[Koha] Library of congress call/control numbers

[Daniel Holth]

I should be more specific about my congress classification
constructions.

First, I'm using the latest unstable version of KOHA, from
koha-1.2.3RC5.tar.gz.

Second, the fix wasn't as simple as I thought.

By default, the version of KOHA I'm using doesn't appear to store LC
Call numbers, just LC card catalog numbers.  That's what I made appear;
I thought it was correct because I had entered an LC Call No. instead of
the proper LCCN for my first book.

To make do what little more I wanted, I added two fields to biblioitems,
one each for the a and b fields of the MARC 050 element.  I then edited
a couple of the search results templates to show those numbers, also
editing the MARC import entry form to let me change those numbers.  A
couple of the C4 Perl modules needeed changing as well.

As you can see from this link,
http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdclas.html, my solution is
incomplete.  First, it appears the LC is not the only source for
LC-format call numbers, second there can be multiple (a) records for a
particular item and only one of them is held in the database.

But I'm happily putting LC Call labels on some of my books now.  Thanks!

On a side note, my local library has switched twice to increasingly
inferior OPACs.  The first one was very usable to my UNIX-trained mind -
text based w/dumb terminals, special keys on the keyboard for search,
prev, next, very fast and clean and accessable via modem.  Then they
switched to a client/server GUI that opens with a picture of a library -
almost no text - so that it wasn't immediately clear where to click to
search for a book.  Now they have an ugly web based system that runs on
a precious few 60Hz screens in the library.

My alma mater's system, cat.stetson.edu, is slightly better but it's dog
slow.  I feel like my libraries are locking down their collection by
making it unpleasant to find things!

Is it typical for libraries to switch to increasingly inferior systems? 
Ignoring koha, are there any truly excellent OPAC systems out there?

- Daniel Holth