[Koha] Workaround: Using LC with Koha

[dmoses2 at uwo.ca]

Hello Folks:

Steven Baljkas (thanks Steven) suggested I write this up for those wanting to
use Library of Congress numbers with Koha. There has been much discussion
regarding support for LC numbers in future versions of Koha, but until that day
arrives here is my workaround.

1. Determine the MARC field used to hold the LC number in your MARC records.

This will vary from institution to institution. It is commonly in 090a (which is
a local call number field), but the MARC records I'm using have it in 099a.

2. Ensure that this MARC field is mapped properly.

Intranet Web Interface > Parameters > MARC tag structure > edit (or add) your
MARC field with the LC number and link it to the Koha
biblioitems.classification field

3. Link it to Koha

Intranet Web Interface > Parameters > Links Koha - MARC DB > Select biblioitems
from the dropdown menu > edit the classification field and link it to your MARC
field containing the LC number

4. Anytime you change the links between Koha and MARC you should test your
changes.

Intranet Web Interface > Parameters > MARC Check

If everything checks out ok, great. If not. hmmmmm.

5. Whenever you change the links between Koha and MARC it is suggested that you
run the rebuildnonmarc.pl script... If you've got a lot of records, this
process can take awhile.  Make yourself a pot of tea. (I'm not sure this step
is necessary)

For me the path to this script is

/usr/local/koha/intranet/scripts/misc

to run the script I often have to tell my system where PERL5LIB is (I don't know
why), so I type

export PERL5LIB=/usr/local/koha/intranet/modules

I make sure I'm in the right directory.

cd /usr/local/koha/intranet/scripts/misc

Then I run the script...

perl ./rebuildnonmarc.pl -c

6. To display the call number field you need to put it in your OPAC template.

Here is a snippet (there's lots of stuff before TMPL_IF and after /TMPL_IF) from
my opac-details.tmpl file

<!-- TMPL_LOOP NAME="BIBLIO_RESULTS" -->
<!-- TMPL_IF name="classification" -->
<b>Call Number: </b><!-- TMPL_VAR name="classification" -->
<br />
<!-- /TMPL_IF -->
<!-- /TMPL_LOOP -->

A caution - the classification field (in the biblioitems table) only holds 25
characters ... you can increase it if you have call numbers that are longer
than that by increasing the field length.

I had a great time exploring and experimenting with Koha for an independent
study I did. If you have any questions, let me know.

To see how it looks on my version of Koha see
http://69.156.111.211:8080/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?bib=652

I've got some duplicate call numbers in my MARC data and I've not clean it up so
some of the data may look odd.

Good Luck.

Don