[Koha] Simple MARC reference information

[Steven F.Baljkas]

Wednesday, August 23, 2006   04:16 CDT

Dear Kevin,

One thing you could try in terms of sourcing MARC records for books published in the UK would be to hazard North American records, based on the fact that many works are co-published between affiliated presses.

I have another idea, but I would prefer to test it first, to prevent raising any false hopes. Could you possibly send a small sample of your book information so that I might try an experiment? 20-50 works would be sufficient, I should think.

As for Nigerian books, that's a bit more of a pickle, I should think and you may have to bite the bullet and try to construct original cataloguing. Depending on the number of such works and how quickly you need them, I might be able to help out with that. Again, I'd need to see an example of the data I'd be trying to deal with.

You can write back to me off listserv with this information if it is of interest to you.

If not, my best wishes as you move forward with MARC. I agree with Rosalie and others and recommend that you not abandon it. Eventually, and not too far off in the future, all that weird stuff will start to look familiar: I promise.

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


============================================================
From: Kevin O'Rourke <lists at caboose.org.uk>
Date: 2006/08/23 Wed AM 03:14:34 CDT
To: Rosalie Blake <rosalie at library.org.nz>
CC: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
Subject: Re: [Koha] Simple MARC reference information

Rosalie Blake wrote:
> But ... having said that, in your position, I wouldn't consider the
> non-MARC alternative. I will be surprised if you don't find you can
> download MARC records free for a big percentage of your stock. It is (a)
> much quicker to edit a record you have downloaded, and add your
> particular information (a barcode number, a particular shelf location)
> and
> (b) safer, because your MARC record will be free of typos, spelling
> mistakes, variant spellings and so on (and on!) 
>   
Most of our books are published either in Nigeria or the UK.  If anyone
knows of a source of MARC records for Nigerian books I'd be overjoyed.

The British Library doesn't seem to support MARC on their Z39.50
service, can anyone recommend any other free sources for MARC records
for UK publications?

Thanks,
Kevin

-- 
Kevin O'Rourke
ICT Coordinator, National Teachers' Institute, Kaduna, Nigeria
062 316972

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