WWWalker's Library Consulting

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My site: Publishing | Mobile | Mt Margaret Mission Publication Project | Health | Search Opitimization | Science Indexing | Astronomy Indexing | Web Indexing Research | WorldCat | Groupware | Shop of Books for Sale | GDPR Compliance | Disaster Recovery | Private WWWalker Library


Research | Installing Library Systems and Cataloguing | Koha Library Software | ResourceMate Software | Community Library Project | Private Library for Sale | Mt Margaret Mission Publication Project) | Web and Electronic Indexing | Searchable Book Indexes | eBook Electronic Indexing and Publishing | Book Indexing


Research

Dwight Walker can search for names or topics online or in library catalogues and present results to person requesting them.

E.g. in May 2020, Dwight found catalogues of Schenk collection and pictures of relatives of people at Mt Margaret Mission Graham Home, WA in 1927-35 using PDF and SLWA Encore digital catalogue.

Doing Mt Margaret Mission research was part of editing book by S Preston Walker on Mt Margaret 'Enriching Australia through educating indigenous people'.

If you want to order a copy of a book please see our Shop.

Contact us if you require research done.

Dwight Walker is a trained librarian (UNSW Grad Dip Lib 1991) and system administrator (BSc UQ 1987).


Installing Library Systems and Cataloguing

I have skill as a cataloguer with copy cataloguing and library automation as I am a system librarian.

I consult onsite re library design and setup and can re-order a library to be better grouped so that research can be done much easier. This is a result of cataloguing the entire collection including books, serials, CD, DVDs, cassettes, LPs, audio tapes, photograph albums, paintings, letters and memorabilia.

Library systems I have installed and catalogued in:

Koha Library Software

Koha 22.05

In May 2024, when I upgraded Koha from 22.05.20 to 22.05.21, I had to manually start Zebra for library instance or there was no search on OPAC again. Tedious.

In April 2024, when I upgraded Koha from 22.05.19 to 22.05.20, I had to manually start Zebra for library instance or there was no search on OPAC.

In May 2020, I successfully installed Koha library system on Linux to create WWWalker Library with over 4300 books which I catalogued from my father mainly. I setup an OPAC and staff area and setup DNS to point to the new sub Websites. Over several hours I imported 4300 MARC records exported from ResourceMate library system.

System Administration of Koha Library Catalogue

Before importing into Koha, I had to clean the MARC records to remove non-UTF-8 characters which required knowledge of UTF-8 character encoding and Perl module programming with MARC::Lint to check for character encoding and data compatibility and hex editor to replace or remove non-UTF-8 charaters like curly ' or " or accents or graves and use MarcEdit to add 952 field in bulk and convert to .MRC file for upload. Set indicator fields based on MARC framework. Set non-defined indicator fields to \. Before that imports failed.

In import, select item type for 952$y that matches what is in Koha or create new item type to match the item type used in import or ISBD view will break and item type will be blank in catalogue for all those with new item type. Koha has item type BK not BKS so create BKS or use BK when importing in bulk. This video unfortunately gave item type of BKS when it should have been BK.

To stop Australia/Brisbane timezone not being found in database in Koha, I imported timezone table into MySQL with a Linux bash script.

To make URLs active in MARC records e.g. vimeo.com streaming videos, I changed them from 856$a to 856$u in record.

Using MarcEdit to Edit Koha Items

Altering MARC Records in MarcEdit before Importing into Koha (old video)

See also

I then used Z39.50 in Koha to copy catalogue MARC records from Library of Congress, National Library of Australia, University of Queensland Library or State Library of Queensland to export MARC records for books in my library which I converted to MRC file using MarcEdit to import into ResourceMate. Export of MARC to tab delimited was another way by matching fields and subfields. MARC is preferred but many vendors use CSV or Excel to send bibliographic records so MarcEdit converts between Excel and MARC.

MarcEdit Webinar 2: Working with Non-MARC Data In MarcEdit

When I imported batch of records with wrong item type code, I used batch modification of records on Koha to update the subset of the records to correct item type code for book and subset for audio etc.

Batch Enhancements in Koha 19.11 (video won't embed)

In May 2020, I worked out how to create authority records for MARC records in Koha. This was to clean up authority headings across the library.

In June 2020, I worked out how to clean MARC records exported from ResourceMate using Marcedit and LOC MARC standards so that they would import in bulk into Koha with no errors. Before that many records were mysteriously not imported or were in reservoir and discovered later.

In June 2020, I created and activated 1GB swap file in Linux and removed monit to stop monit killing MySQL when CPU exceeded 75% or RAM ran out when doing cataloguing in Koha. Koha now flies. I only had 1GB of RAM.

In July 2020, I found out how to change status of item to lost in Koha admin console: click on item, go to lost status, set as lost. It is in MARC 952$1 with values 0 to 4. An overview of item statuses is useful. MARC bibliographic frameworks label lists Koha to MARC mapping. Lost is tricky as it is linked to payment and billing of replacement of lost item, being found again, hold pulled switching to lost and circulation notifying item was lost.

Mark Lost Items as Returned

In July 2020, I found how to enable and install plugins in Koha: setup enable_plugins in koha-conf.xml settings file, enable UseKohaPlugins global setting in admin, upgrade system with apt-get update; apt-get upgrade, upload KPZ plugin file from github.com repository.

Koha 20.11

In June 2021, I upgraded Koha but found I could not open the site due to missing field branchillemail in branches. I looked up database update script updatedatabase.pl via koha-upgrade-schema and found all the database table changes. Via database console, I found database had error adding some fields with type LONGTEXT but TEXT was fine. I used database console to add missing field as TEXT not LONGTEXT and site then opened. I also found marcxml as LONGTEXT in deletedbiblioitems was missing so I added it as TEXT. It was a database not software error. LONGTEXT is 4GB but TEXT is 64KB of characters. TEXT was large enough for an email address or MARC XML.

In June 2021, I found erlang but not esl-erlang in Debian lets RabbitMQ-Server start in Koha 20.11. In esl-erlang on Debian, RabbitMQ-Server will not start. Erlang is a networking language with several incompatible package versions on Debian. Only use 'erlang' version of Erlang packaged with Debian. The only way to get RabbitMQ-Server running is to uninstall esl-erlang and install RabbitMQ-server and then erlang will be installed and then install koha-common which requires RabbitMQ-server to start. Otherwise there will be errors in koha-common installation.

In June 2021, I had to change koha-conf.xml to have lockdir setup point to my library's instance's lock directory.

In June 2021, I had to enable mpm_itk module in Apache so Koha site did not have Apache restart errors after logrotate. This was due to special setup in Koha site for Apache (AssignUserId).

Monday Minutes with Jessie and Kelly : Koha Plugins 2/20

Using the Patron Emailer Plugin in Koha

ResourceMate Software

In April-October 2011, I catalogued a personal library of 3500 items in Brisbane onsite using ResourceMate on a Windows laptop with Vodafone 3G wifi using the Internet for copy cataloguing.

In 2019, I planned to use WebOPAC of Resourcemate. This is hosted library software.

In end in May 2020, I exported MARC records from ResourceMate to Koha which I installed on my Linux server and ran library in Web via Koha not hosted ResourceMate. Koha is free and opensource with free Z39.50 but requires own server and more support and reading by me as system admin to get going and keep going whereas ResourceMate is commercial and requires paid upgrades and subscriptions for Z39.50 work. Koha has ByWater Solutions and other vendors who support and train librarians on and upgrade Koha and run many webinars on Youtube and Zoom to support librarians round the world on Koha and add features. Indian professors in librarianship at Indian universities also support Koha via webinars on Youtube.

My IT skills: I have used RDP client on Linux and Windows to access such hosted software. I have used RDP client rdesktop on Linux EEEPC to login to Windows Server 2008 the same as in the following video re tablet access to software. On Windows I use Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) to access software.

Software

Library Budget


Community Library Project

In January and November 2011 and June 2012, I installed and setup cataloguing procedures for a Web/PC library using Collectorz, CueCat barcode scanner, iphone barcode readers and mobile catalogues for a small Christian library in Canberra. I then catalogued and sorted the 1500 books. This catalogue was online but it expired and collection went into storage.

Private Library for Sale

In July 2012, I catalogued 300 books for person in Orange to sell online. Most were archaeology, ancient history and mineralogy.

Mt Margaret Mission Publication Project

Started in 2008, this is a large indexing and publishing project for my father S Preston Walker's last book 'Enriching Australia through educating indigenous people'.

I used ResourceMate as follows to catalogue my father's library to finish research on his book. I am now using Koha and ResourceMate in tandem since May 2020.

This project is on hold till I publish the book because aborigines want to use it for land rights information in Kalgoorlie which it was not intended for so I put a password on that page in May 2020. They want to prove their relations were in the Graham Home so have land right claim to the old mission.


Web and Electronic Indexing

Searchable Book Indexes

Part of my consulting is indexing books and PDF files as in the Mt Margaret Mission research.

In 2010, I also setup a searchable book index database at indexdata.info. The indexes can be downloaded as PDFs.

ebooks for sale

eBook Electronic Indexing and Publishing

From 2011-2017, we were Webmaster and Web Indexing Award Judge of Digital Publications Indexing SIG of American Society for Indexing.

In 2013, I generated an EPUB book Bible to thousands by SP Walker using MediaWiki and EPUB extension.

Electronic indexing in Barlett's Familiar Quotations app - American Society for Indexers

Book Indexing

In December 2024, I used Macrex software to create back of book indexes for books with no indexes.


Links


Created: 18 Dec 2011 17:54
Last Updated: 17 Dec 2024 2:55


WWWalker Web Development Introduction