[Koha] Adapting MARC frameworks and deleting unneeded tags

Thu Mar 16 22:49:43 NZDT 2023

Hi Fred, 

Yes, for theses (undergrad, master's and PhDs) I don't think I'll ever need an ISBN. For books I will absolutely need it. That's why I was thinking I should have a separate framework for books and for theses (and perhaps for serials, and other items we may have in our collection down the road). 

Re: differences between MARC21 and UNIMARC, yes I found that they are different, which is why it's a good thing I have my old laptop with a separate installation of MARC21 flavor Koha so I can (re)familiarize myself with both. However since all the other libraries here use UNIMARC, that's what I must work on. It's too bad that IFLA currently doesn't have UNIMARC available on their site; I had to dig to find a pdf of UNIMARC concise bibliographic format (2008) because a lot of the links on https://www.ifla.org/publications/unimarc-formats-and-related-documentation/ are broken. A copy was archived at https://archive.ifla.org/VI/8/unimarc-concise-bibliographic-format-2008.pdf I also have a copy of the book "UNIMARC in theory and practice" by Mirna Willer that I used during my studies, but that was a long time ago, and the systems we had didn't use any bibliographic formats so I've forgotten a lot. 

I was actually able to follow instructions someone here posted - forgive me, I cannot remember right now, I think it was René? - where you upload the marc21xml2unimarc.xsl file from MarcEdit and Koha does the conversion for you on the fly (and this should be an already added feature, if doable wrt the rights to use the file and funding to implement it). I'm still tweaking the exported theses file I'm planning to import, and my installation is still empty, so i feel like I can experiment with the frameworks. 

Right now if I try to import a searched ISBN, I get a lot of errors - for example, section 4 which contains subfields for 410 series, 411 subseries, 412 Source of Excert or Offprint etc., are all marked as Required. The book I'm using as an example (Computer architecture ; ISBN 13: 9780123838728) is a part of a series and I was able to enter that, but there are many other subfields that don't apply (there is I presume a setting to change these into non-required fields, I just haven't found it yet). I can't save the entry unless I deal with each of these errors. 

In section 2, under 200 we have Title and Statement of Responsibility, a couple of fields down there are 206 Material Specific Area: Cartographic resources - Mathematical Data, and 208 Material Specific Area: Printed Music Specific Statement, and other similar fields. Surely these can be removed from the books framework, and used in a separate cartographic framework in those libraries who have them in their collections? 

Or is it preferable to add all new titles by using the Fast add or Acquisitions framework, and then add in the necessary details like the inventory and call numbers, etc.? It didn't seem that way in the cataloging section of the manual. 

>> And finally, and not related to your current conundrum, Koha will let you add fields even if they're not MARC or UNIMARC standard.  

That's actually relevant for the theoretical Theses framework I want to make; in our old system I had added fields where I could note the mentor, the department and student's major and minor fields (e.g. Bachelor of Science in Computer Science – major and Economics - minor, Doctor of Medicine, etc.) A quick look at the 2008 document (on the very last page) tells me that: 

>> 9-- NATIONAL USE BLOCK  
>> All -9- and --9 fields throughout the format are reserved for national and local use; 
>> their definitions and indicator and subfield values remain undefined by the 
>> Permanent UNIMARC Committee. This is also true of indicator value 9 and subfield $9.  

So I supose I can create new fields there for the above entries like you did with the field for ORCID numbers. I'd like to work all of this out before I start importing anything. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with, and sorry for the wall of text :) 

Best regards

Aida Đikić

-----Original Message-----
From: King, Fred <Fred.King at Medstar.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2023 7:15 PM
To: library at ssst.edu.ba
Cc: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
Subject: RE: [Koha] Adapting MARC frameworks and deleting unneeded tags

Hi Aida, (this one's going to the Koha list as well)

Based on my quick look, the formats for MARC and UNIMARC are very different, and not really compatible. You can see the complete MARC structure here:
   https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/
I couldn't find a similar site for UNIMARC, but the Library of Congress has a page of UNIMARC to MARC 21 Conversion Specification:
   https://www.loc.gov/marc/unimarctomarc21.html

Are you really, really sure that you'll never need an ISBN? When I've done Z39.50 searching, that's the first thing I look for. I use MarcEdit though, and I think Koha Z39.50 may let you search than more than one field at a time.

And finally, and not related to your current conundrum, Koha will let you add fields even if they're not MARC or UNIMARC standard. For the past nevermindhowmanyweeks I've been rebuilding the MedStar Authors catalog (the one in my signature is still the old one). For example, I wanted a field for ORCID numbers, so I created the 858 field based on the 856 field, which I use for DOIs. You can also edit the Search Results and Search Detail xsl files to put whatever you want on the OPAC. I'll have more to share on this soon, I hope.

--Fred

Fred King, MSLS, AHIP
Medical Librarian, MedStar Washington Hospital Center fred.king at medstar.net
202-877-6670
ORCID 0000-0001-5266-0279
MedStar Authors Catalog: http://medstarauthors.org

You know it's cold outside when you go outside and it's cold.
--NPS Twitter

-----Original Message-----
From: Koha <koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz> On Behalf Of library at ssst.edu.ba
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2023 10:26 AM
To: Donna Bachowski <donna at bywatersolutions.com>
Cc: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Koha] Adapting MARC frameworks and deleting unneeded tags

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Hello Donna,

Thank you very much! Yes, for theses I don't foresee using fields such as ISBN or some others, and we don't import theses from anywhere else, so I would be fine with removing each field we won't need.

I will check that custom framework, that's very kind of you. I have two separate installations of Koha – one on a work server with UNIMARC flavor as that's what's used in my country, and another on my old personal laptop which is MARC21; does it matter where I upload the framework?

Best regards

Aida Đikić

From: Donna Bachowski <donna at bywatersolutions.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2023 2:53 PM
To: library at ssst.edu.ba
Cc: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
Subject: Re: [Koha] Adapting MARC frameworks and deleting unneeded tags

[https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AGNmyxYs9F9u__YiPHhkRXnWPtzwSuA6uIOOd3ILbQ6_cQ=s40-p]
Donna Bachowski <donna at bywatersolutions.com<mailto:donna at bywatersolutions.com>>
9:43 AM (6 minutes ago)

to library at ssst.edu.ba<mailto:library at ssst.edu.ba>, koha at lists.katipo.co.nz<mailto:koha at lists.katipo.co.nz>

Hello Aida!

If you are sure you will never be importing records that would have those tags, then yes, go ahead and delete them!  We do custom frameworks a lot for special projects like you mention, and usually delete the extraneous fields.

If you would like to use it, you can access here https://drive.google.com/file/d/196CGH2J_6_UtLUZf7zlo0sybT66NrVxV/view?usp=sharing a framework that we worked with a library to create for their thesis/dissertations.
You can download the framework file as .csv, then import it into a new framework.

The only concern with deleting fields from a framework is that if you import a record that has, for example, an 036, and the framework you are importing the file into does not have that field then the data is lost.
But with the process you are describing, I don't see any issues with deleting certain fields.

Best,
Donna
Donna Bachowski, MLS
Director of Implementations
ByWater Solutions
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On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 9:09 AM library at ssst.edu.ba<mailto:library at ssst.edu.ba> <library at ssst.edu.ba<mailto:library at ssst.edu.ba>> wrote:
Hello all,

Today I have another question for you regarding MARC frameworks and cataloging different items. While I wait for our IT to export the cataloged textbooks from our current system, I've been refreshing my knowledge on UNIMARC, going through the exported theses (2008-2018; for later ones I don't have an exported csv file yet) and trying to work out how best to adapt the MARC framework so they can be imported. I've also been looking up the mail archive to see how others have dealth with cataloging theses - if any of you could share your practice I'd be grateful!

I downloaded the Books, Booklets, Workbooks framework I adapted from the Default framework, and in going through the tags I saw there were many I would never use; would these be OK to delete? I mean tags such as 20 Fingerprint Identifier, 21 Legal Deposit Number, or 36 Music Incipit, and others. For the eventual Theses framework, I also would not need tags such as 10 International Standard Book Number (ISBN) or 11 International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) and many other, but would need a tag where I could list the student mentor for that particular thesis. I'd also like to add a Serial publications framework.

Would I actually be safe in deleting these tags, or is there a better way to handle them? In my earlier efforts to add Z39.50 servers, I tested adding a title I had in hand, but I am being prevented from saving it since some of the tags were blank upon import and I wasn't sure how to fill them out.

Best regards

Aida Đikić

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