[Koha-devel] RFC: Renaming homebranch/holdingbranch in MARC21 Framework(s)

[Thomas Dukleth]

The labels which I applied in the MARC 21 frameworks were taken from MARC
21 holdings subfields amongst the various holdings fields where I thought
they could be taken with the parenthetical clarification for how I
understood they would be applied to Koha usage.  The discrepancy in my
understanding of how the subfield is actually used in Koha derives from
the relatively little attention I give to circulation issues and my
presumption of correspondence between MARC 21 holdings subfields and
French Recommandation 995.  I now have a little uncertainty about the
usage which I hope to clarify as soon as I can.

Recommandation 995 was originally written as an interlibrary loan standard
and not intended as a holdings standard which produces some complications
of subfield correspondence to a holdings standard.  Recommandation 995 may
have become used as if it is a simple holdings standard in France but it
is not well suited for providing all that is needed for a full
representation of holdings which leads to confusion in application.  In
accordance with what I understand as the appropriate application of
Recommandation 995, I suggest the following.

I translateed 'Origine du document' as 'Origin of item' for the UNIMARC
translation which I edited.  For the MARC 21 frameworks, I suggest
changing 'Location {homebranch)' to 'Originating branch (long term
homebranch location)'.  If permanent or owning would be used here, the
implication could be that it applies to the institutional main branch or
the library system as whole which is how I had understood its function and
mapped it in relation to MARC 21 holdings.

I translated 'Établissement prêteur ou déposant' as 'Lending or holding
organisation' for the UNIMARC translation which I edited.  I should
perhaps have used 'Lending or deposit organisation' and provided better
parenthetical explanation.  The word holding in this context is confusing
because holding in holdings standards is meant to mean long term holding,
not temporary holding as in a branch which receives an item from another
branch as the most convenient lending point for a particular borrower. 
For the MARC 21 frameworks, I suggest changing 'Sublocation or Collection
(holdingbranch)' to 'Current lending branch (holdingbranch at the
moment)'.

The changes I suggested may seem a little verbose but I believe they are
necessary for clarification in a MARC 21 context where there is no
significant expectation of anything like the Recommandation 995
interlibrary loan subfields to be included in the holdings field as part
of the MARC record .  The further Koha is from following standard
nomenclature for holdings as distinct from interlibrary loans or other
aspects of item management, the more confusion and difficulty there will
be about implementing standard MARC holdings with holdings information
stored in multiple fields.


Thomas Dukleth
Agogme
109 E 9th Street, 3D
New York, NY  10003
USA
http://www.agogme.com
212-674-3783


On Fri, July 4, 2008 8:31 pm, Ryan Higgins wrote:
> I would like to change the default labels for homebranch & holdingbranch
> in
> the
> MARC21 frameworks as follows:
>
> homebranch :  Permanent Location   (from 'Location (homebranch)' )
> holdingbranch:  Current Location       (from 'Sublocation or Collection
> (holdingbranch)' )
>
> The current language for holdingbranch implies it is/could be a subset of
> homebranch,
> and is confusing for new users of Koha.
> This change should not impact translations, as the change occurs  only in
> the db-stored labels.
>
> An alternative to 'Permanent Location' would be 'Owning Library'.
>
> I think it would be better to implement this last-minute change than to
> commit ourselves
> to labels that suggest a non-existent relation.
>
> Comments ?
>
> --
> Ryan Higgins
>
> LibLime * Open-Source Solutions for Libraries
> Featuring KohaZOOM ILS
> 888-564-2457 x704
>

[...]


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