Monday Minutes: Displaying Series Information in Koha

by Kelly McElligott on Jul 6, 2020

Cataloging Series Information

As librarians, we all know that patrons love to find the next book in their favorite series. Jessie and Kelly walk through how to make sure your records display the series information correctly. We will walk through both ways a series can be traced in Koha, either through the 490 or 490 combined with the 8XX fields.

Indicators

The key to all this lies in the indicators in your marc field 490.

First Indicator = 0

If your 490 marc field has the first indicator of 0, then Koha will display what is found in the 490 fields and look no further for other series information. This first indicator of 0 means it will not be traced.

Below is an example of a record with the first indicator of 0 and the display of the 490 in the record:

First Indicator = 1

If your 490 marc field has the first indicator of 1, the Koha will dig further into your record and display your 8XX fields and that series information. This indicator of 1 will mean it is traced.

Below is an example of having the first indicator 1 in the 490, and also the 800 field- which will display in the record:

Jessie and Kelly talk Series Cataloging

Other Resources

Description of the 490 fields:

https://www.oclc.org/bibformats/en/4xx/490.html

490 with 830 details - as described by Yale University:

https://web.library.yale.edu/cataloging/CIP/editing-490-830

Did you know?

Did you know that in your frameworks, a library can set default indicators?

Whether your library is only using 490 for series information or utilizing the 490 combined with an 8XX field, in your framework, you can tell Koha what indicator it should put in this field by default!

Here is a link to the manual that shows where this can be set up!

Steps:

1. Frameworks are found in the Admin portion of Koha.

2. Go to the Marc Structure of the framework you would like to edit.

3. Search for tag 490

4. Under Actions- Edit the Tag.

5. Enter your default indicator!

An example would look like this- if your library wants to trace the series information:

News!

Baby-Sitter's Club is coming to Netflix! If you are a fan like Jessie and myself- you are probably just as excited as we are!