[Koha-devel] Batch cleanup to the catalog

[Cab Vinton]

Hi, All --

Koha's Batch Record Modification (BRM) tool makes it very easy to make
large-scale changes to the catalog. And we know that many catalogers
like to have their records just so :-)

Is there a cost in overhead, however, to making such changes?

For example, if a catalog of 150,000 records contains 75,000 unwanted
MARC fields, would you delete them, even if they're not displayed in
the OPAC or otherwise interfering w/ functionality?

In particular, I'm wondering whether using the BRM tool involves the
creation of new data so that there's no real net gain w/ respect to
the goal of having a "cleaner" database. (In our case, we've turned
off the CataloguingLog system preference.)

Along the same lines, are there any advantages to doing large-scale
batch process via the backend instead, i.e., as opposed to w/ the
built-in staff tools such as BRM? (I'm assuming there's no issue w/
using such tools to work w/ much smaller subsets of records.)

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

All best,

Cab Vinton, Director
Plaistow Public Library
Plaistow, NH