[Koha-devel] Importing MARC Records - Missing Item Type

[Michael Hafen]

As far as I know your assumptions are wrong.  There is a standard for
item classification in the LDR of the marc record, but I'm not aware of
any standard among software vendors for using that.  And there is no
MARC to Koha mapping standard.  Not even a feature, but I've thought of
making such a thing.  My librarians have had the same problem.

What I've done to get around this is to arrange with vendors to ship
custom records with a certain value in the $942c field.  This is the
biblio-level item type, which should be used as the default when adding
new copies.  The trick is to make sure the vendor has a valid Item Type
Code in that field.

Good luck.

On Mon, 2010-01-25 at 14:21 -0700, Richard Forristall wrote:
> Hello all - hope you had a great weekend!
>  
> I've spent the better part of 2 days searching for a solution to my
> librarian's dilemma -- when she downloads MARC records from vendors
> then imports, stages and manages the records, she is having to
> manually enter each record's item/item type whenever she tries to
> checkout anything (that she hasn't yet added the item/type).
>  
> I went into my troubleshoot/research mode thinking there is:
>  
> 1.  A standard MARC record format that all vendors use that includes
> the item type.
>  
> 2.  A standard MARC-to-Koha mapping system so the item
> type is automatically stored in the koha database.
>  
> Being very new to library systems and Koha, I'm coming up short on
> answers, so I'm asking for assistance.
>  
> 1.  Are my above assumptions correct?  If so, what, if anything do I
> need to do to turn on the MARC -> Koha mapping?
>  
> 2.  If my assumptions are wrong, what am I missing and how can I help
> eliminate this challenge for my librarian.
>  
> Thanks in advance for taking the time out of your busy schedule to
> review and assist with this issue :--)
>  
>  
> Rick
> -------------------------------------------
> Rick Forristall
> Programmer Analyst
> Goodwill of Central AZ
> 602.535.4078
> -------------------------------------------
>  
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-- 
Michael Hafen
Systems Analyst and Programmer
Washington County School District
Utah, USA

for Koha checkout
http://development.washk12.org/gitweb/
or
git://development.washk12.org/koha