[Koha] Koha Digest, Vol 86, Issue 38

Stacy Pober stacy.pober at manhattan.edu
Fri Dec 28 08:40:16 NZDT 2012


Haik,

I think you are trying to make one 856 do more than it was intended to do.

The Library of Congress MARC guidelines say this about  $u subfields:

"*Subfield $u (URI) repeatability.* Subfield $u may be repeated only if
both a URN and a URL or more than one URN are recorded. Field 856 is
repeated if more than one URL needs to be recorded. Some institutions may
wish to record a persistent name (URN) as well as a resolvable HTTP URL in
field 856."

<http://www.loc.gov/marc/856guide.html#subfield_$u>

So, unless you are using a different form of MARC (and I realize that this
is an international list, so this may be the case)  you should not put more
than one URL per 856 instance.  You can have a second $u field only if
there is a URN in that field. Since most URNs are not "clickable", it makes
sense that OPACs generally display only the first $u, which contains the
URL.

In short, multiple URLs would require multiple 856 fields.

The usual construction of an 856 field that links to the resource itself is:
=856  40$3[materials specified - optional]$u[url]$y[link text
-optional]$z[public note - optional]

In practice, most records have either a $y or a $z, though you can have
both of those in one 856. Both $y and $z show up in Koha as link text.

The only required subfield in an 856 is the $u.  You need not have any
other text, and if you don't put in a $y or $z, Koha will supply a default
link text.

An example of a typical  856 would be:
=856  40$3Ebrary$uhttp://ebrary.com/somebook$yAn online ebook. Click here
for access.

It sounds as if you may have constructed your 856 fields this way:
=85640$[URL1]$y[Link text 1]$uURL2$y[Link text 2]$uURL3$y[Link text 3]

You need to edit these to change them into multiple 856 fields, each with
only one $u and one $y:
=856  40$u[URL1]$y[Link text1]
=856  40$u[URL2]$y[Link text2]
etc.

Hope this helps.

-- 
Stacy Pober
Information Alchemist
Manhattan College Library
Riverdale, NY 10471
stacy.pober at manhattan.edu



> Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 21:59:41 -0800 (PST)
> From: Haik Zargaryan <haikzargaryan at yahoo.com>
> To: "koha at lists.katipo.co.nz" <koha at lists.katipo.co.nz>
> Subject: [Koha] cloning 856 $u
> Message-ID:
>         <1356328781.45563.YahooMailNeo at web163803.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Dear friends,
>
> We want to attach several URLs to the MARC record. Since the 856 $u field
> is repeatable, we have decided to clone the?subfield?several times. Yet,
> when we search for the record in the OPAC, only the first link is displayed
> in the results' page, meanwhile the other ones are not visible at all.?
>
> We have a similar problem with the 856 $y field as well. All subfields
> are?concatenated in one field and are displayed as a one text.?
>
> We want to have all links?each?one?with its appropriate text value, and of
> course, displayed separately. Is it possible?
>
> Thank you in advance,
> Haik.


More information about the Koha mailing list