[Koha] Importing (incomplete) data from Micro Librarian Systems

[Robin Sheat]

Hi, just a quick few points.

MisterRobe schreef op wo 21-01-2015 om 07:00 [-0700]:
> I can export data to:
>   
> Comma separated values  
> Tab separated values  
> and XML data

In general, tab is easiest to work with. Most library systems can't
export well formed CSV or XML (surprisingly) to save themselves, so tab
is the safest.

> An example of the first of the above is the following:
> Barcode,Class,Author,Title,Media,URL"04431","599.4","Cullis,
> Megan","Bats","Hardback",""
> Which, you can see, lacks some basic information including ISBN,
> tags/keywords etc. etc. 

If they're not in the system to start with, then you obviously won't be
able to get them out. If they are there, then you'll either have to
experiment, find someone who has done it, or talk to the vendor to
figure out how to export them. It's usually possible, one way or
another.

> My present system also uses five digit bar codes. I
> don't know how this would play on the Koha system.

I don't think there'd be any worries there.

> I have looked a little into Koha and can understand that .mrk is the
> format
> used natively by Koha. I will be looking into the possibility of
> persuading
> my provider to export more data and assume that until this is the
> case, I
> would struggle to import meaningfully into Koha. If anybody knows any
> different or has experienced any such problem before, I would be
> grateful
> for any help. 

There's a pile of utilities here:

https://gitorious.org/koha-migration-toolbox/koha-migration-toolbox/source/d27ef09046cca1cc4e3ead93fe3d77a8cd35356d:

that convert things from one form to another. I typically use the
csvtomarc.pl script that's in there to produce MARC files from CSV (or
tab separated, or anything along those lines.) Note that you will spend
an unhealthy amount of time studying MARC references. Don't say I didn't
warn you :)

-- 
Robin Sheat
Catalyst IT Ltd.
✆ +64 4 803 2204
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