Converting the DBText Borrower Database

The DBText borrower database needs to be converted into a comma delimited file in the proper format to be loaded into Koha via Import Patrons in the Tools menu. Most of the fields can be mapped into the corresponding Koha fields. The branch code and an initial password need to be added. We have added a number of fields to DBText that will be needed by Koha.

DBTextMembers is patterned after DBTextCheck.  It can be downloaded here. It does some formatting checks on phone numbers and dates.

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Computing

I switched to Linux using Caldera.  When they went under, I switched to SuSE and now am on openSUSE 11.0.  I haven’t switched to 11.1 because I like KDE 3.5.  The November 2009 release of 11.2 will have KDE 4.3 which looks good.

I have an ASUS eee pc 1000HE. It’s small enough to carry around easily and big enough to read and type and is running eeeBuntu linux.

Books

I have a large collection of books numbering ~10,000.  Most of them are Fantasy or Science Fiction.  Another large part of the collection is marketed as Young Adult or Intermediate.  Much good fantasy has been published in these catagories.  I never throw any of these out

I also have quite a few technical books which do get discarded when they are obsolete.

I will be cataloging the books in Koha.

Koha

Koha is a full-featured open-source ILS. Developed initially in New Zealand by Katipo Communications Ltd and first deployed in January of 2000 for Horowhenua Library Trust, it is currently maintained by a team of software providers and library technology staff from around the globe.  More information can be found at the Koha web site

Dumping & Checking DBText Data

DBTextCheck will check exported borrower, catalog or loans files for blank records or missing required fields.  The name of the file to be checked is the only required parameter.   Blank record output defaults to DBTblanks.csv.  Records missing required fields will be written to DBTinvalid.csv.

DBTextCheck will produce a summary of each field showing the field name, blank count, maximum length and number of CR/LFs in the field.  DBTextCheck can be downloaded here Continue reading