Discussion:
[Koha] Looking for an even more simplified entry
allauthors
2018-09-14 13:42:31 UTC
Permalink
Hi to the list,

My name is Robert Flach, and I'm the new librarian for a small church
library that was on a card-catalogue system and then managed by several
people who didn't keep up with said catalog. I've gotten koha installed
(ubuntu package version), and mostly configured. I've purchased a barcode
scanner and receipt printer and have them working as well. I would seem to
be on my way. So my first project is to do a complete inventory, and that
starts with transferring all records into the electronic system from the
card catalog and getting them barcoded.

The big challenge I have is with cataloging non-traditional books.
Basically, I can handle adding records when I can find a MARC Record that I
can download through Z39.50/SRU, but the church library has a very large
contingent of materials that don't have isbn's and don't exist in any Z39.50
db. Lot's of pamphlets and small self-published books and the like. I was
looking for a solution that would give me a super simplified entry form for
these types of materials that would match the info that I have available in
the card catalogue (title, author, subject, dewey #, section, barcode), and
which would be halfway readable and usable by my children helpers who are
helping me inventory and catalog everything. I could live with a few extra
fields, but even the most simplified MARC-looking record interface is
daunting for them (and for me for that matter, though I can get by and have
been reading about marc).

I saw a post on the mailing list from some time ago where someone had
provided an SQL dump of their super simplified BRF Framework that seemed to
be just what I would want, but it was for koha v3.2 or so, and I have
v18.05. I did a test import after backing up, and it definitely wouldn't
import.

So, with all that as background, my question is: Is there a place where
these types of things--bits and pieces that work for particular purposes
that can be imported easily--are shared regularly? If not, does anyone have
something similar to that dump but for v18.05 that you are already using
with your non-marc librarians? Something that leaves off all the marc
information (even if they fields are still being stored behind the scenes to
a marc21 format record of course, and just let's them enter the information
that they understand with labels that they understand?

Thanks so Much,
Robert Flach



--
Sent from: http://koha.1045719.n5.nabble.com/Koha-general-f3047918.html
_______________________________________________
Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org
***@lists.katipo.co.nz
https://lists.katipo.co.nz/mail
Alvaro Cornejo
2018-09-14 14:39:10 UTC
Permalink
Hi Robert

The easiest way is to create your own framework. You can go to frameworks
and create one from scratch or take any of the ones that comes with koha
and customize it.

You can add personal field/sub-fields or remove/hide the ones you don't
need/use.

You can even create multiple frameworks; one for each type of
registry/material you want to create.

Regards

Alvaro

|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Envíe y Reciba Datos y mensajes de Texto (SMS) hacia y desde cualquier
celular y Nextel
en el Perú, México y en mas de 180 paises. Use aplicaciones 2 vias via SMS
y GPRS online
Visitenos en www.perusms.com
Post by allauthors
Hi to the list,
My name is Robert Flach, and I'm the new librarian for a small church
library that was on a card-catalogue system and then managed by several
people who didn't keep up with said catalog. I've gotten koha installed
(ubuntu package version), and mostly configured. I've purchased a barcode
scanner and receipt printer and have them working as well. I would seem to
be on my way. So my first project is to do a complete inventory, and that
starts with transferring all records into the electronic system from the
card catalog and getting them barcoded.
The big challenge I have is with cataloging non-traditional books.
Basically, I can handle adding records when I can find a MARC Record that I
can download through Z39.50/SRU, but the church library has a very large
contingent of materials that don't have isbn's and don't exist in any Z39.50
db. Lot's of pamphlets and small self-published books and the like. I was
looking for a solution that would give me a super simplified entry form for
these types of materials that would match the info that I have available in
the card catalogue (title, author, subject, dewey #, section, barcode), and
which would be halfway readable and usable by my children helpers who are
helping me inventory and catalog everything. I could live with a few extra
fields, but even the most simplified MARC-looking record interface is
daunting for them (and for me for that matter, though I can get by and have
been reading about marc).
I saw a post on the mailing list from some time ago where someone had
provided an SQL dump of their super simplified BRF Framework that seemed to
be just what I would want, but it was for koha v3.2 or so, and I have
v18.05. I did a test import after backing up, and it definitely wouldn't
import.
So, with all that as background, my question is: Is there a place where
these types of things--bits and pieces that work for particular purposes
that can be imported easily--are shared regularly? If not, does anyone have
something similar to that dump but for v18.05 that you are already using
with your non-marc librarians? Something that leaves off all the marc
information (even if they fields are still being stored behind the scenes to
a marc21 format record of course, and just let's them enter the information
that they understand with labels that they understand?
Thanks so Much,
Robert Flach
--
Sent from: http://koha.1045719.n5.nabble.com/Koha-general-f3047918.html
_______________________________________________
Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org
https://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
_______________________________________________
Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org
***@lists.katipo.co.
Chris Brown
2018-09-14 15:44:49 UTC
Permalink
Robert,

You need to make friends with the MARC framework editor -- it took me a
while to figure it out but I won in the end and created an extremely simple
framework consisting of just Title, Author, genre and barcode.

Best Regards,

Chris Brown


On Fri, Sep 14, 2018 at 2:42 PM allauthors <
Post by allauthors
Hi to the list,
My name is Robert Flach, and I'm the new librarian for a small church
library that was on a card-catalogue system and then managed by several
people who didn't keep up with said catalog. I've gotten koha installed
(ubuntu package version), and mostly configured. I've purchased a barcode
scanner and receipt printer and have them working as well. I would seem to
be on my way. So my first project is to do a complete inventory, and that
starts with transferring all records into the electronic system from the
card catalog and getting them barcoded.
The big challenge I have is with cataloging non-traditional books.
Basically, I can handle adding records when I can find a MARC Record that I
can download through Z39.50/SRU, but the church library has a very large
contingent of materials that don't have isbn's and don't exist in any Z39.50
db. Lot's of pamphlets and small self-published books and the like. I was
looking for a solution that would give me a super simplified entry form for
these types of materials that would match the info that I have available in
the card catalogue (title, author, subject, dewey #, section, barcode), and
which would be halfway readable and usable by my children helpers who are
helping me inventory and catalog everything. I could live with a few extra
fields, but even the most simplified MARC-looking record interface is
daunting for them (and for me for that matter, though I can get by and have
been reading about marc).
I saw a post on the mailing list from some time ago where someone had
provided an SQL dump of their super simplified BRF Framework that seemed to
be just what I would want, but it was for koha v3.2 or so, and I have
v18.05. I did a test import after backing up, and it definitely wouldn't
import.
So, with all that as background, my question is: Is there a place where
these types of things--bits and pieces that work for particular purposes
that can be imported easily--are shared regularly? If not, does anyone have
something similar to that dump but for v18.05 that you are already using
with your non-marc librarians? Something that leaves off all the marc
information (even if they fields are still being stored behind the scenes to
a marc21 format record of course, and just let's them enter the information
that they understand with labels that they understand?
Thanks so Much,
Robert Flach
--
Sent from: http://koha.1045719.n5.nabble.com/Koha-general-f3047918.html
_______________________________________________
Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org
https://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
_______________________________________________
Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org
***@lists.katipo.co
Robert Flach
2018-09-17 14:59:21 UTC
Permalink
Thanks for the welcome!

Thanks to everyone who offered me feedback, but especially to BWS
Johnson for the awesomely thorough welcome and response.

I guess the ultimate answer is that I am going to have to get more
comfortable with marc :(.  The good news is that my 12 year old helper
has started helping with inventorying the collection and doesn't seem
too phased by the default Fast Add Framework.  I will definitely be
reading up more and hopefully just getting comfortable with the MARC in
general and with cataloging in general.  My degree is in English lit,
but my day job is as a software developer, so I hope I can eventually
contribute back to the community in meaningful ways.

Thanks,

Robert Flach
Salve!
     First, welcome to the Koha Community.
     Second, you've stumbled upon the reason that Librarians have a
Master's degree. Tell yourself this when your swearing about your
current situation.
My name is Robert Flach, and I'm the new librarian for a small church
library that was on a card-catalogue system and then managed by several
people who didn't keep up with said catalog. I've gotten koha installed
(ubuntu package version), and mostly configured.  I've purchased a barcode
scanner and receipt printer and have them working as well.  I would
seem to
be on my way.  So my first project is to do a complete inventory, and that
starts with transferring all records into the electronic system from the
card catalog and getting them barcoded.
      Yep, you are well underway.
The big challenge I have is with cataloging non-traditional books.
Basically, I can handle adding records when I can find a MARC Record that I
can download through Z39.50/SRU, but the church library has a very large
contingent of materials that don't have isbn's and don't exist in any Z39.50
db.  Lot's of pamphlets and small self-published books and the like. 
I was
looking for a solution that would give me a super simplified entry form for
these types of materials that would match the info that I have
available in
the card catalogue (title, author, subject, dewey #, section,
barcode), and
which would be halfway readable and usable by my children helpers who are
helping me inventory and catalog everything.  I could live with a few
extra
fields, but even the most simplified MARC-looking record interface is
daunting for them (and for me for that matter, though I can get by and have
been reading about marc).
       Normally this is where I would tell someone to think about a
Library that kind of matches theirs and just add the Z39.50 gateway to
their search. However, you're at a church Library, so I'll tell you
the liklihood of you finding a similar Library with a gateway is slim
to none, so don't try too hard or at all.
       Here are three of the fields you wanted.
title: 245 $a
author: 1xx $a
subject: 650 $a
URL: 856 $u
       Abusing this bad boy will let you link to a website easily,
which is insanely handy.
https://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/
       Don't try to read all of that in one sitting, or you're like to
make yourself sick.
       Those XXs in author really mean you have to go read the MARC
rules for that field since it's not properly 100 $a. This is
particularly true at a church library. A lot of the exceptions we're
taught about in Library School come from religion. For instance, the
Bible. For another example, materials originating from the College of
Cardinals. Religious stuff just does not fit nicely in a box, which is
what MARC is.  That said, since you're at a tiny Library, no one is
paying attention to how naughty you are or are not anyway. Any
electronic record you generate is better than no record whatsoever. So
I'm totally going to spare you my RDA spiel. I will however say that
you are pretty much the reason Koha was made in the first place. Don't
forget that if you catch any snark from someone.
       >>>The better you make each record, the faster you will be able
to find stuff later.<<< I cannot stress this point enough. Everything
seems all innocent now. If you don't spend enough time thinking now,
it will be a total mess for the next person and for your patrons
later. So take comfort in the fact that you are providing a major
upgrade going from a card catalogue to Koha, but not so much comfort
that you cut way more corners than necessary.
      If you're absolutely overwhelmed by frameworks even after a
little grinding, what you might want to do is mock up a simple
spreadsheet and then use MARCedit to dump that information in Koha.
This is a terrible idea, so it's very much a last resort. You should
definitely get to know MARCedit, though, since it will let you do cool
stuff to save time. Anyway, if you do decide to do terrible things
when no one is looking, do a Google search for MarcEdit import from
CSV. Just realise that you are not meant to keep batch importing
crappy records until the end of time. It does horrible things to your
database, which defeats your primary purpose of saving the time of the
reader. Which you probably won't know, so I'll put those here courtesy
of Ranganathan, who was right about all stuff Library and Information
Science. His laws fit on my old Library business cards, so no excuses,
go read this.
https://librarysciencedegree.usc.edu/blog/dr-s-r-ranganathans-five-laws-of-library-science/
Cheers,
Brooke
_______________________________________________
Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org
***@lists.katipo.co.nz
https://lists.

Continue reading on narkive:
Loading...