Note on Authority data management for Koha on Windows users

Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay

Dear user if you are using Koha on Windows (ver. 2.2.x), possibly the instructions given in this manual are not working for you. The reason is that Koha on Windows installer is not populating the related tables (auth_subfield_structure and auth_tag_structure) in the databases created by the installer. As a result, when you reach to the Auth type Admin from Intranet interface – > Parameters – > Thesaurus structure – > Default framework and click the MARC structure button (based on MARC 21 authority data format) and then Create authority framework by clicking OK Default option -

You will find that the structure is completely empty and therefore you cannot proceed further. One option is that you can manually populate the tables with all the required MARC 21 authority data elements by clicking Add tag button.

This is a difficult, labour intensive and time consuming process. We have solved this problem by using following steps:

1) Install SQLYog, a front-end for MySQL database (available as freeware from http://www.webyog.com/); 2) Enter MySQL through SQLYog (a shortcut will be created in the desktop after installation of SQLyog);

3) At the time of entering into the database through SQLYog, create a connection named root;

4) Select the database for your installation (e.g. blank228);

5) Go to the Tools – > Import from SQL statement;

6) Open the C:\usr\koha228\scripts\misc\sql-datas\english\authorities_normal_marc21.sql file by clicking the

      three dots in the first textbox of the utility window and then click on Export button 

Now comes the moment of truth. You can see that the Default MARC 21 authority format is filled in with all the required data elements.

Now you can follow the instructions for managing authority data as given in www.kohadocs.org. In Koha authority control is a two step process – a) Creation of authority and a) Linking of authority with appropriate subfield of the data entry framework.

a) Adding authority

When you select “Thesaurus structure” from the Koha parameters page, you will see the option for Add authority type. A click on this option will allow you to set authority type for you

Adding authority type I

Let us say we are going to add a Personal name authority type. In this case fill-up the form as shown below

Adding authority type II

The “Summary” textbox holds the list of authority record subfields which will be displayed when the cataloger accesses the authority records to look for a match for a personal name in a bibliographic record. (Displaying the entire authority record would result in a display that would be too big to be useful.) Each subfield should be enclosed in square brackets. In our example, a search of the authority records for a personal name will display the MARC 21 personal name heading tag (100), using both the subfields that hold the regular form of the name (100a) and any fuller version of the name (100q). The search will also display the “see from” tracing tag (400) and the “see also” tracing tag (500). Now select MARC structure to enter tags and subfields of MARC 21 authority format in the authority type Personal name –

Adding authority type III

Now you can enter authority data in the database as created by you. To enter authority data select the Authorities option from the main interface. It will display the authority type as created by you (Personal name) in the previous steps –

Adding authority type IV

A click on the Add button will display the data entry framework for authority data

Adding authority type V

In this framework enter following authority data in the given tags and subfields -

040 $b eng 100 0# $a John Paul $b II, $c Pope, $d 1920-2005 400 0# $a Joannes Paulus $b II, $c Pope, $d 1920-2005 400 0# $a Juan Pablo $b II, $c Pope, $d 1920-2005 400 0# $a Jean Paul $b II, $c Pope, $d 1920-2005 400 0# $a Johannes Paul $b II, $c Pope, $d 1920-2005 400 0# $a Joann Pavel $b II, $c Pope, $d 1920-2005 510 2# $a Catholic Church. $b Pope (1978-2005: John Paul II) 700 04 $a Juan Pablo $b II, $c Papa, $d 1920-2005 $7 aacrspa 700 06 $a Jean Paul $b II $c pape, $d 1920-2005 $7 aacrfre 700 04 $a Jean Paul $b II $c (Pape), $d 1920-2005 $7 ncafnor 700 04 $a Johannes Paul $c Papst, $b II $7 rak

After entering and saving the above data set you can search the authority file from the authority interface –

Adding authority type VIa

Adding authority type VIb

b) Linking authority

If you wish to provide access to authority records for a given subfield – MARC 21 bibliographic format's 700a subfield, for instance, to make sure an author's name is available in an added entry in its approved form – you will need to create a subfield “9” for that tag (e.g. tag 700, subfield 9) by adding it at the end of the subfield editing screen. Koha uses subfield 9 to store the link between a bibliographic record and an authority record. Make sure this subfield is managed in the same tab as the other managed subfields for this tag, and then click the “hidden” checkbox so it will not be displayed with the rest of the record.

Go to the subfield that will hold the value you want to standardize (e.g. 700a in MARC 21 bibliographic format for an author's name). For this subfield, choose an appropriate thesaurus category (that you have created in your Thesaurus Structure) from the pull-down menu – perhaps category “PN” (“Personal Name”).

Now when the catalogers are adding a record, they will see three dots (…) after the textbox of the 700a subfield. Clicking on these dots will open a pop-up window allowing the cataloger to search your authority records for a standardized version of the author's name. If the desired name is found in your authority records, it can be automatically copied into the 700a subfield. If the desired name is not found, the cataloger can enter the name manually.