[Koha] e-books as Koha items

[Giuseppe Angilella]

Hi,

I've just started populating my library's catalog with e-book readers and 
e-books.

I've defined different item types for either e-readers and e-books, and 
classified the former as "equipment" and the latter as "monographs" in the 
appropriate MARC record fields (leader etc).

For a given e-reader type (Kindle, say) I may have several items. These 
are distinct, as they have a different serial number, and receive 
therefore a distinct barcode. Similarly, they can be borrowed 
individually. Therefore, they perfectly qualify as "Koha items".

On the other hand, an e-book is entered as a specific record (which is 
distinct from the record of the corresponding hardcopy, if also 
available), with a cross-link to the e-reader's record in the 773 MARC 
field.

Originally, I thought that no physical item should be attached to an 
e-book, since it is the e-reader, and not the e-book, which can be 
borrowed. However, this prevents the e-book to appear in the "Browse 
shelf" feature, close to books with similar topic (which is very useful 
for patrons).

One solution might be that of restricting the e-book type to "no loan", 
but then the cross-link to the appropriate e-reader would be contained in 
the record (Koha's biblioitem), and not in the item (Koha's item), which 
might be confusing for the patron.

Another solution might be that of devising some kind of "virtual items". 
Several "virtual items" (say, several e-books) could be mapped onto a 
single (physical) "item", so that whenever the (physical) item is on loan, 
all of the "virtual items" contained by it are also set "on loan". A 
"virtual item" could then be shelved, receive a call number etc 
appropriately, and therefore show consistently in Koha's "browse shelf" 
feature.

I would very much appreciate receiving your feedback on my thoughts above.

Best regards,

Giuseppe.