Shifting this to the devel list, so as not to bombard everyone on the koha list with it :) On Thu, Sep 25, 2003 at 11:14:55PM -0500, baljkas@mb.sympatico.ca said:
Thursday, September 25, 2003 21:39-23:12 CDT [snip]
If I can export records in a format like that, [etc. snip]
Like what? Really, I don't know what you mean.
Any format :) If I can export data as a valid MARC record... then what does it matter how its internally stored. I can almost guarantee uou that every ILS is going to store its data in a different way from how it logically represents it. And really after all the logical representation is the only thing that the librarian and patrons ever interact with. Its up to the programmers to build the interfaces to the actual data. And then present the data to the users in a format that users want. As long as we store all the data, we can present it any way we feel fit. Basically I dont understand what the problem is.
Redundancy is avoided by checking for items already in the collection. Strictly speaking, a new record is required by each different manifestation of the work (although this is sometimes ignored in practice). For example, in the military library where I last worked as a cataloguer, we had 5 different editions of a work by Cajus Bekker on the Luftwaffe: following the rules strictly, we had 5 different records, with 2 copies each of the 2nd and 5th noted in the holdings (ironically also in a 090 field subfields c and p, in the system we were using).
Perhaps I didnt make that clear enough in my message :) I was talking about the internal structure.
Maybe you could point me and others in the right direction to see how the internal structure is working to do this. I really don't get it.
Here we go :) +--------------+-------------------+----------------------------+----------+-------+--------+-------------------------+---------------+----------------+----------+ | biblionumber | author | title | unititle | notes | serial | seriestitle | copyrightdate | timestamp | abstract | +--------------+-------------------+----------------------------+----------+-------+--------+-------------------------+---------------+----------------+----------+ | 28144 | Tolkien, J. R. R. | The fellowship of the ring | | | 0 | The Lord of the Rings 1 | 1966 | 20020830153301 | NULL| +--------------+-------------------+----------------------------+----------+-------+--------+-------------------------+---------------+----------------+-------- There is the Koha biblio record Here are 2 biblioitems +------------------+--------------+--------+--------+----------------+----------+------------+------+-------+----------+-----------------+---------------+------------+-------------+----------------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+------+------+------+ | biblioitemnumber | biblionumber | volume | number | classification | itemtype | isbn | issn | dewey | subclass | publicationyear | publishercode | volumedate | volumeddesc | timestamp | illus | pages | notes | size | place | url | lccn | marc | +------------------+--------------+--------+--------+----------------+----------+------------+------+----------+----------+-----------------+---------------+------------+-------------+----------------+-------+-------+-------+------+--------+------+------+------+ | 63120 | 28144 | | | F-Fantasy | F | 0007123825 | | 0.000000 | | 2001 | HarperCollins | 0000-00-00 | | 20011107145833 | | 535 | pbk | 18 | London | NULL | NULL | NULL | | 152147 | 28144 | NULL | NULL | YoungAdult | FYA | 000712970X | NULL | 0.000000 | | 2001 | HarperCollins | NULL | | 20011126155556 | | 398 | pbk | 20 | London | NULL | NULL | NULL | +------------------+--------------+--------+--------+----------------+----------+------------+------+----------+----------+-----------------+---------------+------------+-------------+----------------+-------+-------+-------+------+--------+------+------+------+ Here are 3 items +------------+--------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------------+------------+-------+------------------+----------------------+------------------+--------------+-------------+-------+------------+----------+----------+------+--------+----------+----------+------------+---------+----------------------------------------------+---------------+---------+----------------+ | itemnumber | biblionumber | multivolumepart | biblioitemnumber | barcode | dateaccessioned | booksellerid | homebranch | price | replacementprice | replacementpricedate | datelastborrowed | datelastseen | multivolume | stack | notforloan | itemlost | wthdrawn | bulk | issues | renewals | reserves | restricted | binding | itemnotes | holdingbranch | paidfor | timestamp | +------------+--------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------------+------------+-------+------------------+----------------------+------------------+--------------+-------------+-------+------------+----------+----------+------+--------+----------+----------+------------+---------+----------------------------------------------+---------------+---------+----------------+ | 95049 | 28144 | NULL | 63120 | L02072458 | 2001-11-07 | 32 | C | 13.30 | 19.95 | 2001-11-07 | NULL | 2003-09-14 | NULL | NULL | 0 | 0 | NULL | NULL | 22 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | L | NULL | 20030914115600 | | 95484 | 28144 | NULL | 152147 | L02075531 | 2001-11-22 | 32 | C | 10.63 | 15.94 | 2001-11-22 | NULL | 2003-09-26 | NULL | NULL | 0 | 0 | NULL | NULL | 23 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | L | NULL | 20030926110831 | | 75715 | 28144 | NULL | 63120 | L01873044 | 2000-05-19 | 18 | C | 15.16 | 19.00 | 2000-05-19 | NULL | 2003-03-22 | NULL | NULL | NULL | 0 | NULL | NULL | 31 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | S | NULL | 20030322100141 | +------------+--------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------------+------------+-------+------------------+----------------------+------------------+--------------+-------------+-------+------------+----------+----------+------+--------+----------+----------+------------+---------+----------------------------------------------+---------------+---------+----------------+ There are some other tables such as addionalauthor, and bibliosubjects etc but with them all we can build the data in whatever format we want to display it. Im not going to say this it the best way to store the data internally, but its pretty close to 2nd normal form, and has a minimum of redunancy, and best of all, it works :-) So post 2.0 someone is welcome to come in and completely redesign it. But i think we'll stick with it until then :) Chris -- Chris Cormack Programmer 027 4500 789 Katipo Communications Ltd chris@katipo.co.nz www.katipo.co.nz