[Koha] Unlocking MARC Fields in Koha 3.06

[Kurt Bodling]

Tomas,

Your response helps me some. Thanks. I just wonder why this sort of explanation isn't more readily available. Maybe I haven't searched the right places.

> 
> The authorities module actually works well. Perhaps there is some
> misunderstanding on how authorities work in Koha. And how Authorities
> are linked to records.
>

Well, first of all, I’m not on the newest release of Koha, so my experience is probably different from yours.

But ... if the authorities module works well, then:

1. Why does Koha create its machine-generated authority records with characters in the authority record’s 008 field that mark the record as not valid for use? (specifically a "|" in positions 11, 14, 15, and 16; whereas an “a” or one of the other valid letter codes would be more helpful)

2. Why does clicking on the "…" symbol or icon or whatever it is in a biblio record next to a 1XX, 6XX, or 7XX often generate a search in the authority records that Koha cannot execute? (specifically, if the bib record has a 600 with a $a and a $d [name and date], or a 650 with a $a and $x [subject and topical subdivision], Koha splits them into separate boxes in the search window and returns an error message if you don’t delete the content of one or the other box before searching the authority file)

3. Once you’ve gotten the authority searching figured out, why does clicking “choose” on an authority record that has two subfields of the same kind put them into a single subfield back in your biblio record? (specifically, say you have a topical subject divided by 2 geographic subheadings – 650 $a Topic $z State $z City – choosing that authority record will get Koha to move it back into your bibliographic record as 650 $a Topic $z State|City)

4. Why can’t I import authority records using the staff client? It’s apparently only something that can be done on the command line. This means that front line catalogers cannot download authority records they need for the work in front of them. Sure, some department head, or I.T. person, or the folks at your hosting service who have command line access can do it, but that doesn’t seem efficient and effective to me.


Again, I'm still on an older version of Koha, so maybe all these things have been changed. If so, sorry. If these things continue to be the way Koha authorities module behaves, though, I still think we could say the Koha authorities module doesn't work well (AND that there's some misunderstanding about how authorities work in Koha!!).

Kurt


Kurt A. Bodling
Technical Services Librarian
George Washington's Mount Vernon
     Estate, Museum & Gardens
P.O. Box 110
Mount Vernon, VA 22121
Phone: 703-799-6835
Fax: 703-799-8698
Email: kbodling at mountvernon.org
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tomas Cohen Arazi [mailto:tomascohen at gmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 1:26 PM
> To: Kurt Bodling
> Cc: Amber Amland; koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> Subject: Re: [Koha] Unlocking MARC Fields in Koha 3.06
> 
> 2011/11/18 Kurt Bodling <kbodling at mountvernon.org>:
> >
> > The authorities module doesn’t seem to work so well.
> 
> The authorities module actually works well. Perhaps there is some
> misunderstanding on how authorities work in Koha. And how Authorities
> are linked to records.
> 
> > That said, it sounds to me like perhaps your particular situation
> > might be spoken to in the manual at:
> > http://manual.koha-community.org/3.6/en/administration.html#authprefs
> ...
> > Is your preference set to “don’t allow”?
> 
> If you want to *use* authorities (i.e. using them when cataloguing),
> there are actually two ways of dealing with the case 'the authority is
> not previously catalogued and hence not available when searching for
> it'.
> 
> 1- Open the authority cataloguing module of koha (I do it on a new
> tab) and catalog it, wait at least one minute for the record to be
> indexed.
> 2- Allow the cataloguer to type the 'value' for the authority within
> the desired field in the biblio cataloguing form (i.e. allow the
> cataloguer to type the subject directly in the 650$a field) and let
> koha create a new authority record with that info.
> 
> Option 1 is the case when the field is 'locked'. Option 2 is related to
> the BiblioAddsAuthorities just mentioned preference set to 'allow'.
> 
> 
> - No authorities (field in framework not related to authority type):
> type the values in the form
> - Authorities (field in framework related to authority type)
>                   | - Field locked: need to search for authority, if
> doesn't exist, add it, then search again [1]
>                   | - Field unlocked: BiblioAddsAuthorities is set to
> 'allow'. Then typing a value makes koha create a new (incomplete data)
> authority.
> 
> Wheter authorities usage is encouraged or not its more like a personal
> decition. I think using authorities, and enabling fast-authority-add
> option makes pointless the use of authorities. Just my 2 cents.
> 
> Regards
> To+
> 
> 
> [1] If searching for an authority is not working it might be related to
> other issues (indexing?,bad cataloguing?), more info needed to help.