[Koha] Cataloguing serials

Paul paul.a at aandc.org
Sun Mar 27 05:07:38 NZDT 2011


At 06:06 PM 3/26/2011 +0530, Saumendra Swain wrote:
>Which Version of Koha and in Which Platform You have installed??? And 
>Please sent us some screenshot of the Excell file you are trying to import 
>into koha. Will be able to guide you accordingly.

and also wrote off-list (maybe better to keep everything on-list?)

>It will be better if you can send me excell sheet with some actual book 
>Ditails that you wan to put intro KOHA.

Thank you for responding, but maybe my email was not clear. We are using 
Koha 3.02.05 on Ubuntu 10.10 - to the best of my knowledge these are both 
the latest stable versions. As far as spreadsheets are concerned, we 
consider Excel on Win XPPro SP2 as "legacy only" having never upgraded from 
Office 97 and use OpenOffice 3.3.0 (again, latest stable release). For bulk 
importing to Koha, we use MarcEdit 5.2.4 while awaiting the release 
(probably later today) of 5.5.  We have considerable experience with 
various flavours of SQL and are very comfortable manipulating data. We also 
have considerable experience with perl, html and css.

Our query concerns *cataloguing*, not *importing* - perhaps more of a 
bibliographic query as regards Koha structure, its mapping, and its OPAC 
presentation - this latter being after all the "be-all and end-all" of 
library software; we are fine tuning Koha to help our patrons (and if we 
can make life easier for the admins, that's an added bonus!)

I have re-read my email below, and would only add that we are getting 
closer to recognizing that we will need 230,000 *biblios* - one per 
periodical issue - instead of about 700, one per periodical title. This is 
due to the (some experts suggest outdated) Marc limits of 952$ (and 
possibly other 900$ series [sub]fields) compared to the 500$ and 600$ 
series and the various places that dates appear. From an IT point of view, 
I can make anything happen - it's just that we want to respect the 
"international standards" of Marc and Koha rather than reinventing the wheel.

As an aside, and having spent quite some time looking at Library and 
Archives Canada, the British Library and Library of Congress Marc records 
of various serials that we hold (e.g. The Rudder, monthly from 1890 to 1977 
over 1,000 issues) we can do a biblio entry, similar to the record [1] 
below my sig and adding:

853 01 $avol.
853 01 $i(year)
853 01 $wm
863 30 $a1-88
863 30 $i1890-1977

and other sundry details. BUT ... this does not allow *easy* or *user 
friendly* addition of items without repeating it every time for every item 
(monthly issues), each of which contains extensive - but unique - data on 
authors, articles, boat names, race results, etc.

My query was how other Koha users have solved this problem both from a 
bibliographic (strategy) and technical (tactical) point of view (takes me 
back to my early days of FORTRAN, COBOL and [later] LISP when we had 
"analysts" and "programmers" - now you all know where my sig comes 
from.)  It would appear, at this early stage, that there are no ready-made 
solutions.

Again, thanks for having taken the time to respond.

Paul
tired old sys-admin




>----- Original Message ----- From: "Archives and Collections Society" 
><paul.a at aandc.org>
>To: <koha at lists.katipo.co.nz>
>Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 12:33 AM
>Subject: [Koha] Cataloguing serials
>
>
>>We are looking for assistance with cataloguing serials (we have books
>>mostly under control now) and there must be something we are missing.
>>Semantically, a serial publication has a "single" (in the sense unique)
>>*biblio* record (title, publisher, size, periodicity, etc) --- and multiple
>>"items" (Vol I, No. 1 through Vol X..., No. y).
>>
>>However, this approach does not mingle well with Koha terminology or
>>methodology as far as we can see. We have entered the *unique" biblio - see
>>[1] below for how Koha has recorded it. We then entered two "items" which
>>just added two 952$ records to the single biblio - see [2] below.
>>
>>The results are pretty useless from an OPAC user's standpoint. [S]he can
>>find the single entry for the magazine, but refining the search for a year,
>>or a boat name, whatever, still brings up exactly the same output - and
>>adding the other 400+ issues of this periodical in the same way will (to
>>put it mildly) muddy the waters. End result, 402 952$'s attached to a
>>biblio, and a web page that will probably strangle Koha output (Marc view
>>as well as normal view.)
>>
>>Question 1 )  Do we need to enter (presumably via MarcEdit) a new biblio
>>for each item? Is this what all other Koha users do? (as an aside we have
>>over 230,000 periodicals on spreadsheets. Are there any easier methods to
>>replicate the biblio? or to use the "add item" in a more constructive manner?
>>
>>Question 2 )  The keywords|abstracts that we have for our serials is
>>extensive and must be searchable by OPAC users. So far we have used 952$z
>>for keywords (Koha input interface cuts this at 256 chars, while SQL makes
>>2^24 available, I'll need to modify tmpl|css) and used 520$a,3\, for
>>abstracts - but these latter are firmly glued to biblio rather than item
>>records. How do other Koha admins enter very lengthy but "mandatory for
>>search" data?
>>
>>Question 3 )  How should date, volume and issue number be treated? We have
>>ducked the question by concatenating to "Vol 6, No. 1, July 1971" but this
>>plays havoc with other dates (copyright for the biblio is the year of Vol 1
>>No 1, in this case 1965) and is not likely to be user friendly for just
>>looking for 2007 issues etc.
>>
>>Bottom line, does anyone have a schematic for what detailed Marc records
>>are required at biblio and item level to make 230,000 well documented
>>serials available in the OPAC?
>>
>>Many thanks,
>>Paul - tired old sys-admin.
>>
>>[1] - biblio:
>>
>>LDR 01584nas a22002297aa4500
>>005     20110325141405.0
>>008     110325c1965    -usmr#pe |||| 001 0deng d
>>022    _a00362719
>>040    _aOPIACS
>>        _cOPIACS
>>        _dOPIACS
>>100    _aSchanen, William F.
>>        _eEditor, Publisher
>>        _98136
>>210    _aSailing Magazine
>>245    _aSailing Magazine :
>>        _bThe Beauty of Sail
>>        _cSchanen, William F.
>>250    _aPublished monthly
>>260    _a125 E. Main St., Port Washington, WI  53074 Tel: 262-284-3494
>>        _bPort Publications
>>        _c1965
>>300    _avarious
>>        _billustrated
>>        _c38x24
>>310    _amonthly
>>362 0  _a1965-
>>651    _aNorth America
>>        _zGreat Lakes
>>        _98137
>>942    _2ddc
>>        _cCR
>>999    _c12844
>>        _d12844
>>
>>[2]  Koha items attached to the above biblio
>>
>>952    _pSLMG11030001
>>        _xtest
>>        _40
>>        _egoj
>>        _00
>>        _6SLMGUNKN1
>>        _912839
>>        _bOPIACS
>>        _10
>>        _oSLMG-UNKN-1
>>        _d2011-03-25
>>        _t1
>>        _zHey Mon Were Makin' Knots- annual Out Island Regatta, The
>>Cup-Bikini Cup, Parade of Characters- Yankee The Amo, Thales, Windspirit,
>>Talofa, Barloa, Islander, Freda, Sunfish Sailing- a look at Sunfish class,
>>Cal 33s, Mini 18 foot c
>>        _8periodical
>>        _hVol 6, No. 1, July 1971
>>        _51
>>        _71
>>        _cperiodicals
>>        _2z
>>        _g$7.50
>>        _yCR
>>        _aOPIACS
>>952    _w2011-03-25
>>        _xtest second ITEM
>>        _pSLMG11030002
>>        _r2011-03-25
>>        _40
>>        _egoj
>>        _00
>>        _6SLMG-UNKN-2
>>        _912841
>>        _bOPIACS
>>        _10
>>        _oSLMG-UNKN-2
>>        _d2011-03-25
>>        _t1
>>        _zBack on the SORC campaign trail, Tough Sailing Great Sunbathing-
>>Sugar Bowl Regatta in New Orleans,New Zealanders in Small Boats Win
>>Australian Classic- annual Sydney Hobart Race, Seguin in the southern
>>Caribbean-riding the trade wind in the southern cari
>>        _8periodical
>>        _hVol 6, No. 10, April 1972
>>        _51
>>        _71
>>        _cperiodicals
>>        _2z
>>        _g7.50
>>        _yCR
>>        _aOPIACS
>>
>>
>>---
>>Archives and Collections (ACS) Society
>>205, Main Street, Picton, Ontario, K0K 2T0, Canadahttp://www.AandC.org
>>Canadian Charitable Organization 88721 9921 RR0001
>>Dedicated to maritime conservation and education.
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Koha mailing list  http://koha-community.org
>>Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
>>http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
>
>---
>Maritime heritage and history, preservation and conservation,
>research and education through the written word and the arts.
><http://UltraMarine.ca>, <http://AandC.org> and <http://MarDoc.ca>



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