[Koha] Item types : formats, collections or what?

[Lino Tremblay]

Hello Joann,

IMHO, in "document type", there's always been a confusion between the 
format of document (book, ebook, DVD, etc.) and its content (fiction, 
dictionary, etc.), which often results in way too many types.

I'm trying to clarify this here by creating document types only for 
formats. For the remaining info (content, target audience, etc.), 
there's MARC fields like 000, 008, 245$h, 650$v and 655. As Koha isn't 
exploiting all of these fields (yet), I'll create uncontrolled index 
terms in 653 for the most important info (people here like to be able to 
search only novels, by example). It's not perfect, but it'll do the job 
until better ways to search are included in Koha. The only advice I can 
give you now is to populate these fields as much as you can even if 
they're not used now (hopefully, one day they will!).

Here's an example:

I convert my "Book (novel)" type this way:

000/6 = a (record type - textual document)
000/7 = m (bibliographic level - monographic document)
008/33 = f (litterary genre - novel)
653$a = Novel
942$c = Print book

Its sometimes a bit more complicated, but it's worth the trouble. We 
have around 70 documents types actually. We'll bring that number down to 
13 in Koha. Surely this will be easier to understand for our users.

As for collections/shelving locations, I think it's a must to be able to 
search them at the OPAC. It's not possible with the default Koha, but it 
can be done - Kathy Rippel and people at CKLS have managed to do it.

Hope this helps!



Lino



Joann Ransom a écrit :
> oops - sorry my example was too sketchy and I missed some out: F = 
> Fiction, N =  Nonfiction (if you hadn't guessed that much) - condensing 
> down an A4 into a paragraph a wee bit tricky .. :)
>
> Joann Ransom wrote:
>   
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I wondered if anyone would like to share their take on item types in 
>> Koha 3.0. I'm trying to get a handle on how we could better group our 
>> collection in preparation for a conversion to Koha 3.0.
>>
>> Currently we have a system which determines the first character in terms 
>> of format: ie D = DVD, V = Video, B = Book, P = Periodical
>> The second character is about which age group the item belongs to: J = 
>> junior ( childrens), Y = Young Adult, blank = adult (default position)
>> Then the third character is whether its a rental item or not: P = Pay, 
>> blank = free (default position)
>>
>> Item types are then built from these building blocks eg:
>> BN = Nonficiton book in the adult library
>> PP = Rental periodical in adult library
>> DJ = Free DVD in Junior library
>>
>> How do other libraries handle item types?
>>
>>     * Are they based on format or media : DVD, Book, Magazine, File
>>       packet etc as our currently are.
>>     * Or are they based on collection?
>>     * Is it best to settle on a few Item types and then use other koha
>>       fields to indicate collections?
>>     * How do you reflect genre? ie Free adult fiction - romance, free
>>       adult fiction - western etc.
>>     * I think rental items need to have distinct item types within each
>>       format, so 2 for adult fiction : 1 free and 1 rental to make sure
>>       the lending and charging rules work.
>>     * How do you indicate where an item is shelved in terms of being
>>       part of a collection, or sub collection, for example a free junior
>>       fiction book, from the Easy Readers subcollection?
>>     * Thinking about marc now (and I am a complete MARC virgin) what
>>       fields do people use to indicate these collections, format,
>>       subcollections and genre details.
>>     * Do we use home branch to indicate which library collection it
>>       belongs to?
>>
>>
>> Would really appreciate finding out how other libraries use Item Types.
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>>
>> Joann Ransom.
>> Horowhenua Lirbrary Trust.
>>
>>
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>>   
>>     
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-- 
Lino Tremblay, bibliothécaire
Cégep de Sainte-Foy
2410, chemin Sainte-Foy
Québec, Québec
Canada G1V 1T3
Tél.: 418 659-6600, poste 3865
Fax: 418 659-4563