[Koha] MARC field and heading validation with Koha

[Hernandez, Heather]

Hi, Kumiko--

I'm not sure our workflow would be applicable since we're a very
specialized museum library, but maybe you'll get some ideas?

We lacked a lot of authority capabilities in our previous catalog software
(Athena), so our headings were & are pretty messy.  I'm in the middle of a
project to clean up the authority file and then the remaining authority
controlled fields in the bib records.  So, that said:

I catalog on OCLC (Connexion Client) but am experimenting with creating
original records in Koha with the Advanced Editor.  I manually search every
single authority controlled field in the Koha authority file, and download
new authority records from OCLC (or for locally created name, series, etc.,
records, key them very laboriously into Koha since there's no Advanced
Editor for authority records--I so dearly hope one is developed!).

If I have reason to substantially edit a bib record, I'll manually search
all the authority controlled fields that lack a $9 authority record link--I
have to do this manually because our Koha installation doesn't validate any
headings that have subfields that are not present in an authority
record--that is, only authority-controlled bib fields that match every,
single subfield in the authority record will validate & link.  So, e.g., in
our catalog, this heading in a bib record will validate & link to an
authority record (which one can see with the $9):
650 _ 0 $a Women sailors. $9 17788

But this heading will not validate & link (so lacks the $9), because
authority records are not created with headings with free-floating
subdivisions such as "$v Fiction:"
650 _ 0 ‡aWomen sailors‡vFiction.

So with us, authority control is still a human function.  We thought
briefly about using a vendor for the initial cleanup (I've had this done at
previous jobs & it's worked very well), but we lack the funds for such a
project.

One feature that is beautiful is that *if* headings are linked to an
authority record, once the authority record is edited or overlaid with a
newer imported version, the linked headings are pretty instantly changed.
Then it's just a matter of some searching & manual editing to update the
headings that aren't linked because they have, e.g., free-floating
subdivisions.  Or typos...sigh...:)

Our catalog is hosted and supported by ByWater & we've chatted a bit about
how we might experiment with some changes that might improve heading
linking, but haven't yet got beyond that--we have yet to upgrade beyond
17.05, so have yet to implement ElasticSearch which, I imagine, might
impact indexing/linking.

Hope this is helpful!  Cheerio,
h2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heather Hernandez
Technical Services Librarian
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Research Center
2 Marina Blvd., Bldg. E, 3rd floor, San Francisco, CA  94123-1284
415-561-7032, heather_hernandez at nps.gov
https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/research-center.htm