Dear Koha-oz e-list reader, 

Giuseppe has emailed the main Koha e-list with an interesting question. He has received one reply so far from Elaine Bradtke.

I wonder if you might have some thoughts and could share your experience or practices?

To email both lists, include koha@lists.katipo.co.nz and koha-oz@lists.koha-community.org in your replyGiuseppe's email is Giuseppe.Angilella@ct.infn.it and Elaine's eb@efdss.org.

Best regards, 
Irma
CALYX



From: Giuseppe Angilella <Giuseppe.Angilella@ct.infn.it>
Date: 2017-06-15 14:13 GMT+10:00
Subject: [Koha] e-books as Koha items
To: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz


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.
_______________________________________________
Koha mailing list  http://koha-community.org
Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz
https://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha

From:Elaine Bradtke <eb@efdss.org> via gmail.com 
To:Giuseppe Angilella <Giuseppe.Angilella@ct.infn.it>
cc:koha <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz>
Date:20 juin 2017 à 08:36
Subject:Re: [Koha] e-books as Koha items
Listkoha@lists.katipo.co.nz 


Giuseppekoha
Just to clarify
You have e-readers with e-books loaded on them already.
Is the content of each e-reader different or the same?

It sounds like you have an assemblage. Components that are separate
publications, but  housed in one physical unit. We have a similar situation
with bound together collections of pamphlets.  We made a parent (host)
biblio for the bound volume and individual records for each of the
pamphlets child (component records).  We  list all the children in the
formatted contents note of the parent record and link from the child
records to the parent record using the 773.
This is a child record, with link to the parent record Political pamphlets
from 1820.
http://catalogue.efdss.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=13278 -

 It is true we can't browse the shelf from the individual components
(children), but by looking at the contents note in the host (parent) record
it is possible to see what else is in that volume.
If the call number for the e-reader reflected the subject area of its
contents, that might help in browsing.
--
Elaine Bradtke
Data Wrangler
VWML
English Folk Dance and Song Society | http://www.efdss.org
Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent's Park Road, London NW1 7AY
Tel    +44 (0) 20 7485 2206 (This number is for the English Folk Dance and
Song Society in London, England. If you wish to phone me personally, send
an e-mail first. I work off site)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Registered Company No. 297142
Charity Registered in England and Wales No. 305999
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"
--Elvis Costello (Musician magazine No. 60 (October 1983), p. 52)