[Koha] Db/Textworks

[Steven F. Baljkas]

Monday, February 14, 2005    17:55 CST

Hi, Bob, Phill, et al.,

Just one quick comment and one short question re: Bob's answer ....

> From: Bob Ewart <bob-ewart at gate.net>
> Date: 2005/02/12 Sat AM 07:17:33 CST
> To: Phill Hardstaff <phillh at spc.int>
> CC: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> Subject: Re: [Koha] Db/Textworks
> 
> Phill Hardstaff wrote:
> 
> >Hi, I would love to hear from anyone who has moved data from Db/Textworks and 
> >Procite to Koha, I am migrating our 2 libraries who currently use these 2 
> >software packages to one instance of Koha.
> >
> >Cheers
> >
> >Phill
> >
> >
> Hi Phill
> 
> I'm planning to move from DB/Textworks to Koha.  We have about 10K books 
> & videos and countless serials. 
> 
> We plan to export the catalog to a comma delimited file, then write a 
> Perl script to convert to MARC format.

You might want to check out MARCEdit off the MARC Tools page at LC at URL <http://www.loc.gov/marc/marctools.html#recordtools>
It has a delimited text editor which might save you the step of writing the PERL script. Or if you don't have access to a PC to use MARCEdit on, give a shout back and I can try converting the records for you.

Now, the short question viz. 

> Part of the problem is that one record in DBTextworks can
> contain multiple book barcode numbers.

Unless I missed something critical, Bob, (and please let me know if I am) I can't see why this would be a problem.

The same thing is true for valid MARC records in any ILS, since one can have many copies of a book etc. on the shelves that are all attached to one MARC record and yet would have (one hopes) unique barcodes and sometimes other identification numbers (often acquisition numbers, e.g.).

It's only complex in deciding where to map the barcode info (multiple 852s perhaps, unless there is someway of appending the barcode info to the $p; I guess that would depend on how the barcode info is stored in your DBTextworks).

In the meanwhile, best wishes to you both as you move forward with your migrations to Koha.

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