[Koha] Possibility of setting up and then exporting MARC tag structure?

[baljkas at mts.net]

Wednesday, February 18, 2004    22:22 CST

Greetings O Wise Koha'ites!

I've been trying to help Doc with puzzling out some of the MARC set up stuff and I have what is probably a ridiculously naive question (err, questions), but here goes anyway:

Is the configuration of the MARC tag structure (what I'll call the MAP for convenience sake) saved to any particular file in such a way that one could do the set up at Point A and then export it to Point B? Or alternatively, could it be remote accessed so that the work could be done for Koha installation at Point B online from a Point A?

And as a corollary to that (with the hopeful answer of YES to at least one of the above):

Would it be useful to the community to have a default MARC21 and/or UNIMARC MAP, one which would include all possible tags and subfields, set up, from which one could then just delete what one didn't need instead of trying to worry about adding everything that might possibly come up?  (BTW, if it were possible, I imagine it could be offered as part of the installation package in the near future, or at least off the Koha site, to facilitate and even encourage adoption of Koha.)

**This is based on my understanding that Koha won't map MARC tags properly unless all encountered tags are mapped completely in the MARC tag structure admin.** If that is not in fact correct, please let me know as I don't think I'm alone in having made that interpretation, based on what's been said in the listserv and in documentation.

I would be more than willing to take the time to create such a MAP for the Koha community, if it would be possible and desirable. I have the current IFLA and MARC21 reference materials and could invest the time starting this weekend.

Looking forward to a response from the PTB's anytime soon'ish. Thanks in advance,

Steven F. Baljkas
library tech at large
Koha neophyte