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

[Hardy, Elaine]

Robert,

Under rules for MARC, all you really need is a 245 (title) field to be a
record. It would be of dubious use, but would technically be a MARC
record. As far as I have seen as a user, the issues with brief records
in Evergreen are the same as with any ILS and are mainly in retrieval
(indexing), display and how the circulation structure is assigned. The
later may not be a problem for you -- basically Evergreen (at least how
PINES uses it) first assigns circ policies based on the format of the
item (visual, books, sound recording, etc)  as defined in the fixed
field and then on any circ modifiers set at cataloging. So, if the fixed
field is not correct in the record, the wrong circulation period and
fine structure may be assigned to the item at checkout. I'm sure there
are ways around this in Evergreen that someone else can address.

Which fields you want to use in brief records will depend on the nature
of your collection and how you will be circulating items. The less
information in the record, the less likely you will retrieve the record
in a search and to distinguish between like items in the catalog. If you
have a number of different editions of the same title and want to be
able to tell from the catalog which of those editions you've retrieved,
you will need more than author/title in the record. If you will be
loaning items to people and having different circulation policies for
different formats (your books and your DVDs, for example) you may want
to include fixed field information. There is probably a different way to
indicate this -- I'm interpreting based on how we use Evergreen in
PINES, so someone may be able to correct me.

Before you decide which fields to use, decide whether you need to
distinguish different editions from your catalog, if you want subject
access, or multiple authors or artists listed. Basically, think about
your collection in terms of how a really brief record might cause major
problems  in indexing and retrieval that would be solved by including
more information in the record for the item. If you haven't already,
take a look at OCLC's bibliographic format and standards for a
description and examples of MARC fields
(http://www.oclc.org/bibformats/default.htm) or at LC's MARC21
documentation (http://www.loc.gov/marc/)

For variable fields, you are likely to need:

100 (personal name) or 110 (corporate name) if these are present
245 subfield a (subfield b if present)
250 subfield a (if other than 1st ed present)
260 subfield b (publisher) and subfield c (publication date)
300 subfield a (pagination)
6xx fields for subjects
7xx fields for multiple authors or artists  

For fixed fields --

BLvl 	Bibliographic Level
DtSt 	Type of Date/Publication Status
Dates 	Date 1 and Date 2
Lang 	Language Code
TMat 	Type of Material
Type 	Type of Record

I did a Google search on "Z39.50 libraries" and found a few sites that
might give you access to other library catalogs. They may not allow
downloads, but you might be able to at least see a MARC record for one
of your titles.
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/projects/z3950/serverinfo.html
http://staff.library.mun.ca/staff/toolbox/z3950hosts.htm
http://www.loc.gov/z3950/ (this is a list of links, some of which don't
work, of gateways to various library catalogs. Most are academic).

You can see the MARC record in PINES as well. But we are not likely to
have your Euroopean titles.

There are others, if you do the same or more refined search, you might
find one that does what you need.

There are companies that provide, for a fee, software to allow you to
download MARC records from different Z39.50 gateways. I only found one
using the above search, but I know there are others --
http://www.scanbarcode.com/web5/Publisher%20Conversions/marcexpl1.htm 

Also, as a Georgia citizen, you can have access to our digital library,
Galileo, which includes WorldCat, an OCLC product. While you can't see
the MARC records, you can get an idea of subject and name headings and
how individual libraries have cataloged and classified a title. Many
libraries have allowed direct links to their catalogs from the record in
WorldCat. Contact your local public library for a password you can use
at home. If they can't help you navigate WorldCat, let me know off list
and I can get you started.


Elaine
 
________________________________

 
 
J. Elaine Hardy
Library Services Manager - Collections & Reference
Georgia Public Library Service,
A Unit of the University System of Georgia
1800 Century Place, Suite 150
Atlanta, Ga. 30345-4304
404.235-7128
404.235-7201, fax
 
ehardy at georgialibraries.org
www.georgialibraries.org
 
-----Original Message-----
From: open-ils-dev-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org
[mailto:open-ils-dev-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of
evergreen at copelan.com
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2008 5:37 PM
To: open-ils-dev at list.georgialibraries.org
Subject: [OPEN-ILS-DEV] Adding bibs, volumes, copies without MARC

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:  

.......

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).