[Koha] Feature Request : Database Tables

[Tom Albrecht]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the correct address for feature requests, but 
here goes.  If I'm wrong, please let me know where I should send it.

I've been testing Koha for our church library, and it looks like exactly 
what we need.  However, I've noticed a database shortcoming that if 
addressed would make things a lot easier for me.

The database tables Biblio and Bibliosubject are linked with the common 
field biblionumber, with a one-to-many relationship, allowing multiple 
subjects for a particular title.  This is wonderful, but the list of 
available subject strings are not stored anywhere, and are entered 
manually.  My thought is that there should be another table, say 
"subjects" that would contain two fields, a unique subject ID number, 
and a subject string.  Then, replace the string "subject" in 
bibliosubject with the id number.

This has multiple advantages...

1)  It allows a universal subject name change to be easily implemented. 
 For example, currently, if I want to change all instances of "FEMINIST 
THEOLOGY" with "FEMINIST DOCTRINE", I'd have to search and replace 
through every "bibliosubject" record.  With the change, I would only 
need to change one "subject" record.

2)  It allows for an exclusive list of subjects.  I would hate to 
accidently misspell "Religien", and create a whole new field.  If the 
"subject" table were exhaustive, only fields from that table would be 
allowed to be use.

Please let me know your thoughts!

Tom Albrecht III