[Koha] MANY THANKS for all the help I received installing KOHA

[David Lesniaski]

I used KOHA to upload (and link) these bib and authority records:

The cataloging and subject authorities created by Sanford Berman and
colleagues at Hennepin County Library are now accessible through an online
system.

It has been possible to obtain the MARC records of the Hennepin County
Library catalog through the University of Illinois Archive, but these were
raw records only, so searching them and, more importantly, understanding
the context of a particular heading was rather difficult.

I installed KOHA (an open source online system) on a Debian server,
uploaded the bibliographic and subject authority records from the UI site,
and then linked the subject and bibliographic records.  Hence every bib
record contains both the links to the subject heading, as any catalog
would, but also contains links to the subject authority records.
Similarly, the subject authority records contain links to the bibliographic
records in which they are used.

The site is http://sb.davidlesniaski.org/ and the main page contains a link
to a document explaining various ways to search the metadata.

Alas, there are a few glitches—some records were miscoded; the subject
authority file and bibliographic file were compiled at different times, so
there are a few thousand authority records (of the more than 300K total)
that are not linked.  Nevertheless, I think this site will help to provide
insights into Sandy’s work by showing the links between subjects and
bibliographic records, and between the subject records themselves.

I did not upload the name or series authorities, but if a name was coded as
a subject in the bibliographic records, it is part of the subject authority
file.

On a personal note, it’s been my hope for a long time that such a site
could be created, and* I’m especially grateful to the many people on the
KOHA listserv that provided help as I created this site.*  I came across
Sandy’s work when I was in library school, and his work … well, as I put on
every syllabus of the introductory Organization of Knowledge course I
teach:  “Cataloging should be fun. And challenging. And useful.” Sanford
Berman, in The Joy of Cataloging.

SO, even though many of you aren't catalogers, I really appreciate the
generous help and advice I received from many KOHA list members during the
installation process.

 --David

Dr. David Lesniaski
Associate Professor
MLIS Program
St. Catherine University
2004 Randolph Ave. #4125
St. Paul, MN 55105
dalesnaski at stkate.edu
he, him, his


-- David

Dr. David Lesniaski
Associate Professor
MLIS Program
St. Catherine University
2004 Randolph Ave. #4125
St. Paul, MN 55105
dalesnaski at stkate.edu
he, him, his