At the end of the Parameters page are a few items that are not parameters at all, but are instead utility programs that can be very helpful in certain situations.
This is a tool for exporting your bibliographic records in standard MARC communications format (ISO2709).
Although the screen warns that it exports only the basic bibliographic information with no holdings information, any holdings information originally loaded into Koha when the record was added will be included in the exported record.
You are asked to provide a starting biblio record number and an ending number for the export, or you can specify that you want to limit the export to a specific number of records, starting with the first (useful for testing a small export before doing a large export). Within these number parameters, you may also select records based on item type, home branch, or call number. If you want to export all of your records, leave the start and end numbers and all other criteria blank. Records are downloaded to the workstation that requests the export and are saved in a file called marc.pl (not to be confused with the Perl script of the same name found in /usr/local/koha/intranet/cgi-bin/export) which on Linux systems is usually saved in the /tmp directory.
This tool allows you to load a file of MARC records in MARC communications format (ISO2709) into Koha's reservoir of incomplete records (i.e. without holdings information).
The reservoir is an unusual feature of Koha. Libraries can keep a collection (reservoir) of basic MARC records which they have collected from other sources, either through Z39.50 searches or by using this tool to load files of MARC records obtained some other way. When cataloging, these records can be pulled from the reservoir and used as the basis for new records, with added holdings information, that will be saved to the catalogue of active records.
As the screen explains, there are several options that can be set when using the import tool. When the import is finished, you will see a report of how many records were added to the reservoir and how many were skipped (and why).
See the related comments in the User Comments section.
This utility can be used to print barcode labels for your library items. To use it, you must have the 0.3r77 release of the PDF::API2 Perl module loaded on your computer (and have an appropriate printer attached to your computer, of course). Check with the person who installed your Koha software to be sure you have the correct version of PDF::API2. When this is done, you can generate barcodes:
This page can be confusing the first time you see it. You can choose to print either a single barcode or a range of barcodes -- but you can only print barcodes for items which have already been added to your catalogue. (You cannot use this tool to print a range of barcodes for items you will catalogue in the future, for example.) You should select your country code from the pull-down list. Note that the barcode symbology that will be printed is EAN128, a fairly common type of barcode world-wide. The paper size is set by your printer configuration -- more about that in a moment. And there is a text box if you want the same text to appear under each barcode (such as the name of your library) -- if you leave the text box blank, the title and author of the matching item will be printed under the barcode.
The grid at the bottom of the page tells your printer where to begin printing on the page. If you have a sheet of self-adhesive barcode labels, five labels across the sheet, and you have already used three labels, you want the printer to start printing at the position of the fourth label, so you would click the radio button beside "Label 4." Margins for the labels, the number of labels on a page, and some other parameters are controlled by your printer configuration, which can be modified by clicking on the "Go to Printer Configuration" link.
From this page you can set the parameters for your sheets of labels, including label size, number of labels across each sheet, number of rows of labels per sheet, sheet size (A4, Letter, or Legal), and the margin around each label. The "System dpi" is not your printer DPI, but rather the DPI resolution of your computer -- typically 96, except on some newer computers which may support screens with higher resolutions (such as 192). When these parameters have been set, click the button to save your settings and return to the Barcode Generator screen.
When everything is ready to go, click the "Generate Barcodes" button. Koha will generate a PDF file of your barcodes and display them on your screen -- use your browser's print function to send the file to your printer.
Note
Currently, the barcodes generator works best with 11-digit barcodes. The last few digits of longer barcodes will not be printed under the barcode itself, and shorter barcodes will have the check digit printed after the barcode number. You should have a Perl programmer alter the Koha code for you if you wish to use something other than 11-digit barcodes.
(Send comments and remarks to <st.hedges AT gmail DOT com>. They will be added to this section.)
- Posted by Thomas Dukleth
I advise against using the current Koha web browser interface administration tools for importing MARC records if you want complete and/or valid records. Any deficiency in your System Administration : Biblio Framework will result in fields and subfields missing from the biblio framework being dropped from records imported through the Koha administration web interface. You could add the missing fields and subfields to correct for this problem but some time should be taken to audit the existing default framework. This is true for System Administration : Import. This is also true for the Koha Z39.50 client.
Import MARC records into Koha in batches using
bulkmarcimport.plto import the records. The Unix default path is/usr/local/koha/intranet/scripts/misc/migration_tools/bulkmarcimport.plin Koha 2.2.4. Be certain to set the proper values for the environment variablesPERL5LIBandKOHA_CONFbefore running the script.