[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] call number records

[Paul Waak]

On Jun 17, 2009, at 7:23 PM, Paul Weiss <pweiss at eou.edu> wrote:
> Have you all found value in the bib > call number > copy hierarchy?  
> I'm not suggesting a system redesign (although I wouldn't impede  
> that :-) ), I just wanted to get a sense of how other libraries deal  
> with it.
>
The name "call number" is an obstacle here as well.  I would not  
redesign the system, but I am very open to renaming this element.  I  
have seen "volume" elsewhere, but that gets confused with multi-volume  
encyclopedias, etc.  "Holdings" seems the most promising to me.

> So I now have a pretty good idea of what the 2 fields were designed  
> for, and presumably how they continue to be used in PINES. How do  
> the rest of you all use them? Are they always the same for you? Or  
> do you use them as designed? Or for some other purpose?
>
> We don't generally view housing and ownership as different. We do  
> though often use the same call number across many members. I'm  
> trying to decide if it makes sense just to put the same org unit in  
> both fields, which would require multiple call number records with  
> the same call number but different org units, or just put the  
> consortium as the owner of the call number record so that we only  
> need 1 call number record per call number. Any advice?
>

It is useful when for systems within a consortium. We have a  
consortium in Texas that is not on evergreen, but illustrates this  
nicely. Fort Worth is a system that owns its items at the system level  
but houses them at specific branches. Haltom City, a peer library in  
the consortium, has only one location and uses the same org unit for  
both ownership and location. In this consortium, ownership is a level  
2 property in the org unit hierarchy, and housing becomes distinct for  
org units at levels 3 and lower.

This separation also simplifies rotating collections.

Paul Waak
pwaak at yahoo.com



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