[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Adding bibs, volumes, copies without MARC

[evergreen at copelan.com]

Hello everyone,
We (my wife and I)  have a large number (large is relative, in this case 300-500)
of paperback books as well as records, DVD, CD, VHS as well as items published in
Europe that are not available via the Z39.50 Library of Congress lookup.  For
those items that ARE available via the LOC the load into Evergreen goes smoothly
and painlessly with only a few mouse clicks :-) !  However these other items are
going to be a rather big pain in the neck (or fingers when I finish typing their
data). I've looked at the import_demo scripts  to try and figure out what is
really needed in the database tables and have come to the following options:  

Build a webGUI and use it to:
   A. enter the data into a file similar to sample_marc.xml  and then process
that file through the scripts. This could be a stand-alone webapp since there
wouldn't be any direct interaction with EG at data creation time.     

   B. Load the data directly into the EG tables and have a real time update
similar to the process when using the Z39.50 import and include the check-in step
to get the copy into a mode where the Reshelving_Complete script will process it.
This option would best be done in the Staff Client vs a stand-alone webapp.  

Option A would work and the tag 999 fields used to hold the holding copy data (if
I understood it's purpose correctly).  This option would require the intermediate
step to run the prep/load scripts.     From the point of view of a non-geek
person loading the data option B would be most interesting since it would give a
relatively real time load of the data. 

In either case, I obviously won't have all of the prolific data that is normally
available in a professionally created MARC record.  Can anyone give some idea of
the minimum fields that should be entered?  Obviously, Title, Author are needed
but not sure what above that is needed to keep Evergreen from getting into issues
about missing data.  

Maybe something like the above already exists and I have missed it.  Any comments
on the above (including "what a crazy idea") would be appreciated. For sure,
Evergreen wasn't created for the 2 "patron" library so normally this type of load
isn't a big requirement but as mentioned in several places, it is scalable (up in
size as well as down )!   I'll consider those comments then see what can be
created (if necessary).  

Regards and Happy 4th of July to everyone. 

<soapbox> 
Thanks to all Evergreen developers for supporting the ideals of the Founding
Fathers of the USA (even though they never had computer software) to preserve the
freedom of not being locked into a particular software company and the ability to
have a forum in which to freely participate in the further development.  THAT is
what they wanted for this country back in 1776. 
</soapbox>

Regards,
RobertC