About Features Downloads Getting Started Documentation Events Support GitHub

Love VuFind®? Consider becoming a financial supporter. Your support helps build a better VuFind®!

Site Tools


Warning: This page has not been updated in over over a year and may be outdated or deprecated.
configuration:call_numbers

Call Number Configuration

By default, VuFind® is configured to support LC call numbers, but Dewey Decimal support can be enabled if needed.

Turning on Dewey Decimal Support

Activating Dewey Decimal support requires a few steps:

1. Make sure Dewey call numbers are indexed in your records

To add Dewey call numbers to your index, uncomment the Dewey-related lines in import/marc_local.properties under your VuFind® installation. By default, VuFind® expects to find Dewey numbers in the 082 and 083 MARC fields. You may need to adjust the process that exports records from your ILS to populate these fields (see MARC Export Notes for advice on exporting records). Alternatively, if your call numbers are in a different MARC field, you may have to adjust the field specification in marc_local.properties; see the SolrMarc Notes for more details.

2. Turn on Dewey support in the Browse module

In config.ini, there is a [Browse] section which controls VuFind®'s browse module. Set “dewey” to true in order to enable a Dewey call number browse. You may also want to disable the “lcc” setting to turn off LC call number support at this time, though you do not have to – both call number schemes can coexist.

3. Enable Dewey facets in search results

In facets.ini, you may want to enable the “dewey-hundreds” facet in place of the LC-centric “callnumber-first” facet. Comments inside the configuration file offer more details on this setting.

Note that you will probably also want to make the same change in the [Advanced] / [HomePage] sections of the file as well as the [Results] section in order to control options on the Advanced Search screen and (in some themes) the Search/Home page.

4. Enable sorting of search results by Dewey call number

In searches.ini, you may want to use “dewey-sort” as the call number sort in place of the LC-oriented “callnumber” setting. Comments inside the configuration file offer more details on this option.

5. Include Dewey call numbers in "more like this" handler for suggesting similar items

In solr/biblio/conf/solrconfig.xml, there is a “morelikethis” request handler which is used for finding records similar to a given item. This is used for suggesting similar items on the record view page. By default, it uses Library of Congress call numbers as a strong factor in identifying matches. If you want Dewey to be a factor as well, supplement or replace the “callnumber-label” value in the morelikethis request handler section with “dewey-ones,” “dewey-tens” and/or “dewey-hundreds.” For smaller collections, you may want to use a less precise Dewey field to get more matches; for larger collections, you should probably use a more precise Dewey field to better precision matches. It's also an option to include all three Dewey fields and simply weight the more precise ones higher.

For more details on the MoreLikeThis handler, see the relevant Solr wiki page.

6. Display Dewey call numbers in appropriate places

Depending on your local needs, you may also need to make a few Dewey-related customizations:

  • Make sure your ILS driver returns Dewey call numbers when sending holdings information. This is necessary to display appropriate values in the “call number” field of search results. For more details on how drivers work, see the ILS Driver specification.
  • If you want to show Dewey numbers in more places (for example, in record details), it may also be necessary to edit some of VuFind®'s templates. For more details on customizing the user interface, see User Interface Customization.
configuration/call_numbers.txt · Last modified: 2023/10/24 13:53 by demiankatz