Video Tutorial on Editing Frameworks in Koha

by Kelly McElligott on Jan 5, 2018

This Koha tutorial will show the basics of editing and deleting fields in a specific MARC Framework within Koha to better suit your library’s needs when cataloging.

Changing your library’s frameworks to fit the cataloging needs is simple!  This video shows how to remove a MARC field from a framework and also how to edit a MARC field.  Here are the steps that are shown in the video:

1. MARC Frameworks can be found in the Administration Module on the Staff Client in Koha.
2. To view a specific framework’s subfields, click the action button and choose MARC Structure.  Other options include Edit (which would allow you to edit the name of the framework), Export / Import (more information can be found in this blog post) and Delete.
3. The MARC structure option will allow you to see all the MARC fields in the framework.
4. Once in the MARC Structure- you can use the search function at the top to search for a specific field.
5. To delete a field, find the MARC field you wish to delete and use the Action button and choose Delete.
6. There will be a confirmation page to ensure you are deleting a field.
7. To Edit a field, again choose the MARC field you wish to edit by using the Action button and choose Subfields.
8. The first screen will show all the subfields within that specific MARC field.  Find the subfield you wish to edit and choose the Edit choice under Actions.
9. In the example during the video, I choose to have my 092a be visible and not collapsed when using this framework.  So this option is found under the Advanced Constraints.  I chose to Uncheck the Collapsed Box- so the 092a would have a visible text box when cataloging.
10. Another example of editing a subfield would be to allow it to add a Default Value for a specific MARC field and subfield.  A good example of this would be adding your OCLC code to a record in the 049a (local holdings) field.  Here you can edit your framework/s to have a default value- so this field is populated with a value once you create a new record in your Koha system.
11. Once you have made your edits to the framework, it is always important to check your changes!  Under the Administration Module – MARC bibliographic framework test – clicking this link will have Koha check your changes to make sure you did it correctly.
12. After you receive an OK- you are ready to test out your newly edited framework.

Note:

• In the Koha manual – it recommends to not edit the Default Framework.
• The Koha specific fields noted by (KOHA) in a framework such as 942,952 and 999 are important to the functionality of the cataloging and Koha system.  If you do want to make changes to these, please submit a ticket for assistance!

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