[Koha-devel] Some thoughts about "any" index

[Mathieu Saby]

Hello

I've written a patch for making the "an" index more precise with DOM 
indexing.
Bug 11291
But the more I think of it, the less I am sure of my solution ;-)

The question is : is it good or not to have a way to find information 
anywhere in a record, really anywhere, whatever the field or subfield?
If you think so, my patch is not a good idea, because it will make DOM 
indexing behave like GRS-1 on that point ("any" indexes all fields 
already indexed in a specific index).

In fact it raises a second question: even if it is usefull for staff to 
have a broad (on all specific indexes) or even a broader (on all fields 
of the record) index, it is a good thing that this index is used in OPAC 
simple search ?
I believe not. Because some data are not made to be searched by an 
average user, and can even make a precise search on a subject more 
difficult.
For example, in UNIMARC, the $2 subfield in Subjects 6XX fields contains 
the code of the thesaurus used (like LCSH, or RAMEAU in France). It's 
really only a librarian-centric information. You will never search in an 
OPAC all records indexed with all LCSH subject.
Idem for the birthdate of an author. Nobodoy search a book by typing the 
birdthdate's author. Birthdate are entered to disambiguate authors.
Idem for most notes, for the city of publication, for the country and 
language code, etc etc.

So, for that, I wrote last year a patch 8962, whose aim is to index in 
"any" ony some specific indexes, and rename the current "any" index into 
"anywhere". This "anywhere" index will be usable for Staff.
Of course, as the "any" indexed is specified in config file for each 
field which need it, it will be easy to add or remove new field to this 
index if a library want it.
I made it for GRS1 only for the moment, but I need to make it DOM compliant.
As it will require 1 or 2 days of work, I would like to know if someone 
object this logic.

If you think it is a good idea, I can propose you 2 options for the 
behavior of "anywhere" index for DOM :
1 - ALL fields of the record indexed in it. Like current DOM "any" index.
2 - Only fields of the record already indexed in a specific index.

Option 2 will require something like patch 11291.

PS : I'm leaving my position the 6th of december, and I won't work 
anymore on Koha in 2014:-( . So I will probably "un-assign" soon the 
bugs I am currently responsible for in Bugzilla.

Regards,
M. Saby

-- 
Mathieu Saby
Service d'Informatique Documentaire
Service Commun de Documentation
Université Rennes 2
Téléphone : 02 99 14 12 65
Courriel : mathieu.saby at univ-rennes2.fr