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 <https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=koha-oz@lists.koha-community.org> in your reply. Giuseppe'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 <https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1311182?hl=fr> 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 List koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Giuseppe, koha 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)