[Koha-devel] 952 tag and NPL

[Stephen Hedges]

Joshua asked me to post a quick note to clarify why NPL uses a MARC 21 952
tag for holdings information instead of the 852 tag.

Like many libraries, NPL used commercial ILS(s) that used a 9xx tag for
holdings information instead of the 852 tag.  (In NPL's case, the previous
vendors had used a 952 tag, so it was easiest to continue with the 952 tag
when the records were migrated to Koha.)  This is pretty common practice,
since a library (or ILS vendor) is free to define the subfields of a 9xx
tag, while the 852 subfields are controlled by the MARC 21 bibliographic
format.  Often an ILS wants to save item information that doesn't fit the
852 format, and then the free-form 9xx tags are a good solution.

For example, Koha stores home branch and holding branch information for
each item.  The 852 tag format doesn't have any good subfields for these,
unless you use some of the location and/or collection subfields in an
abnormal way.  Using a 9xx tag, which might be loosely based on the 852
tag, may be a more attractive solution for a library.

-- 
Stephen Hedges
Skemotah Solutions, USA
www.skemotah.com  --  shedges at skemotah.com