[Koha] e-books as Koha items
Giuseppe Angilella
Giuseppe.Angilella at ct.infn.it
Thu Jun 15 16:59:04 NZST 2017
Hi,
soon after posting my message below, I realized that Koha indeed possesses
this feature (to some extent). While on the e-book record, I can "Link to
host item", and then select the barcode of the e-reader's specific item
which actually contains that e-book.
This should fix the main issue of keeping track of loans.
The only drawback is that the call number of the e-reader would be the
same for all the e-books contained in it, which would therefore not show
up appropriately in the "Browse shelf".
Giuseppe.
On Thu, 15 Jun 2017, Giuseppe Angilella wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've just started populating my library's catalog with e-book readers and
> e-books.
>
> I've defined different item types for either e-readers and e-books, and
> classified the former as "equipment" and the latter as "monographs" in the
> appropriate MARC record fields (leader etc).
>
> For a given e-reader type (Kindle, say) I may have several items. These are
> distinct, as they have a different serial number, and receive therefore a
> distinct barcode. Similarly, they can be borrowed individually. Therefore,
> they perfectly qualify as "Koha items".
>
> On the other hand, an e-book is entered as a specific record (which is
> distinct from the record of the corresponding hardcopy, if also available),
> with a cross-link to the e-reader's record in the 773 MARC field.
>
> Originally, I thought that no physical item should be attached to an e-book,
> since it is the e-reader, and not the e-book, which can be borrowed. However,
> this prevents the e-book to appear in the "Browse shelf" feature, close to
> books with similar topic (which is very useful for patrons).
>
> One solution might be that of restricting the e-book type to "no loan", but
> then the cross-link to the appropriate e-reader would be contained in the
> record (Koha's biblioitem), and not in the item (Koha's item), which might be
> confusing for the patron.
>
> Another solution might be that of devising some kind of "virtual items".
> Several "virtual items" (say, several e-books) could be mapped onto a single
> (physical) "item", so that whenever the (physical) item is on loan, all of
> the "virtual items" contained by it are also set "on loan". A "virtual item"
> could then be shelved, receive a call number etc appropriately, and therefore
> show consistently in Koha's "browse shelf" feature.
>
> I would very much appreciate receiving your feedback on my thoughts above.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Giuseppe.
>
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