As of this past Monday five out of the six libraries in the first nhaisLOCAL group have live Koha systems up and running. The 6th one had a problem sending their data to ByWater for loading and is now expected to go live in early August. There are always lots of little things to learn, and tweak, and sort out with a new automation system and the Group 1 libraries are in the thick of this process at this point.
Getting the first group of libraries up and running has been a learning experience for NHAIS Services as well as for the individual libraries. Among the many lessons we learned are that we need more structured ways to collect data to move libraries from their current systems (or their current card catalogs) to Koha and that six was too big a group to comfortably shepherd through the process.
Our next group of libraries will be going live by early 2014 and will include a maximum of 3 libraries. Then we will add up to 3 libraries at a time over 6 month periods. Once we have gone through a couple more cycles we will reconsider the pace and quantity of new nhaisLOCAL libraries that can be implemented.
A collection of information and observations about the nhaisLOCAL open source library automation project. Pricing and terms are available on the nhaisLOCAL webpage. Questions about this project should be directed to Mary Russell, Librarian, NHAIS & Technical Services, NH State Library.
7/24/2013
7/09/2013
How Data is Structured in nhaisLOCAL Koha Systems
Your
library owns things: books, magazines, puzzles, cake pans, snow shoes, movies,
recorded music, etc. In some cases you
probably own multiples of exactly the same thing (several copies of Strega Nona, for example). Each of the
different things you own is represented in your Koha system by a bibliographic
record (generally referred to as a bib record).
Every individual copy of each thing you own is represented by an item
record which is attached to the bib record it is one of. For example, you may have 3 copies of Peyton Place (published in 1956 by
Messner, 372 pages long). You will have 1 bib record in your system for this
(oclc record #00289487) which includes information about the thing – who wrote
it, how many pages it has, where and when it was published, subject headings
that describe what it is about, etc.
Attached
to this example bib record there will be 3 item records (because you have 3 of
the exact same book). Each item record will include a call number (they might
or might not all have the same call number, depending on where you keep the
different copies), and a barcode that uniquely identifies each physical item.
The item record might also have notes that describe something about the
specific copy—that it is water damaged, or that it was signed by the author, or
that it was donated to your library by someone, etc.
The
bibliographic record will have an ITEM TYPE assigned to it (and included as
part of the bib record) that tells you the kind of thing it is: a book, a
movie, a museum pass, etc. These are broad categories of things – Video games,
for example. More detailed information (it is a wii game, or an Xbox game, for
example) is included in the bibliographic record and is not given a separate
ITEM TYPE. You can think of this like the chapters in a cookbook. In The Joy of Cooking you will find recipes
(think of them as bib records) for blueberry pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie,
etc. These recipes will be in a chapter
(think of it like an item type) called Pies. This same ITEM TYPE will be
included in all the items that are attached to the bib record. There is a
defined list of ITEM TYPES in the nhaisLOCAL system that is used by all the
different nhaisLOCAL catalogs.
Groups
of ITEMS may be organized conceptually (as opposed to physically) into defined
COLLECTIONS. These might include adult fiction, juvenile non-fiction,
reference, local history, music, etc. Each individual library can have a defined
list of COLLECTIONS in the nhaisLOCAL system that may be used to group items.
The item record will include information about what COLLECTION the item is part
of. This is optional, an item need not
be part of a COLLECTION, but using COLLECTIONS will allow you to create reports
about these groups of stuff and may help patrons find similar materials.
Groups
of ITEMS will be organized physically in your library. Each nhaisLOCAL library may
define a list of LOCATIONS that they can then use to explain where in the
building items can be found. This list includes things like Stacks, Reference
Room, In Processing, Children’s Room, Librarian’s Office, Bat Cave, Teen Area,
etc. This is optional, an item need not have a LOCATION attached to it, but
using LOCATIONS can help both staff and patrons find things. The item record
includes a field that indicates what LOCATION the item belongs in. Frequently
this information is also, in an abbreviated form, part of the call number for
the item.
Your library has all this stuff so
that people can use it. Those people are called patrons in the nhaisLOCAL
systems. There are different groups of
patrons (children, adults, out-of-town borrowers) who can do different things
(renew materials, borrow DVDs, etc.). What specific things an individual person
can or cannot do in your library is defined by the PATRON TYPE they are
assigned. Each
nhaisLOCAL library defines their own list of PATRON TYPES which they can use to
group their patrons. The privileges your patrons have are defined in the
configuration of each PATRON TYPE and may vary for different ITEM TYPES. For
example, you can specify that a patron with the PATRON TYPE “adult” can borrow
items of the ITEM TYPE “movies” for 2 weeks, with no renewals allowed. Or 1
week with 8 renewals, or whatever you want. The rules for the ITEM TYPE
‘in-library equipment” can be totally different.
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