[Koha] Newbie question - possible to include dummy 'records' as templates?

[Stephen Hedges]

Steven, I don't think dummy records would work.  But maybe I'm not
understanding the original question.

I think what we are talking about here is the ability to display certain
tags and subfields when cataloging a book, a different set when cataloging
a video, yet another set when cataloging an audiobook, etc. -- right?  And
you mentioned the General Material Designation (GMD) as a way to define
these broad categories.

(And BTW, please ignore my previous wandering thoughts about item types --
that's a different issue altogether, something that's defined locally. 
What  we're talking about here are global "item types," which I'm going to
call "categories" in this e-mail to avoid confusion.)

I don't find a handy list of authorized GMD's (is there one?), but the
MARC21 discussion on tag 008
(http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbd008s.html) mentions seven
categories of materials: Books, Computer files, Maps, Music, Continuing
resources, Visual materials and Mixed materials.

Now, what gets displayed on Koha's cataloging page is controlled by the
"tab" column in marc_subfield_structure.  If a tag|subfield is _not_ to be
displayed, then the value stored in "tab" should be -1.  (Positive number
values of tab, starting with 0, control which browser 'tab' the
tag|subfield will appear in.)

So if I want to be sure to display the 245|h tag|subfield when cataloging
"Visual materials," but I don't want to see it when cataloging "Books,"
then I would want the value of "tab.marc_subfield_structure" to be -1 when
cataloging books, but some positive number (maybe 1) when cataloging
visual materials.

If you create dummy records, all you really could have is a suggestion of
which fields to fill in, and which can be ignored.  For example, your
dummy record for books could say "ignore this" in the 245|h tag|subfield,
while your dummy record for visual materials could say "be sure to put
something here" instead.  (And hope the cataloger remembers to take these
notes out before saving the record!)  But either way, 245|h is going to be
displayed, because you're going to have a positive number in the "tab"
column for 245|h (because you're going to need it for sure for some of
your records).

That's why I say the only way I can think of (right now) to display
different templates for different material categories would be to have
different marc_subfield_structure tables for each category.  So for
instance, if your choose to catalog a videotape, Koha would consult the
"visual_marc_subfield_structure" table to determine which tag|subfields to
display.

And then, of course, there's the whole issue of different versions of
MARC...ugh!  (gone to get some aspirin)

Stephen

Steven F. Baljkas said:
> Saturday, April 17, 2004    15:15 CDT
>
> Hi, Stephen, Ernest, et al.
>
> Re: the 'not yet' answer to Ernesto's question
>> >> Is there a way to create diferent tag structures so I have
>> >> predefined templates for books, magazines, pictures,
>> >> videos, cds, etc???
>
> I am going to display my programming ignorance again and ask a follow-up
> question re: Stephen's specification that
>
>> It seems like this would require a separate  marc_subfield_structure
>> table
>> for each item type.  Then the user could specify which item type they
>> want
>> to catalog and Koha would consult the appropriate table to determine
>> which
>> tags and subfields would be displayed. (This would mean that the task of
> setting
>> up the MARC subfield structure would be even more complex than it is
>> now!
>>  So if Koha were to implement this change, it would be nice if people
> would share
>> their templates with others, once they have them defined.)
>
> Would it be possible to include with the Koha distribution dummy 'records'
> (templates) of each of the common GMD types?
>
> If these could be made difficult to delete or alter accidentally, they
> would
> serve as the kind of templates Ernesto probably means. (This is what the
> ILS's Athena and MicroCat do essentially; probably others also.)
>
> I would be willing to take the time (inter-contracts now) to work on
> detailing the MARC21 tag structure specifics if that would help. I hope to
> be up and running with Koha's latest stable version later this month and
> could harvest and export the tag structures (as was explained in the
> answer
> to a question I posed for Doc) after setting them up in my Koha.
>
> Anyway, Stephen, would it be possible to have dummy 'records' as a simple
> solution?
>
> Cheers,
> Steven F. Baljkas
> library tech at large
> Koha neophyte
> Winnipeg, MB, Canada
>

-- 
Stephen Hedges
Skemotah Solutions, USA
www.skemotah.com  --  shedges at skemotah.com