On 9/15/2015 5:55 PM, Curtis Rempel wrote:
L4U exports in MARC format which should be easy enough to import, however, during koha config, I had to choose between UNIMARC or MARC21. Full disclaimer: I’m a Linux guy, I wouldn’t know a UNIMARC or a MARC21 record if one fell out of the sky and knocked me out cold.:-) How would one know what to choose here? Would I somehow be able to determine what MARC flavour the L4U export is? Does it even matter?
Yes, it matters a lot, but primarily to the people who will be inputting into the catalog. There are a few library formats, various flavors of MARC based more or less on nationality: there is MARC21 (which is used primarily by the Anglo-American community) but there are all kinds of others. UNIMARC is popular in Europe.
Normally when a librarian wants to catalog something, they look to see if another library has already made a record for it, then the librarian can download that record into the local catalog, saving a lot of time and labor. Obviously for this to work, the formats have to be the same. So, the format makes a difference when you import these records. In the US, you can expect to download records in MARC21, but in Europe, you will expect to download in UNIMARC but there are exceptions everywhere.
The inputters should know where they want to get the records--if they don't, then they need to figure it out.
James Weinheimer [email protected] First Thus http://blog.jweinheimer.net First Thus Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/FirstThus Personal Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/james.weinheimer.35 Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JamesWeinheimer Cooperative Cataloging Rules http://sites.google.com/site/opencatalogingrules/ Cataloging Matters Podcasts http://blog.jweinheimer.net/cataloging-matters-podcasts The Library Herald http://libnews.jweinheimer.net/ [delay +30 days] _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org [email protected] https://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
