<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>Steve, I will ramble some too.....
<BR>(think I will build the LINUX server this weekend)
<BR>
<BR>I have spoken to several other libraries here in Arizona that are considering
<BR>automating, they are not large library districts but one has two branches so
<BR>sizable enough..... In my instance I could live without MARC loading and
<BR>exporting but I don't really want to.... In the case of the others libraries
<BR>here they MUST have MARC. Has to do with interlibrary loans and the Liberian
<BR>went on to explain....
<BR>
<BR>But in talking with people, they want to use something that adheres to
<BR>standards.
<BR>
<BR>Our library of course being a reference library never inter library loans
<BR>and we do not allow patrons to check things out even ... too much that is
<BR>not replaceable!
<BR>
<BR>The reason We wish to have MARC is it is the standard, and if others wish to
<BR>use records that we have generated through original cataloging they will
<BR>have them in the format that they use.
<BR>
<BR><BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Subj: <B>[Koha] Re: marc and stuff!</B>
<BR>Date: 5/24/01 12:35:47 PM US Mountain Standard Time
<BR>From: tonnesen@cmsd.bc.ca (Tonnesen Steve)
<BR>Sender: koha-admin@lists.katipo.co.nz
<BR>Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:tonnesen@cmsd.bc.ca">tonnesen@cmsd.bc.ca</A> (Tonnesen Steve)
<BR>To: chris@katipo.co.nz (Chris Cormack)
<BR>CC: COURYHOUSE@aol.com, koha@lists.katipo.co.nz (Koha Open Source
<BR>Library System)
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>On Wed, 23 May 2001, Chris Cormack wrote:
<BR>
<BR>> > we may be at that point someday ... I guess the biggest
<BR>question
<BR>> > is how to load the marc records into the database can you point me
<BR>> > somewhere for this?
<BR>> > thanks for all the advise! And I love the way the software works....
<BR>> >
<BR>> Ok Steve Tonnessen who is on this list has been working on this and I
<BR>think
<BR>> he has a working marc importer running.
<BR>> Ill cc him in this reply.
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>I have a couple of schools who have been downloading marc records for
<BR>their books and importing then one at a time. They check my automatic
<BR>conversion of the marc records and make whatever modifications they need.
<BR>Since the site they have been getting marc records from is Canadian, they
<BR>have needed to modify the ISBN to the canadian publication's ISBN in every
<BR>case anyway.
<BR>
<BR>I've also started working on Z39.50 support. Just signed the contract for
<BR>access to the National Library of Canada's Z39.50 services today. I've
<BR>got a perl module called Zeta working for Z39.50 searches, but it only
<BR>seems to return SUTRS format (unstructured text) and not MARC format
<BR>results. It seems that Net::Z3950 is a better module, but I haven't got
<BR>it working yet. Also the YAZ toolkit also has a perl-based Z39.50 server
<BR>that would really be nice to tie into Koha.
<BR>
<BR>LCCN should not be just overwritten on the dewey field, it should have a
<BR>new field created for it. I guess the hitch with this is reworking the
<BR>scripts for entering and editing books...
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>Here comes some long rambling on my part...
<BR>
<BR>I think Koha really needs to be moved to a system that is at least partly
<BR>based on Marc. I think that the records for each bibliography should be
<BR>in MARC format, and that changes can be made either to the Koha Mysql
<BR>tables, or the underlying MARC records and changes will be made in both
<BR>places. The way that Koha stores records currently (broken into biblio
<BR>and biblioitems) might make this a little difficult, but we could maybe
<BR>associate particular MARC records with biblioitems, I guess, and then just
<BR>have groups of MARC records associated with one biblio, as is done now.
<BR>
<BR>I'm thinking maybe about having one module that is used for modifying
<BR>records. Something like:
<BR>
<BR>modifybibitem($env, $bibitemnumber, "author=Doe, Jane");
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>would change the author for biblioitem $bibitemnumber to Jane Doe. The
<BR>modifybibitem routine would be responsible for modifying both the MARC
<BR>record, and the MySQL tables.
<BR>
<BR>This all gets a little tricky when you consider that the MARC record
<BR>stores a fair amount more information than the MySQL tables, for example,
<BR>if a particular MARC record has a subject added entry like:
<BR>
<BR>650 a Extinct animals
<BR> x Encyclopedias, Juvenile.
<BR>
<BR>The corresponding entry in the MySQL bibliosubjects table would be:
<BR>
<BR> Extinct animals -- Encyclopedias, Juvenile
<BR>
<BR>Now if I edit the bibliosubjects entry to read:
<BR>
<BR> Extinct animals -- Encyclopedias
<BR>
<BR>It would be difficult to determine how to modify the MARC record
<BR>automatically in a generic way. If the entry was changed to:
<BR>
<BR> Extinct animals -- dinosaurs
<BR>
<BR>It becomes even more difficult to incorporate the change back into the
<BR>MARC record.
<BR>
<BR>I suppose the web interface could pop up a form saying something like,
<BR>
<BR>---
<BR>
<BR>Need more information for MARC record modification:
<BR>
<BR>650 a Extinct animals
<BR> __ Encyclopedias
<BR>
<BR>---
<BR>
<BR>with an 'x' as a suggestion for the text entry box.
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>Steve Tonnesen
<BR>Coast Mountains School District
<BR>
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