[Koha] How make item availability accessible via Z39.50?

[Liz Rea]

A while back, we asked a similar question of our LibLime support folks. Here is what they told us:

Here are the basic rules for
 determining availability in Koha:

 There is no single subfield indicating item availability.
 All checked-out items have a date in subfield $q.
 if there is no date in subfield $q then you must check subfields $0, $1, $4
 and $7. If these four subfields all contain a 0, the item is available.

I hope this helps you out. :)

Liz Rea
NEKLS

On Feb 15, 2010, at 4:58 AM, Mike Mason wrote:

> Hi all
> 
> I'm a newbie configuring Koha (Liblime's Koha Express [release 3.00.02.012]) for the first time. 
> Our library is part of a consortium of theological libraries that has a virtual union catalogue -- an OCLC site running Zportal -- a Z39.50 client that queries multiple servers similtaneously.  So I have to give the folks at OCLC info about how Koha stores data on Holdings in tag 952 so they can configure their Zportal to look for it.  I want the Z39.50 search result to show whether an item is AVAILABLE. Koha shows this in its own OPAC, but how can an external Z39.50 client find it? Is it in a MARC field/subfield? Our Liblime trainer suggested 952$q, but when I test this with Bookwhere, nothing is returned. Anyway, 952$q is 'checked out', and to be available, an item would have to be not only not checked out, but also not lost, not withdrawn etc.  Is availability stored in a mysterious Koha variable like biblioitem.available? (No such variable is listed in the Koha to Marc mapping table, as far as I can see). If it's a Koha variable not mapped into MARC, how can Zportal get to it?  It seems to manage with other ILS packages.
> 
> Excuse my vast ignorance of library matters; I'm not even a librarian; kind of honorary computer support person.  I've had to learn more about MARC than I ever wanted to know, and I hate it already.
> 
> Mike Mason
> 
> 
> Cordially,
> 
> Michael Mason
> 
> 
> (Rev. Dr.) Michael Mason
> Librarian & Director of I.T.
> Redemptorist Seminary Library
> 10 Majella Ct.
> Kew, Vic. 3101
> 
> Phone: +61 3 9817 9758
> Fax:     +61 3 9816 9805
> Email: M.Mason at ytu.edu.au
> 
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