Heading Maintenance Options/Enhancements

I spend a lot of time in Heading Maintenance. (Sometimes I think it should be the first thing made available in KLAS 8, mostly because I think it'd be the easiest tool to add.)  I know I've asked for a lot of the following enhancements over the years, but I'm going to ask anew in case they're possible now.  Or just in case others are curious about the same things.

[1] Can code uniqueness be enforced?  Meaning, can we get an error message when we try to use a code that's already being employed?  As things are, I need to remember to periodically export all of our series and subjects and use Excel to find duplicate codes. It'd be a time saver if KLAS was my "duplicate bouncer."

Digression: If I could have my cake and eat it too, I'd like to be prompted for a code when adding a new series or subject on the Title-Bib screen. I'd rather do that than fire up Heading Maintenance for each new heading. In addition to denying code duplicates, it would be nice if KLAS rejected null codes when subject or series Headings are added.  With so many books coming in, many new series are added each day!

[2] Can we have a "see also" type entry in Subjects?  More specifically, can we have two different "Full Descriptions" pointing to one Code? For example, we tucked "Time travel" behind a "Science Fiction" prefix.  Its Full Desc is "Science Fiction - Time Travel" while its code is SCFTT.  I'd love it if we could have a faux Fantasy subject whose Full Desc read "Fantasy - Time Travel" but also pointed to the SCFTT code.  I know this reads like I'm contradicting myself from my first request. I believe this is possible; but I don't know if Heading Maintenance is robust enough to make this a reality. It'd be like linking to an existing code rather than creating a duplicate code.

[3a] Can we increase the number of characters afforded to Codes?  Is this a local setting we can change, or are all KLAS libraries limited to 5-character codes?  I fear we're going to run out of code combinations in series.

[3b] Similarly, can we increase the number of characters shown in Full Description (aka "Full Desc")?  It appears to clip at 40 characters.  This one is somewhat petty but it drives me nuts. I'm willing for horizontal scrolling or to manually adjust column widths if need be.

[4] I waste a lot of time trying to discern the gender of narrators.  Can we just put "MN" or "FN" in the Code field for each narrator's entry?  Or would that make a mess somewhere deep inside the database? 

I see each narrator entry has a MARC tab wherein there is a field for Gender, can we use that?  Is it reliable or will that field get wiped out, say, every time a new book is associated with a narrator?  Will gender info carry over in a merge/delete?

[5] Can Subjects have a Scope Notes field with unlimited characters?  If it can't be added to KLAS 7, are there plans to add this long-overdue feature in KLAS 8? 

Does anyone else have suggestions for changes they'd like to see in Heading Maintenance?

-Dan in Minnesota

My thoughts:

[1] Can code uniqueness be enforced?
JG: Well, it sort of is already? I think the first code created gets pride of place as, in the past, when I duplicate a code (however rarely!!!), then try to use it, the first one comes up.

[2] Can we have a "see also" type entry in Subjects?
JG: Could we leverage the title linking feature here, somehow?

[3a] Can we increase the number of characters afforded to Codes?
JG: Here I say "Hear, hear," but...

[3b] Similarly, can we increase the number of characters shown in Full Description?
JG: I subscribe to the Dorothy Parker school of thought -- if you are saying in 50 words, what you could say in 5, you aren't trying hard enough.

[4] I waste a lot of time trying to discern the gender of narrators.
JG: Agreed, we have got to fix this. We are spending far too long having to manually take care of this.

[5] Can Subjects have a Scope Notes field with unlimited characters?
JG: See above.

Additional thoughts:
Adding other headings to the Headings Tool. Being able to globally add series headings for example.

Cheers,

James

Wonderful ideas.
I think 1 and 3 kind of go together. For example, we have so many series and obtaining more. It gets tricky finding a four-letter code not used. Agreed.
Looking up the gender of a narrator is such a waste of time. Agreed.