_suffix` varchar(10) default NULL,
  `cn_sort` varchar(30) default NULL,
  `totalissues` int(10),
  `marcxml` longtext NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`biblioitemnumber`),
  KEY `bibinoidx` (`biblioitemnumber`),
  KEY `bibnoidx` (`biblionumber`),
  KEY `isbn` (`isbn`),
  KEY `publishercode` (`publishercode`),
  CONSTRAINT `biblioitems_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`biblionumber`)
REFERENCES `biblio` (`biblionumber`) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE
CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;


On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 6:43 AM, Elaine Bradtke <bradtke.e at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Could someone please explain the terms Biblio and Biblioitem?  I tried
> looking through the manual and the FAQ's but the terms appear so
> frequently that I get too many hits. And the Glossary wasn't any help
> either.
>
> I'm editing the subfields in the MARC framework and under Advanced
> constraints there's a Koha link.  I was trying to link at what I
> thought was the appropriate level - the biblio.isbn  but there only
> appears to be a biblioitems.isbn
>
> Not understanding the difference between biblio and biblioitems makes
> me wonder if this will work.  I'm trying to link analyticals together
> using their common ISBN in the 773 Host Item Entry field.
>
> Quoting from the 3.0 manual:
> # link : If you enter a field/subfield here (200b), a little glass
> appears after the subfield. If the user click on the glass, a search
> is done on the DB for the field/subfield with the same value. Can be
> used for 2 main topic :
>
>    * on a field like author (200f in UNIMARC), put 200f here, you
> will be able to see all biblios with the same author
>    * on a field that is a link (4xx) to reach another biblio. For
> example, put 011a in 464$x, will find the serial that was previously
> with this issn. With the 4xx pligin, you get a powerful tool to manage
> biblios connected to biblios
>
> # Koha link : Koha is multi-MARC compliant. So, it does not know what
> the 245$a means, neither what 200$f (those 2 fields being both the
> title in MARC21 and UNIMARC !). So, in this list you can "map" a MARC
> subfield to it's meaning. Koha constantly maintains consistency
> between a subfield and it's meaning. When the user want to search on
> "title", this link is used to find what is searched (245 if you're
> MARC21, 200 if you're UNIMARC).
> --
> Elaine
> _______________________________________________
> Koha mailing list
> Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
>
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