Book 2: For the Librarian

The Home Page

The home page offers links to these sections of Koha:

Catalogue

Acquisitions

Koha has two acquisitions processes. The full acquisitions is a sophisticated system for keeping track of spending on books and other materials in multiple budgets. The simple version is a much quicker method of adding data if budget tracking is not required.

Simple Acquisitions

http://intradev.katipo.co.nz/cgi-bin/koha/acqui.simple/addbooks.pl is the simple version.

Start by typing any distinctive keyword from the title into the Keyword field, or typing or scanning the ISBN into the ISBN field.

If you find a biblio record that fits, clicking on it takes you to the additem.pl screen (see below) where you can add the item info.

If the catalogue check for a matching record fails, you can add a new biblio by downloading a MARC record, if this has been set up for you (more in Koha v1.4.), or you can add items manually by clicking on Add New Biblio.

The first screen when adding a biblio is Section One, Copyright Information. The only mandatory field is the title.

After submitting the screen, you reach the same additem.pl? screen as described above. Section Two covers Group Information and Item information. You are asked first for the Item information: a barcode, the branch to which it is allocated (for multi-branch systems), the replacement price and any notes that apply to this copy only. Only the barcode and branch are mandatory. Then you have the option of adding to an existing group, or of creating a new group to add it to (see description under 1.2 Cataloguing Record.)

Adding a New Group requires you to specify the Format, or item type from a list you will have compiled with your installer. Standard cataloguing fields follow. Dewey subclass is used for filing letters, if you use them. Volume, Number and Volume Description can be used to identify separate issues of a periodical, for issuing purposes. It is useful to standardize the Volume description -- so use Apr 2002, May 2002, or 2002/04, 2002/05 and stick to your standardized description every time.

Full Acquisitions

The full Acquisitions programme is designed so that items cannot be added to the data base without an explanation of where they have come from. If you want to add a lot of items without going through this process, or if you don't have to worry about keeping track of a budget, use the simplified Acquisitions process.

Suppliers

For regular suppliers, Koha lets you build a list of your regular suppliers on by typing in the Start, receive, modify any order.

Click on Add New Supplier and fill in the fields in the left column.

The right hand column of Ordering Information works like this:

List prices and Invoice prices: you have the option of selecting the currency in which the price is quoted. If it is to be imported, Koha will do the calculation for the cost in your own currency by using the currency conversion table on:

It does this separately for the List price for the amount that is committed at the time of ordering, and then corrects the amount if it is different at the time the invoice is paid, due to currency fluctuations.

(GST is a local tax in New Zealand, similar to VAT in Britain. It is paid to the supplier as a separate item, but it can be reclaimed as an expense, so that book prices are effectively net, not including GST. This field could be used for a local Sales Tax in other countries if it is reclaimed. Ask your administrator to set the right percentage. If you don't pay any local taxes, and don't want to use this field for anything else, set all your suppliers to No. )

The next three fields allow for a variety of invoice formats. Some suppliers list items by the full retail price, then deduct discount and add tax to the subtotals at the bottom of the invoice. Others deduct discount line by line and don't charge tax. Koha can accommodate all these variations in calculating the exact amount any one item costs.