[Koha] Koha & fixed fields

[Galen Charlton]

Hi,

On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 3:31 PM, Cab Vinton <bibliwho at gmail.com> wrote:
> From what I remember, Koha 3.0 does not use any of the information in the
> Leader.

The MARC21 indexing rules for Zebra use the bibliographic Leader/06
and Leader/07, and Koha relies on the Leader/09 (character encoding)
being set correctly.

> I'm not sure whether this is also true for the MARC 006, 007, & 008 tags/
> fields, however.

Similarly, the 007/00, /01, /02, and /11 are indexed, as are the
008/00-05, /07-11, /15-17, /22, /23, /29, /33, /34, /035-037, and /39.
 For authority records, the heading use indicators in the 008 matter a
lot.

> We have some original cataloging to do in-house & I don't want to spend a
> ton of time getting these fields right if it's not going to add any value to
> our patrons.

Please resist the temptation to do this! :)  Taking the time to set
the fixed fields is nice if you ever plan to share your original
cataloging with other libraries or bibliographic utility.  It's true
that like many ILSs, Koha doesn't use the fixed fields to their
fullest extent, but if you don't maintain the data, you won't be able
to readily take advantage of any future functionality that makes
better use of the fixed fields.

Regards,

Galen
-- 
Galen Charlton
VP, Research & Development, LibLime
galen.charlton at liblime.com
p: 1-888-564-2457 x709
skype: gmcharlt