[Koha-zebra] .abs file and subfield ordering

[Joshua Ferraro]

Hi guys,

I've been playing around with the .abs file for Koha's MARC records,
trying to put together some solid mappings between the 'attributes'
and MARC tag/subfield combos (ie, 'title' => (245$a$f$g, etc.) and
have a couple of questions.

First, this is strange, but using the MODS mapping as a guideline,
I note that they map things differently depending on subfield order
in the record. For instance, in tag 245, if  $f$g$h$k follow $b they
go with <subTitle>. If they follow $a they go with <title>. I'm 
wondering whether this is possible in Zebra and if so, how it can
be acomplished. If your answer is that MARC MUST DIE, I'll completely
understand :-).

Also, speaking of mappings, I've got a few CQL questions. So I 
understand the notion of a 'context set' and 'indexes' within
each context set. I'm not clear on what the best context set
would be for the MARC records in the libraries using Koha. bath?
cql? 

Also, though the bath context set defines indexes, it doesn't clearly
specify mappings for those indexes into any specific record format
like MARC. Are there specifications anywhere that define such 
mappings? Bib-1 maybe? MODS? Any suggestions?

Finally, in some of the ABS files included with Zebra I see a
? after the tag like in this entry:

elm 245                 title           -
elm 245/?               title           !:w
elm 245/?/a             title           !:w,!:p

Is this a 'WildThing'? could someone explain what that means? :-)

Thanks,

-- 
Joshua Ferraro               VENDOR SERVICES FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE
President, Technology       migration, training, maintenance, support
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