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."

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

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  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

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.

Import screen before modification of MARC record.

A quick note about the anatomy of MARC records

MARC records have three main elements: a field that contains information about the item (such as "William Shakespeare"), a tag that tells the computer what the field represents (such as "100" for author), and a set of indicators that provide further information about the field. For example, tag 005 in the image to the right tells the computer that the following number string (20160615082311.0, or 2016/06/15 08:23:11) is the last time this item was last checked out or moved. Koha helpfully labels this field for us so we don't have to memorize the tags.

Some fields in the records also contain subfields that contain additional information. Like the fields and their tags above, each subfield has a subfield code that tells the computer what kind of information follows. The subfields are indicated by a delimiter, usually a $, which is not shown on the Koha page, but can be seen in the gallery images above. Tag 040 indicates that the following fields contain the catalogers of the item. Subfield code a indicates that the subfield contains the original cataloging agency. Subfield code b indicates the cataloging language, etc. You can see how helpful Koha is in providing labels. See [Understanding MARC Bibliographic] for more information.

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. A quick note about MARC records: