[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] sharing serial prediction patterns

[Tara Robertson]

Hi,

This is a half baked idea that has two parts.

First, I'm wondering if there's a way we could share serial prediction
patterns between Evergreen libraries. It seems a bit silly that we're
all setting up the same prediction patterns for many of the same
titles. The Economist (or whatever magazine/serial) has the same
prediction pattern regardless of the library. It would be awesome if
we could share this. I have a limited understanding of MFHD (David
Fiander's webinar was really useful:
http://evergreen-ils.org/downloads/EvergreenMFHD2009-07-21.wmv) but
have spent some time trying to set up prediction patterns using the
Alternate Serials Control View. If there was a public repository of
the MFHD for various titles, could all save time by copy/pasting the
prediction pattern instead of using the wizard? If there was a way to
query this database and pull in the prediction pattern that would be
even more awesome.

Is this even possible?

I've been told that libraries don't share serial prediction patterns
because most ILSes store this in a proprietary format, which makes it
impossible to share, and difficult to migrate. I work in a small
library, so post-Evergreen migration we are having to manually set up
prediction patterns for about 150 titles. I imagine this would not be
possible for larger libraries, and could be a barrier to migrating to
Evergreen.

Second, I wonder if it would be possible to share serial prediction
patterns more widely, regardless of the ILS? Would it be possible to
share prediction patterns like we share MARC records?

Cheers,
tara