[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Question about Meta-records

[Mike Rylander]

On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 4:22 PM, Cynthia Williamson
<crwbookgirl at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All - I'm wondering if anyone is using meta-records?  The only info I can
> find on them in the wiki tells me I have to create them using sql - is there
> no way to create them in the client?  I'm specifically wanting to link
> existing records, not working on an import of new records.

Metarecords are created when bibs are imported, so you already have
them.  If you select "Group formats and editions" on the advanced
search page, the results are, in fact, metarecords.  If you use the
Advanced Options link when placing a hold and select one or more
formats from the multiselect box, that is placing a metarecord hold,
allowing the first available copy of any chosen format to fulfill the
hold.

You can make metarecord results the default by changing the value of
SHOW_MR_DEFAULT in (by default)
/openils/var/web/opac/common/js/config.js to true.  IIRC, Conifer does
this.  If you have many formats and editions for popular works, this
can be helpful.

We want to extend the use of metarecords in several places -- being
able to place a hold on an MR directly without having to go to one of
its constituent records, links from record detail pages to other
records within a metarecord, and I'd like to see a hierarchical
interface for metarecords.

Does that help?

-- 
Mike Rylander
 | VP, Research and Design
 | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Evergreen Experts
 | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
 | email:  miker at esilibrary.com
 | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com