[Koha] Where's the Dewey - CLARIFICATION NEEDED!!

[Baljkas Family]

Tuesday, October 12, 2004    20:10 CDT

Hi, Andres,

I was actually waiting for someone to raise the point you did (again), as rather than responding to my pointing it out last time, I was treated to the condescension of being told that I don't understand basic library terms.

So here it is again programming folks.

The problem Andres is running into is the IMPORTANT DISTINCTION (and until Dave Bigwood or one of my cataloguing mentors tells me I have this wrong I am sticking with what I know I was taught and have seen applied) BETWEEN AN ASSIGNED 
CALL NUMBER (in this case Dewey) AND A CALL NUMBER USED LOCALLY.

Andres, the 082 is the correct tag for an (any) assigned Dewey number. The indicators are used to code its cataloguing source. Similarly for the 050 (LC number) or, for Canadians, 055 (LC-type number assigned by NLC).

The custom of using 090 for the LOCAL call number stays with us (remains in several ILS) because the 090 WAS the place LC used to store its local call number used.

To be absolutely clear, the CLASSIFICATION part is often present in both, as is the ITEM identifying part (usually represented by the author cutter). The two TOGETHER make up the CALL NUMBER. Almost all library cataloguing I have seen evinces complete numbers in 050 and 082 when it contains those fields.

It is true, however, that sometimes you will see incomplete numbers in the 050 or 082, numbers that give the CLASSIFICATION (COLLOCATION) part but lack the ITEM part. This is not terribly distressing to most cataloguers as it is common practice to adjust 050 and 082 cutters to one's own collection (in fact, if you aspire to have unique call numbers for each book in your collection, it is necessary).

I feel like the voice crying in the wilderness, but here I go again: What Koha needs to do is ADOPT/ASSIGN A STANDARDISED/DEFAULT (modifiable if you wish) MARC TAG FOR THE CALL NUMBER TO BE USED/DISPLAYED BY THE SYSTEM.

This number could be contained in the 090, it could be in 852, etc. There are several options. (LC's actual number is in the 050, with qualifications on actual locations in 925 and 955.) Different ILS usually make one location the default and unlike Koha don't give anyone the right to change that. If, in Open Source spirit, you wish to make this modifiable, that is super: just, please, please, please MAKE A DECISION. Dare to be autocratic.

Also, for whatever it's worth, with the number that is used locally, I would suggest that you not worry so much about parsing it into its classification and item parts. Entering it in one tag's subfield (e.g. 90d) as an alphanumeric string should suffice. In larger libraries and wherever users find searching by call numbers useful, this can be handled through instruction on where to truncate numbers (basically, teaching your patrons enough to recognise where the item part begins; if they make a mistake, they learn soon enough when they get to the shelves).

The practice established by the chief cataloguer at the military library I worked at seemed to function quite well; we entered numbers in our local call number displayed field (90a) as with this example which should be familiar to the cataloguers among us: Z 694.15 .A56 A53 1998. For us, the breaks/spaces also translated into line breaks for the spine labels (to be honest, we also dropped the initial periods for space reasons, so for AACR2R1998 we would have had
      Z
      694.15
      A56
      A53
      1998
-- no one ever noticed that some periods were missing).

My observation of discussions suggests to me that the 852 is shaping up as the Koha MARC21 flavour default. I still think it would be better if you programmers chose one of the 9xx fields, just because Koha could then keep the UNIMARC and MARC21 flavours the same for default location of call number (which would probably be less confusing in the long run for most users, especially those who are only starting to learn about MARC).

Andres, as for a more immediate solution to your problem: I think Stephen Hedges fielded this question (when I last remember it arising) several months ago. Maybe you can find it in the archives? Mapping the 082 to the 090?

Stepping down off the soap box now, in the hopes that this may get us somewhere new,

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


> From: Andres Tarallo <tarallo at ort.edu.uy>
> Date: 2004/10/12 Tue PM 12:56:03 CDT
> To: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> Subject: Re: [Koha] Where's the Dewey
> 
> MJ Ray wrote:
> 
> > On 2004-10-11 19:45:04 +0100 Andres Tarallo <tarallo at ort.edu.uy> wrote:
> >
> >> We've noticed that we can't see the Dewey of a biblio when we enter 
> >> to the catalog.
> >
> > What does "enter to the catalogue" mean?
> 
> If you're in the Intranet click in "catalog" search for a book, then 
> click on it. If I wan't to edit the biblio it expect to find the Dewey 
> in the 090d, but Koha finds the Dewey in 082. Since we're not LOC we 
> should use the 090d as our dewey.
> 
> Andres
> 
> PD:we're working with version 2.1.2 of Koha.
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