[Koha-devel] MARC scheme for item data

[Larry Currie]

We're getting ready to load item data from a file into our MARC records,
and I proposed that the following fields be added to each MARC record:

945 b biblio.biblionumber  c biblioitems.biblioitemnumber

946 a biblioitems.biblioitemnumber  b biblioitems.itemtype  c
biblioitems.dewey

and for each copy or, in the case of multivolume works, each volume, a
949 field with the following subfields:

949 a items.itemnumber  b items.biblionumber  c items.multivolumepart  d
items.biblioitemnumber  e items.barcode  f items.dateaccessioned   g
items.homebranch  h items.price  i items.datelast seen  j items.issues
k items.itemsnotes  l items.holdingbranch
....
....

My question is, I came upon this scheme only because it seemed to pass
the Check MARC test within the MARC Related section of version 1.9.0,
but is this the optimal scheme to use?   I noticed that Paul Poulain has
proposed that the 995 tag be used for the item data in conjunction with
Biblio.pm and I can certainly make this change.  Am I correct in
assuming that there will be one such field for each volume and copy of a
work (i.e., that the 949s or 995s will be repeatable)?  What about the
information I have chosen to go into 945 and 946 fields?  Is this
appropriate?

We have also tried to get some guidance from the Library of Congress
MARC specifications pages as to whether we should either 1) be creating
separate MARC holdings records and/or 2) modifying the leaders of our
MARC records to indicate that they contain holdings tags.  I personally
don't think that we have to concern ourselves with either of these
specifications, but I just want to be sure.

Larry Currie

--
Lawrence W. Currie
User Services Librarian
California Academy of Sciences
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA 94118
address@hidden
(415) 750-7108
(415) 750-7106 fax
http://www.calacademy.org/research/library/