[Koha-devel] e-books as "virtual items"?

[Giuseppe Angilella]

Hi,

soon after posting my message below, I realized that Koha indeed possesses
this feature (to some extent). While on the e-book record, I can "Link to
host item", and then select the barcode of the e-reader's specific item
which actually contains that e-book.

This should fix the main issue of keeping track of loans.

The only drawback is that the call number of the e-reader would be the 
same for all the e-books contained in it, which would therefore not show 
up appropriately in the "Browse shelf".

Giuseppe.

On Thu, 15 Jun 2017, Giuseppe Angilella wrote:

> Hi,
>
> (apologies for double posting this here as well, as I think it might contain 
> a suggestion for a possible development in Koha)
>
> 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.
>
> Of course, this implies a database issue: several "virtual items" would 
> correspond to one individual physical "item": any action (loan, return, 
> damage etc) on the latter should propagate to any corresponding virtual items 
> as well.
>
> I would very much appreciate receiving your feedback on my thoughts above.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Giuseppe.
>