- Koha-devel - lists.koha-community.org

Re: [Koha-devel] Website Homepage
by Thomas D 03 Aug '05

03 Aug '05

Sorry, I had failed to test my first suggestion until after posting. I wish I could have retracted it moments after it had been sent. My first paragraph would have needed to be divided into multiple paragraphs and even then would not have looked presentable or led the eye quickly enough to the elements appearing afterwords. There is too much empty space at the top of the page and the style sheet is not flexible enough for most of my first paragraph to have come close to working even if subdivided. I retract the mini feature list and other verbose elements of my original first paragraph suggestion. As I had written originally, there would be better way to convey this information in a new website design. Additionally, my non-breaking spaces were attached to the wrong end of adjacent words. Here is my suggested revised first paragraph. I do stand by my previous suggestions for everything prior to and after the first paragraph. <p> Developed initially in New Zealand by Horowhenua Library Trust and Katipo Communications Ltd. and first deployed in January 2000.  It is currently maintained and continuously developed by a team of software providers and library technology staff from around the globe.  Koha offers a full-featured ILS including integrated acquisitions, cataloguing, online public access catalogue (OPAC), circulation, and administration modules.  Control the power and freedom of Koha and open source software yourself at your library. </p> Thomas D Quoting Thomas D <koha(a)alinto.com> : > ---------------- Beginning of the original message ------------------ > > 1. PROBLEM > > What were the winks for exactly? The salient difference that > I see is , > aside from the derivation of koha, is that Joshua has > substituted "software > providers and library and technology staff" for "volunteers" > in the > original. Is 'volunteers' the concept at which the library > professionals > were winking? > > I would suggest that the colour scheme, graphics, and other > elements of > appearance are as likely to contribute to contribute to the > 'homebrew' > impression as the actual text. There is an aspect of the > graphics adjacent > to the Koha logo images that does seem a little out of place > for a > significant application intended to reliably run the most > vital operations > of a library. The way that the "download koha" balloon is > presented on the > home page is one example. The way the logo image at the > bottom with the > background colouration and hard outline edges appears > disjointed from the > page at the bottom of the home page is another example. I > would not expect > the graphical presentation to be adjusted until it is > presented as part of a > coherent new website design. > > People's expectation of web page appearance has been corrupted > by the glut > of poorly designed corporate websites and their imitators. > High bandwidth > consumption as an advertisement for shareholders at the > expense of > functionality and usability is a distinguishing characteristic > of far to may > corporate websites. Thankfully, that problem does not plague > any Koha > related website. > > I have noticed a form of possible redundancy in the original. > Although, > perhaps it is clarifying redundancy. When is an OPAC not a > catalogue? > > > 2. REVISED TEXT > > I would suggest the following amendment of of your proposed > text with the > consideration that Chris had suggested for HLT. My suggestion > tries to > provide a minor feature summary and compelling motivation for > adopting Koha. > The importance of development options in addition to > installation and > support is emphasised. > > There would certainly be better ways to convey this > information in a new > website design. This is my brief attempt at the current one. > > 2.1. BODY > > <h1><span class="heading">Koha </span> (Maori for 'Gift') is > the first > open-source Integrated Library System (ILS).</h1> > > <p> > Developed initially in New Zealand by Horowhenua Library Trust > and Katipo > Communications Ltd. and first deployed in January 2000. >  It is > currently maintained and continuously developed by a team of > software > providers and library technology staff from around the globe. >  Koha > offers a full-featured ILS including integrated acquisitions, > cataloguing, > online public access catalogue (OPAC), circulation, and > administration > modules.  Koha is multilingual and uses MARC 21, UNIMARC, > or non-MARC > records.  It contains integrated Z39.50 client and server > services. >  It supports the latest advances in patron accessiblity > and self > checkout circulation.  It is fully customisable from > template options > down to every line of open source code.  New features are > being added > constantly.  Control the power and freedom of Koha and > open source > software yourself at your library.  Do not be dependent > on one vendor. >  Available for free download and free use at your > library.  Many > installation, support, and feature development options are > available from > providers locally and internationally. > </p> > > <h1>that's right ... it's free</h1> > > <p> > Koha is released under the <a > href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public > License</a> > and is available to <a href="/download/">download</a>. > </p> > <p> > If you would like a quote for <a > href="/installation/support.html">installation and support, or > additional > feature development</a>; there are providers available > throughout the world. > </p> > > > While there are modest overlaps at the end of my suggested > first paragraph > with the preexisting second paragraph, the emphasis is > different. I do not > believe that it is redundant. > > Check the existing tags. The current paragraph tags do not > have valid > opening and closing tags which is not a significant problem > for browsers. > My valid tags may not provide properly rendered spacing. > > I would also suggest removing the possible implication that > Koha may be > difficult to install from the final paragraph. It might be > depending on the > installer and the system but the installation script works > quite well aside > from some minor glitches and the installation process is well > documented. > > <p> > We've put up a <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/koha/">Koha > store</a>, so > that even if your library is not ready for Koha yet, you can > still wear it > proudly. > </p> > > > 2.2. SPELLING AND USAGE CONVENTIONS > > Whether international (British) English or American English > spelling and > usage is used, I have no definite preference. The IFLA uses > and > international English as do many international bodies > including the UN in > New York. I presume that people at Katipo and Horowhenua > Library Trust use > New Zealand English spelling and usage. > > My own preference, as a US national, in my own use is for > international > English where that seems generally appropriate and American > English where > that seems appropriate following Fowler's example. Sidewalk > is a more > sensible contemporary term than pavement when most roads in > well developed > countries have been paved. American English spelling and > usage dominates > widely exchanged computer applications and the internet. I > use program for > computer applications but programme for events. I also follow > the sensible > practise of using spelling that is the same in a maximum > number of dialects, > when appropriate. I use dramatic arts instead of theatre or > theater, when > appropriate. > > American English spelling and usage have increasingly tended > to dominate > library science. The initiative and greater financial > resources of the > Library of Congress have brought the world's largest library, > MARC, and > Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). DDC, like > Library of Congress > Classification, is also US based. Many other examples could > be given of > American English dominance in library science. UDC uses > international > English but is less detailed and less well updated than DDC. > Other English > language subject thesauri competing with LCSH and based on > more carefully > considered designs have fallen out of use and been replaced by > LCSH; because > of the high cost of maintaining competing thesauri and > disadvantage from the > greater difficulty of international cooperative record > exchange and use with > multiple thesauri. While international English spellings are > included in > LCSH authority records as references, the American English > form is the > authorised form. American English has become the dominant > English dialect > for the exchange and interoperation of library records in > English and the > point to which major non-English systems have been paired. > > > 2.3. HEADER > > Whatever spelling and dialect choice is taken alternate > spelling and > language forms for important terms should be include at least > in the > keywords meta tag. > > <meta name="keywords" content="Koha, ILS, acquisitions, > cataloging, > cataloguing, online public access catalog, on-line public > access catalog, > online public access catalogue, on-line public access > catalogue, > circulation, administration, MARC 21, UNIMARC, Z39.50, open > source, GNU, > customisable, customizable, templates"> > > I will leave it for others to suggest what would be > appropriate keywords for > other languages than for me to use mistaken forms outside my > native language. > > > Thomas D > > Quoting Joshua Ferraro <jmf(a)liblime.com> : > > ---------------- Beginning of the original message > ------------------ > > > > Hi all, > > > > I propose that we immediately replace the first paragraph on > > the > > Koha homepage. I've gotten several winks from library > > professionals > > that the current language makes Koha sound like a homebrew > > project > > rather than an enterprise-level ILS. > > > > Here's what I propose: > > > > Koha (Maori for "Gift") is the first open-source Integrated > > Library > > System (ILS). Developed initially in New Zealand by Katipo > > Communications > > Ltd. and first deployed in January of 2000, it is currently > > maintained > > by a team of software providers and library technology staff > > from around > > the globe. Koha offers a full-featured ILS including a > > catalog, OPAC, > > circulation, cataloging and administration components. > > > > etc ... > > > > How does that sound? > > > > -- > > Joshua Ferraro VENDOR SERVICES FOR OPEN-SOURCE > > SOFTWARE > > President, Technology migration, training, > maintenance, > > support > > LibLime Featuring Koha > > Open-Source ILS > > jmf(a)liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha > > |1(888)KohaILS > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration > > Strategies > > from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward > > articles, > > informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to > get > > up to > > speed, fast. > > http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click > > _______________________________________________ > > Koha-devel mailing list > > Koha-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/koha-devel > > > > ------------------- End of the original message > --------------------- > > > > > --------------------------------------------- > Protect your mails from viruses thanks to Alinto Premium > services > http://www.alinto.com > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration > Strategies > from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward > articles, > informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get > up to > speed, fast. > http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click > _______________________________________________ > Koha-devel mailing list > Koha-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/koha-devel > > ------------------- End of the original message --------------------- --------------------------------------------- Protect your mails from viruses thanks to Alinto Premium services http://www.alinto.com

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Re: [Koha-devel] Website Homepage
by Thomas D 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

1. PROBLEM What were the winks for exactly? The salient difference that I see is , aside from the derivation of koha, is that Joshua has substituted "software providers and library and technology staff" for "volunteers" in the original. Is 'volunteers' the concept at which the library professionals were winking? I would suggest that the colour scheme, graphics, and other elements of appearance are as likely to contribute to contribute to the 'homebrew' impression as the actual text. There is an aspect of the graphics adjacent to the Koha logo images that does seem a little out of place for a significant application intended to reliably run the most vital operations of a library. The way that the "download koha" balloon is presented on the home page is one example. The way the logo image at the bottom with the background colouration and hard outline edges appears disjointed from the page at the bottom of the home page is another example. I would not expect the graphical presentation to be adjusted until it is presented as part of a coherent new website design. People's expectation of web page appearance has been corrupted by the glut of poorly designed corporate websites and their imitators. High bandwidth consumption as an advertisement for shareholders at the expense of functionality and usability is a distinguishing characteristic of far to may corporate websites. Thankfully, that problem does not plague any Koha related website. I have noticed a form of possible redundancy in the original. Although, perhaps it is clarifying redundancy. When is an OPAC not a catalogue? 2. REVISED TEXT I would suggest the following amendment of of your proposed text with the consideration that Chris had suggested for HLT. My suggestion tries to provide a minor feature summary and compelling motivation for adopting Koha. The importance of development options in addition to installation and support is emphasised. There would certainly be better ways to convey this information in a new website design. This is my brief attempt at the current one. 2.1. BODY <h1><span class="heading">Koha </span> (Maori for 'Gift') is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS).</h1> <p> Developed initially in New Zealand by Horowhenua Library Trust and Katipo Communications Ltd. and first deployed in January 2000.  It is currently maintained and continuously developed by a team of software providers and library technology staff from around the globe.  Koha offers a full-featured ILS including integrated acquisitions, cataloguing, online public access catalogue (OPAC), circulation, and administration modules.  Koha is multilingual and uses MARC 21, UNIMARC, or non-MARC records.  It contains integrated Z39.50 client and server services.  It supports the latest advances in patron accessiblity and self checkout circulation.  It is fully customisable from template options down to every line of open source code.  New features are being added constantly.  Control the power and freedom of Koha and open source software yourself at your library.  Do not be dependent on one vendor.  Available for free download and free use at your library.  Many installation, support, and feature development options are available from providers locally and internationally. </p> <h1>that's right ... it's free</h1> <p> Koha is released under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License</a> and is available to <a href="/download/">download</a>. </p> <p> If you would like a quote for <a href="/installation/support.html">installation and support, or additional feature development</a>; there are providers available throughout the world. </p> While there are modest overlaps at the end of my suggested first paragraph with the preexisting second paragraph, the emphasis is different. I do not believe that it is redundant. Check the existing tags. The current paragraph tags do not have valid opening and closing tags which is not a significant problem for browsers. My valid tags may not provide properly rendered spacing. I would also suggest removing the possible implication that Koha may be difficult to install from the final paragraph. It might be depending on the installer and the system but the installation script works quite well aside from some minor glitches and the installation process is well documented. <p> We've put up a <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/koha/">Koha store</a>, so that even if your library is not ready for Koha yet, you can still wear it proudly. </p> 2.2. SPELLING AND USAGE CONVENTIONS Whether international (British) English or American English spelling and usage is used, I have no definite preference. The IFLA uses and international English as do many international bodies including the UN in New York. I presume that people at Katipo and Horowhenua Library Trust use New Zealand English spelling and usage. My own preference, as a US national, in my own use is for international English where that seems generally appropriate and American English where that seems appropriate following Fowler's example. Sidewalk is a more sensible contemporary term than pavement when most roads in well developed countries have been paved. American English spelling and usage dominates widely exchanged computer applications and the internet. I use program for computer applications but programme for events. I also follow the sensible practise of using spelling that is the same in a maximum number of dialects, when appropriate. I use dramatic arts instead of theatre or theater, when appropriate. American English spelling and usage have increasingly tended to dominate library science. The initiative and greater financial resources of the Library of Congress have brought the world's largest library, MARC, and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). DDC, like Library of Congress Classification, is also US based. Many other examples could be given of American English dominance in library science. UDC uses international English but is less detailed and less well updated than DDC. Other English language subject thesauri competing with LCSH and based on more carefully considered designs have fallen out of use and been replaced by LCSH; because of the high cost of maintaining competing thesauri and disadvantage from the greater difficulty of international cooperative record exchange and use with multiple thesauri. While international English spellings are included in LCSH authority records as references, the American English form is the authorised form. American English has become the dominant English dialect for the exchange and interoperation of library records in English and the point to which major non-English systems have been paired. 2.3. HEADER Whatever spelling and dialect choice is taken alternate spelling and language forms for important terms should be include at least in the keywords meta tag. <meta name="keywords" content="Koha, ILS, acquisitions, cataloging, cataloguing, online public access catalog, on-line public access catalog, online public access catalogue, on-line public access catalogue, circulation, administration, MARC 21, UNIMARC, Z39.50, open source, GNU, customisable, customizable, templates"> I will leave it for others to suggest what would be appropriate keywords for other languages than for me to use mistaken forms outside my native language. Thomas D Quoting Joshua Ferraro <jmf(a)liblime.com> : > ---------------- Beginning of the original message ------------------ > > Hi all, > > I propose that we immediately replace the first paragraph on > the > Koha homepage. I've gotten several winks from library > professionals > that the current language makes Koha sound like a homebrew > project > rather than an enterprise-level ILS. > > Here's what I propose: > > Koha (Maori for "Gift") is the first open-source Integrated > Library > System (ILS). Developed initially in New Zealand by Katipo > Communications > Ltd. and first deployed in January of 2000, it is currently > maintained > by a team of software providers and library technology staff > from around > the globe. Koha offers a full-featured ILS including a > catalog, OPAC, > circulation, cataloging and administration components. > > etc ... > > How does that sound? > > -- > Joshua Ferraro VENDOR SERVICES FOR OPEN-SOURCE > SOFTWARE > President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, > support > LibLime Featuring Koha > Open-Source ILS > jmf(a)liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha > |1(888)KohaILS > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration > Strategies > from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward > articles, > informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get > up to > speed, fast. > http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click > _______________________________________________ > Koha-devel mailing list > Koha-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/koha-devel > > ------------------- End of the original message --------------------- --------------------------------------------- Protect your mails from viruses thanks to Alinto Premium services http://www.alinto.com

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opac-user & opac-userdetail
by Paul POULAIN 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

Hi, in opac, there is opac-user & opac-userdetail perl scripts. They seem to be highly similar, except that opac-user has more informations it seems (current reserves & history, fines & debts) Note that opac-userdetail don't work in css templates, as opac-userdetails.tmpl is undefined. BUT : NPL uses opac-userdetail.pl & has a .tmpl so, should we drop opac-userdetail & use opac-user or did I miss something ? -- Paul POULAIN Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)

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Patron controlled passwords
by Joshua Ferraro 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

Hi all, I just committed some code that Andres sent me: opac-passwd.pl opac-passwd.tmpl and one line to opac-user.tmpl This script allows a patron to change their password from the OPAC. The template needs to be translated into English and merged into HEAD. Cheers, -- Joshua Ferraro VENDOR SERVICES FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, support LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS jmf(a)liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS

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Business Readiness Rating
by Joshua Ferraro 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

Hi all, Check out: http://www.openbrr.org/ "Business Readiness Ratings (BRR) is being proposed as a new standard model for rating open source software. It is intended to enable the entire community (enterprise adopters and developers) to rate software in an open and standardized way." We'll have to see how widely this proposed standard is adopted, but in the meantime, there are some very good points made in the White Paper (http://www.openbrr.org/docs/BRR_whitepaper_2005RFC1.pdf) about the characteristics of a mature open source project. We're doing pretty well but there are areas where we could improve. Cheers, -- Joshua Ferraro VENDOR SERVICES FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, support LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS jmf(a)liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS

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thanks for your bug reports
by Paul POULAIN 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

Hi Tumer, I just want to thank you for your bug reports : very clear, and usually with the solution. Don't hesitate to continue "bugging" us ;-) I go back to solve 1009 ;-) -- Paul POULAIN Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)

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Bug Squash Meeting Summary
by Joshua Ferraro 01 Aug '05

01 Aug '05

Present: paul hdl thd owen kados We started with 60 bugs (paul had already fixed 5 before the meeting) and ended with 54 bugs. For the entire meeting see the IRC log at koha.org/irc. The following assignments were made: paul 975: serials : renewal of a subscription 790: opac search on 'the' gives internal server error 992: Suggestions doesn't check wether a biblio exists 943: pb accentuations LDAP <=> KOHA 958: Field "notes" becomes empty at receipt 1009: Not all items mapped to MARC 680: Intranet doesn't allow linking of subject headings 1008: Long MARC breaks KOHA 892: data in a closed order appear differently than data before c hdl: 1001: Issuing Rules Error 961: Error message, when deleting an authority kados: 670: "Waiting" status often inaccurate 933: Cancel process results in untemplated dialogue 849: Error when generating barcodes 185: Barcode not auto-calculated when autobarcode is on 836: $auto_install error 682: Move HTML out of addbiblio.pl (WILLNOTFIX) create "authority" in the components on the Koha Bug Tracker owen: 585: Using 'document.forms[0]' notation prevents use of other for 1005: mouse's click doesn't work in submit button 885: Non-ISO8859-1 charset support broken in CSS theme in 2.2 slef: 1002: Error in bulkmarcimport indicates possible permissions probl 984: Bug in installer appears to not correctly escape password chris: 426: Reserving a book (with a reserve fee) results in a hostile m 864: Subject search results not limited, show all results 995: Group Maintenace Looks like it should do something but it do Cheers, -- Joshua Ferraro VENDOR SERVICES FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, support LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS jmf(a)liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS

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Acquisitions Group Meeting
by Joshua Ferraro 01 Aug '05

01 Aug '05

Hi all, I spoke with HDL today on IRC about Koha's Acquisitions. There are a few concerns: Short-term: 1. Koha's current Acquisitions modules appear to be broken (HDL can expand on this) 2. Koha's simple acquisitions is too simple (does not include budget management for instance) Long-term: 3. Koha should support standards for Acquisitions like EDI, WDDL, SOAP or Web Services. I propose that we discuss fixing Koha's current solutions for the 2.2.x series and also discuss the long-term solution that we hope will be in 3.0 if we can find a sponsor for the development. So who has a vested interest in Koha's Acquisitions asside from HDL and myself? What ideas do you have? When we get some responses we can decide on a meeting time and I'll put together an agenda. Cheers, -- Joshua Ferraro VENDOR SERVICES FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, support LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS jmf(a)liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS

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about PROG templates
by Paul POULAIN 30 Jul '05

30 Jul '05

Hi owen & al, I saw your commits on HEAD about PROG templates. they are far from complete (or i missed something). Do you have a timesheet to complete them ? For instance, I still work on default, but once you say prog are ready, i'll swap to them as decided. -- Paul POULAIN Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)

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MARC Holdings, Koha, and Migration
by Thomas D 28 Jul '05

28 Jul '05

Things that you were afraid to ask about for MARC holdings and why it mostly does not matter yet for Koha, with a MARC 21 holdings mapping supplement. UNIMARC and MARC 21 holdings are considered below in a rather tedious manner. A mapping of common standard MARC 21 subfields to a single local use field for linking to the Koha items table is presented in the last section for migration purposes. Please comment and offer corrections, etc., especially about the migration mapping. Even if you would ignore the tedium of the previous sections, please comment about the migration mapping if you have an interest in migration issues for Koha. I have not tested this mapping in an actual implementation and may even be mapping MARC 21 to orphaned columns in the items table. If the migration mapping may be useful, it should form part of a migration how-to document. STATEMENT OF REASSURANCE Let me state at the outset, that I am satisfied that the current limitation for linking the Koha items table to one and only one MARC field is not a problem restricting Koha from functioning in any important way for its current likely users. Development resources should be concentrated elsewhere. At some suitable point in the future, it would be appropriate to revisit this issue. I have brought this issue forward previously with a less complete understanding of how and why Koha holdings works the way that it does. CURRENT KOHA HOLDINGS MODEL Koha has adopted a holdings implementation modelled on the French Recommendation 995, http://www.adbdp.asso.fr/outils/infogestion/r995.htm . Using this model, holdings information for one record is retained in one and only one local use field. Using Koha with MARC 21, any single field may be adapted for that purpose. 952 is the Koha default implemented at NPL. UNIMARC HOLDINGS UNIMARC had omitted holdings support from the bibliographic format. Implementers used local use fields or some other means for holdings information. The French government supported recommendation 995 for public libraries. The IFLA recently approved a UNIMARC holdings format as a separate record from the linked bibliographic record, http://www.ifla.org/VI/8/projects/UNIMARC-HoldingsFormat04.pdf . Paul Poulain reports the UNIMARC holdings format as not yet adopted by any ILS that he knows. Related bibliographic control number 004 in UNIMARC holdings identifies the control number 001 for the corresponding UNIMARC bibliographic record on the same system. Other system control number 035 in UNIMARC holdings matches 035 in UNIMARC bibliographic on the same system for identifying the control number 001 for a bibliographic record obtained from another system. In accordance with the approval of the UNIMARC holdings format, two fields are being added to the UNMARC bibliographic format. Location and call number 852 is being added to UNIMARC bibliographic to match the corresponding 252 field in UNIMARC holdings. Electronic location and access 856 is being added to UNIMARC bibliographic to match the corresponding 252 field in UNIMARC holdings. Within UNIMARC holdings, copy number $t is the linking subfield for identifying the particular copy across multiple fields. UNIMARC SERIALS HOLDINGS The UNIMARC holdings format allows storing complex serials holdings information in a format that is easy for machines to parse, although, difficult for humans to read. Display presentation and complementary textual holdings fields allow for easy human readability of complex serials holdings. Complex serials holdings can be stored in the following fields. aptions and patterns fields 500-502 are optional. Enumeration and chronology - basic bibliographic unit 510 is mandatory if applicable. The other enumeration and chronology fields 511 and 512 are optional. The simpler textual holdings fields 520-521 are optional. 500-502, 510-512, and 520-521 are linked together by interfield linking data $6. Recommendation 995 only allows for simpler format textual holdings that are easy for humans to read but difficult for machines to parse. At some future time, when Koha needs to support more complex needs of academic libraries or other libraries with complex serials holdings, to provide for the configuration of OpenURL resolvers this issue should be addressed. MARC 21 HOLDINGS MARC 21 bibliographic has always provided multiple holdings fields. MARC 21 holdings format for storing holdings information in a separate record linked to the bibliographic record has become more popular in recent years. Despite the holding standard for MARC 21, some systems have implemented nonstandard local use holdings fields and subfields. Certainly, some information often not considered to apply well to standard holdings fields or not provided in the standard at all requires local use field or subfield implementation. Koha's use of a local use field for holdings is certainly not exceptional. At the beginning of the year, OCLC announced their plan to implement holdings in separate holdings format records by year's end. In the the MARC 21 bibliographic format, as in the MARC 21 holdings, format, copy number $t is the linking subfield for identifying the particular copy across multiple holdings fields. For those cases where a subset of the copy is required, materials specified $3 is the linking subfield for identifying the subset. Control number for related bibliographic record 004 in MARC 21 holdings identifies the control number 001 for the corresponding MARC 21 bibliographic record on the same system. System control number 035 in MARC 21 holdings matches 035 in MARC 21 bibliographic on the same system for identifying the control number 001 for a bibliographic record obtained from another system. MARC 21 SERIALS HOLDINGS MARC 21 holdings fields from both MARC 21 bibliographic records and MARC 21 holdings records allow storing complex serials holdings information in a format that is easy for machines to parse, although, difficult for humans to read. Display presentation and complementary textual holdings fields allow for easy human readability of complex serials holdings. Complex serials holdings can be stored in the following fields. Captions and patterns fields 853-855. Enumeration and chronology fields 863-865. The simpler textual holdings fields 866-868. 853-855, 863-865, 866-868, and item information fields 876-878 are linked together by field link and sequence number $8. If the enumeration and chronology fields 863-865 are not used, then location 852 or textual holdings fields 866-868 are linked to item information fields 876-878 by $3. The all holdings in one local use field model that Koha uses based on Recommendation 995 only allows for simpler format textual holdings that are easy for humans to read but difficult for machines to parse. At some future time, when Koha needs to support more complex needs, of academic libraries or other libraries with complex serials holdings, to provide for the configuration of OpenURL resolvers this issue should be addressed. DEVELOPMENT OF KOHA HOLDINGS MODEL An account of the development of the Koha holdings model can be found in the "Koha diary" along with much other useful history. Hedges, Stephen. A Koha diary : implementing Koha at the Nelsonville Public Library. kohadocs.org. 2005. http://www.kohadocs.org/koha_diary.html . The diary describes part of how the default Koha table linkings to MARC fields had originated. Poulain, Paul. Re--dumpmarc : date--Wednesday May 21, 2003, 10:02 AM ; to--shedges / from--paul.p. Stephen is quoted. "We've been discussing our item information. There is _so_ much valuable information in our old system about each item that we don't want to lose, but which doesn't fit into a MARC tag. Things such as date last seen (which is also in Koha items table) or date last borrowed (also in Koha). We're very tempted to just write a script to read the item information from our old system and load it directly into the Koha items table." Paul replied. "Why don't you add specific non-standard marc tags in the parameters table and map them to the corresponding koha fields ? Note that I agree to say that there are only a few 852 subfields code that are free in MARC21 (1,4,5,7,9,d,o,u,v,w,y if my table is right), but it may be enough." Local use field 952 had been used for holdings by the ILS that NPL had been using prior to migrating to Koha and was retained for the Koha to MARC items linkings and presented as a default for Koha. The substitution of a local use field avoids the risk of some possible future assignment of unassigned subfields for those items table columns that are not part of the MARC standard. MARC 21 TO KOHA HOLDINGS MAPPINGS Mapping existing standard data to a MARC 21 local use field is necessary when migrating holdings to Koha. If using the default local use field 952, the following may be a common mapping. Be sure to construct unique $952 fields populated from the corresponding $t. Mappings with multiple subfields listed should have all listed subfields mapped to the corresponding local use 952 subfield where the last populated subfield value would overwrite any previous populated value for that local use 952 subfield. Map 852 $t, 876 $t, 877 $t, and 878 $t to 952 $t for items.copynumber. (If you have been using $3, you should find some way of combining $t with $3 to form a unique whole number.) Map 852 $p, 876 $p, 877 $p, and 878 $p to 952 $p for items.barcode. Map 541 $d; or 876 $d, 877 $d, and 878 $d to 952 $d for items.dateaccessioned. Map 850 $a, 852 $a, or 852 $b to 952 $b for items.homebranch. Be sure to convert to the 4 character all caps code as defined for Koha branches. Map 541 $h; or 876 $c, 877 $c, and 878 $c to 952 $o for items.price. Map 365 $b; or 876 $c, 877 $c, and 878 $c to 952 $r for items.replacementprice. Map 852 $b to 952 $d for items.holdingbranch. Be sure to convert to the 4 character all caps code as defined for Koha branches. Map 506 $a, 876 $h, 877 $h, and 878 $h to 952 $y for items.notforloan. Be sure to convert to an integer boolean. Map 876 $j, 877 $j, and 878 $j to 952 $1 for items.itemlost. Be sure to convert to an integer boolean. Map 876 $j, 877 $j, and 878 $j to 952 $w for items.withdrawn. Be sure to convert to an integer boolean. Map 852 $k, 852 $h, 852 $i, and 852 $m concatenated together sequentially to 952 $h for items.itemcall number. Map 506 $a, 876 $j, 877 $j, and 878 $j to 952 $4 for items.restricted. Be sure to convert to an integer boolean. Map 852 $c, 856 $u, 876 $l. 877 $l, and 878 $l to 952 $c for items.location. Migrating MARC 21 holdings to Koha would certainly be easier if Koha supported multiple fields for holdings. However, as stated above, that is an issue best left for a future time. Thomas D --------------------------------------------- Protect your mails from viruses thanks to Alinto Premium services http://www.alinto.com

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