Allow me please to share a couple of ideas I had on zebra cataloguing:
a) batch Z39.50 searches. As a non-librarian, I rely on the bibliographical entries of others, and I've found that most of my cataloguing time is spent waiting for Z39.50 search results. It may have to do with the number of targets I normally use, or with the fact that I sometimes look for titles that are carried by some libraries only, or none at all, it seems though that this interactive process is counter-productive. I wonder therefore if you too find batch Z39.50 searches an interesting idea: The user would be able to enter ISBNs (or other similar search terms) in a table, and koha would perform searches against Z39.50 targets in batch mode, either in the background, or semi-interactively, i.e. by taking-up a browser window. Search elements already processed, would be removed from the table, so that the user would be aware when the search is complete for each item. The user would also be able to add more search terms at the bottom of the list, even when the batch search is active. Search results would be stored in an appropriate container (the "reservoir" perhaps) and koha cataloguing (cataloguing/addbooks.pl ?) would be amended to allow for searches against this container too. b ) use reservoir to auto-tune Z39.50 targets' proprieties. I've noticed that the koha entity named "reservoir" holds results of past Z39.50 searches against remote targets. I wonder if these entries could be used to auto-tune the priority of Z39.50 servers, so that one may be able to first search targets that consistently provide results. As it regards priorities, it would be useful to have two sets of priority attributes instead of one, or a scheme could be devised so that the user would be able to split the value range available from the current single column "rank", to denote different groups/search phases: targets to always search first, then known quality targets to search when the first have failed, then the rest, for example. Those entries could be used to check/uncheck en-masse the relevant targets in z3950_search.pl. The user would perform a search against the standard targets (just as in the current implementation where only the targets defined as checked are pre-selected). Then, should this first search bear no results, it would be easy to select the additional servers/targets with a single click. Should even that fail, the user could select all, and try again. kind regards, Manos PETRIDIS Athens, Greece _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
