[Koha] MARC tag structure

[Baljkas Family]

Wednesday, August 18, 2004    17:54 CDT

Hi, Suzanne,

Chris responded with the answer to the most important part of your query, so you now have the solution you need.

As for a few other parts, I will pick up on your rant with a little one of my own ...

> I am not a librarian, but know the dewey decimal system
> and how to run a library, in general. I am starting my 6th
> year as the librarian at a small (just over 100 students)
> K-8 school. When I started here, the library was
> computerized using a system by the Follette [i.e. Follett]
> Company. It was pretty straight forward and the previous
> librarian taught me every thing I would need to know (so I
> thought).

I am going to leave aside the whole issue of what a person should know or be expected to know to run a school library, or other library for that matter.

I would have you know and recognise, Suzanne, that there are MANY people in the United States and Canada (I cannot speak for elsewhere), who are being done out of jobs or have been "downsized", simply because administrators think there is *no* difference between a librarian, a library technician/technical assistant, and a clerk with no library training at all. You are touching on a very sensitive subject for many people who were trained in library science and have aspired to work full-time in the library world in one capacity or another.

On to more concrete matters ...

If it is the Follett system I think you mean -- it never hurts to be specific, BTW -- then it is really just an elaborated circ system with an OPAC of sorts. It does not even come close to what Koha endeavours to do as a true Integrated Library System (ILS).

> All the previous versions of koha had everything our
> library needed. This new version is giving me way too much
> information.

This echoes an exchange between Chris Cormack and myself more than a year ago now.

Although many of us think Koha is great, it still doesn't provide enough information options for larger libraries with more complex catalogues.

Chris, maybe the solution is to distinguish more clearly what functions are going to be necessary/desired for the adopting library (a checklist in a README file?) and identify that turn-off-MARC function more clearly (I thought it was pretty clear but it still seems to be tripping people up).

Skipping the rest of what you wrote about MARC -- which, if you invest some time in learning about it now will repay you vastly in saved time cataloguing in the future -- ...

> Why the heck am I being put through all this trouble when
> the last version was filling all the needs of our small
> library? 

Because, Suzanne, not all libraries are small libraries, and as great as Koha is, it can only progress further by FULLY adopting the STANDARDS that are recognised by PROFESSIONALS and PARA-PROFESSIONALS as PROFESSIONAL.

As noted above, Koha still has a ways to go.

Thankfully, there is the turn-off-MARC provision to help you and other small library users from dealing with complexities that you are not ready for or do not desire to deal with in the meantime.

And on the final matter you mentioned ...

> P.S.  I used to be on the koha mailing list. I haven't
> received any messages since early July. I'm not sure if
> this is the correct e-mail address to which I should send
> this plea. If not, please forward this message to the
> proper address.

I can't tell if someone corrected this for you and forwarded it or not, but I can assure you that the Koha-ites have been very busy this summer and you certainly should have received many messages since early July.

Is it possible that your school's admin has set up something to block spam that is eliminating your Koha messages? In the school divisions I've worked for, staff had to submit listserv sending addresses so that they wouldn't get blocked as junk. If you know that you submitted your address correctly, check with your sys admin.

Failing that possibility, maybe just try submitting another address. You should be able to read/check through the Archive online to see what you've missed.

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