Koha:Cataloging

When a library patron searches for a book about turtles or the works of Shakespeare, he or she is asking the library's database to comb through the records for its holdings and return those with matching values. These records are written in MARC format, which stands for MAchine-Readable Cataloging. Cataloging (which you are about to do) is the act of creating records within a bibliographic database that represent items within a library's collection.

To begin, log into the TSAS Koha staff client with your credentials. Select More-->Cataloging.

ALWAYS search for the title you are cataloging in the top search box first. No one wants to go through this process if the work is already done.

Z39.50

After searching (and not finding the record in our catalog), click "New from Z39.50/SRU." Z39.50 is an information retrieval protocol that allows institutions to share MARC records for copy-cataloging purposes. It saves us time and we like it very much.

After clicking "New from Z39.50/SRU," a window will popup with a list of search targets. If you are using a barcode scanner, click the ISBN box and scan the barcode. If you are typing it in, do not include the hyphens (e.g. 9780062266637). Hit Enter. If you're lucky, a few results will pop up.

Z39.50 search results

We want records that closely match our standards so we don't have to make many changes in the next steps. Click "Card" next to the top entry. You are looking for a synopsis and robust, accurate subject headings. (What are "robust and accurate" is up to you—I trust your judgement or you wouldn't have admin rights!) Look through all of the entries before choosing.

• 

  This record does not contain a synopsis or DDC number. "LCCN" stands for "Library of Congress Control Number."

• 

  This record contains a synopsis, but few subject headings and no DDC number.

• 

  This record contains a synopsis, robust subject headings, and a DDC number (792.430287).

Check MARC Records

Once you have chosen one or two that are suitable, click on the MARC link. (The records are confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it you'll have real librarian cred.) If only one was acceptable in the last step, you can skip this one.

Check each MARC record against the following list. The fields decrease in importance, so once one record doesn't match, you can remove it from your list. Once you have only one record, move to the next step.

082 04 _a Must have Dewey number (e.g. 792.430287)
040    _e "rda" preferred
050       LCC number is preferred

Edit MARC Records

Import screen before modification of MARC record.

Once you have narrowed your list to one record, press "Import" to pull the record into our Koha database. You should see a screen that looks like the image to the right.

The following list describes the changes to be made to each field and subfield. If a field is unclear, click the question mark next to the field number (000, 008, etc.) to go to the Library of Congress's MARC 21 explanation page for that field.

001 Need additional information

003 Click field to update to TSAS

005 Click field to update to current time

040 $d Click to create additional $d, then enter TSAS

049 Clear and leave blank

082 04 $a Dewey number only. (E.g. 791.430287 NOT 2016 becomes 791.430287. If there are no spacers (the slash in 468.2/421, search LibraryThing's website by clicking [here] and adding the code to the URL after mds/. The visual representation of the Dewey number shows where a break can occur.

092 Clear and leave blank

Click the 1 tab at the top to move to the next section.

100 1# $a Click to search for an authority much like you searched for the biblio record. You may need to close and reopen the authority search results screen when creating a new authority. This needs to be expanded

245 10 $a First word of title that is not an article (A, An, The, etc.) should be capitalized. Second indicator represents number of characters to skip at the beginning of the title. The War of the worlds is alphabetized under W, so the second indicator should be 4 (three letters and a space). For more, see LoC website

260 ## $a City, state followed by a space and colon: New York : or Big Spring, Tex. :

260 ## $c Date followed by a period: 2015.

3xx–5xx Look over, but shouldn't need changing

600 10 $a Lookup name you entered in 100 using

7xx–8xx Look over, but shouldn't need changing

942 $c Choose from dropdown

See Stallings if anything looks out of place, and please edit the above if you see a pattern I've missed.

Finally, hit Save.

Add Items

The above added the record for the work, now you need to tell the system about the items we have in the library. Think about class sets: we have 25–30 items (copies of a book) with the same record (title, author, etc.).

Fill in the following to add an item:

0 Leave blank

2 Choose "Dewey Decimal Classification" for now...

3 Leave blank

4 Leave blank

5 Leave blank; has no effect on circulation

7 Leave blank unless told otherwise (some reference materials and teacher handbooks will not be circulated, but should show in the OPAC)

8 Main division is "Fiction" and "Nonfiction," but class sets should be assigned to the relevant department. Reference materials include dictionaries, atlases, and other materials rendered obsolete by Google.

a & b "TSAS Library"

c Most go to "General stacks," unless we create a special section for new materials. "Senior's choice" would be a cool addition.

d Click for current date, unless paid for by the school. In that case use the date it arrived.

e "Donation" or "Amazon," etc.

f Blank

g Price as printed on jacket

h Blank for now...

i Blank

j Blank; the only option is true/false

o Should be pre-filled. If not, click MARC and edit 082 04 $a

p Click to fill

t Blank for now (until it becomes troublesome—the barcode should suffice

u Blank

v $g rounded to the nearest quarter dollar

w $d

x Blank

y Match item

z Blank

Woo! You did it! Press "Add item" to add one item. "Add multiple items" allows you to add more than one, and assigns them each a barcode.