[Koha] Currency on Items

[Baljkas Family]

Wednesday, October 6, 2004     01:10 CDT

Hi, Stephen et al.,

Just 2 cents on the MARC matter.

To be accurate, MARC21 makes *no* assumption about currency type/s. That is left for humans doing the coding to worry about. In Canada, we are so used to entering prices twice (first for CDN, second for USD) it is a non-issue. All Andres should do is make sure his library's cataloguing policy allows for the different entries.

You will find that exempla for use of MARC21 on the LC website and elsewhere are mostly (i.e. almost all) using USD as the default. Sort of *cuius regio, eius religio*.

And one other minor correction, Stephen: the catalogue record has multiple points at which you can track currency (I wouldn't see the point in noting the exchange rate, but maybe I am just not OCD enough), not the least of which is within the $c qualifier ("the price or a brief statement of availability and [my emphasis] **any parenthetical information qualifying the information**").

Just FYI.

Cheers,
Steven F. Baljkas
library tech at large
Koha neophyte
Winnipeg, MB, Canada

 
> From: "Stephen Hedges" <shedges at skemotah.com>
> Date: 2004/10/05 Tue PM 06:35:34 CDT
> To: "Andres Tarallo" <tarallo at ort.edu.uy>
> CC: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> Subject: Re: [Koha] Currency on Items
> 
> Andres Tarallo said:
> > While working with the Items in the koha-MARC link I´ve noticed that the
> > books have a price and reposition price, but is not stablished the
> > Currency of that price. Koha "assumes" the local currency?
> 
> Yes, Koha assumes the local currency.  (Someone may correct me, but I
> believe MARC "assumes" the local currency, too.)  You can manage
> currencies and exchange rates with Koha's "normal acquisitions" module
> when you place and receive orders, but the catalogue record has no way of
> tracking currencies and exchange rates.
> 
> -- 
> Stephen Hedges
> Skemotah Solutions, USA
> www.skemotah.com  --  shedges at skemotah.com