Chris Cormack wrote:
On Tue, Jul 08, 2003 at 11:40:14PM -0400, Derek Dresser said:
  
Chris,

This helps a lot.  Let me just make sure I have it.  A biblio is the general
information about a publication, a biblioitem is a type of incarnation of a
publication (book on tape, paperback, hardcover, first edition, etc.) and an
item is an actual thing that can be checked out that fits one of those types. 
So you can obviously have multiple types, and then one or more instances of each
type.  That makes sense.  Thanks.
    

Yep thats it :)

  
Now, during the import process of a bunch of USMARC records using
bulkmarcimport.pl, should I expect my database to be populated with any items? 
After doing it, it seems that I get biblios and biblioitems, but no actual
items.  Just for fun I created a test "item" that matched one of my biblios and
biblioitems, and then searched for it.  It worked great an I got all the
relevant info (bar code, etc).  However, it is the only item in my whole
database.  ;-(

    
Hmm, ill have to defer to the more MARC savvy people on the list. But yes id
expect you to get at least as many items as you got biblioitems on the import.

Paul ... any ideas?
Of course yes :-)
If you want import to put items into items table, you have to tell Koha where are hidden your items in your MARC datas...
Let me explain :
Koha supports any MARC flavour. And each MARC flavour hides items in a different place (for example in UNIMARC, it's 995. For NPL, that uses MARC21, it's 952)
* Go to parameter section of Koha, MARC parameters tables.
* Search for the field where items are hidden (for example 947)
* Open subfields of field 947.
* "map" each 947 subfield to a items.something field.
* Put each subfield you've mapped to tab "items".
* go back to main parameter page
* run "checkmarc". If it reports no errors, you've win.
* import again, using delete flag to empty your database during the process.

Hope This Helps

Note : the main constraint is that all MARC subfields mapped to item field MUST be in the same field (you can't have a part of an item into 947 & 2nd part in 935). If you have, then the only solution is to "rewritte" your MARC data before importing. We have a problem with itemtypes, that is not in items in Koha but seems to have it's place in there, that's what we will speak during today IRC meeting.
-- 
Paul POULAIN
Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres
responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)