The first step in using the Acquisitions module is describing your suppliers and adding them to your list of vendors. This is actually done as part of the process of placing your first order with the supplier.

Begin by going to the "Start, receive, modify order" box on the Acquisitions home screen and either search for the supplier by name (if you think they might already be in your vendor list) or leave the box blank and click on "OK."

Figure 4.1. Acquisitions Home Screen

Notice that this screen displays any budget and currency information which was entered as part of setting up Koha for your library. The budget numbers will be modified as you place and receive orders to reflect any amounts you have spent or committed.

When you click on "OK" without entering the name of a supplier in the search box, you will see a screen listing all of the suppliers in your vendor list -- which will be empty the first time you use Acquisitions.

Figure 4.2. Supplier List (First Use)

Click on "Add supplier" and you get a screen allowing you to enter the details about this vendor:

Figure 4.3. Adding a Supplier

When you click on "save" after entering the supplier information, you will be returned to the supplier list, this time with your new supplier available for selection. This supplier, along with all of the other suppliers in your vendor list, will also appear from now on whenever you search for a supplier without entering a search term.

Figure 4.4. Supplier List

Click on the "Order" icon (mailing envelope) to proceed to the next step in the process of placing an order.

Once you have added the vendor to your files, the next step in building a new order is creating a shopping basket to hold the order. This process begins by adding an order line that gathers information about the item you wish to order, either by searching for a matching bibliographic record already in your catalogue, looking at patron suggestions, or creating a new bibliographic record.

Figure 4.5. Creating a shopping basket

The "search on existing books" looks for your search term in the titles on the items in your catalogue. If you do not find a match for the item you wish to order, you can create a new bibliographic record for it. (See the instructions for acquiring or creating MARC records later in this chapter.) Or you can gather information from suggestions that have been accepted from patrons to start the process of building a bibliographic record. As you can see, regardless of how you go about it, the goal is to describe each item in an order using information from a bibliographic record in your catalogue. Let's look at using an existing record first, then look at the process of managing suggestions.

If you search for a word (or words) from an existing title in your catalogue, you will see a list of search results to choose from.

Figure 4.6. Searching for matching record

If you then click on the title of the matching item, a new shopping basket will be created, this first item will be added to it, and you will be returned to a screen for adding more information about this item order.

Figure 4.7. Item order details

On this screen, the "catalogue details" are filled in using the information from the bibliographic record, and you now need to add the "accounting details." In particular, you need to specify the number of copies you wish to order, the fund from which the money is to be taken (using a pull-down list of funds you already defined in your Koha parameters) the replacement cost and the estimated (budget) cost. All the other calculations can be done based on information from your Koha parameters, so when you click on "OK," you will see something like this:

Figure 4.8. New order

Note that the "managed by" information is not displayed on this screen, but is automatically defined in the shopping basket by the login name when the basket was created. In the example above, "Basket 1" will be managed by "kohaadmin."

The Koha OPAC allows your library users to submit suggestions for library purchases. These suggestions are managed during the acquisitions process.

When suggestions are being held by Koha for management by the librarians, a note on the acquisitions home screen will inform you:

Figure 4.9. Suggestions note

Clicking on the "manage" button brings you to the list of suggestions currently awaiting action.

Figure 4.10. Suggestions list

The pull-down menu above the "Change status" button lets you choose to either "accept" or "reject" this suggestion. (Once the status is changed, the new status is reported back to the OPAC user who made the suggestion.) If you choose to accept the suggestion, make sure you record the suggestion information before you change the status: the information will disappear once you have changed the status. Use the information to find or make a bibliographic record and proceed as above to add the item to a shopping basket.

When you have added as many items as you want to a shopping basket, you can submit the order. First you will need to display the shopping basket details (as if you were going to add more items to the basket) and then click on "Close" in the Basket Info window. This will return you to the supplier details screen, now showing that the basket has been closed.

Figure 4.11. Closed shopping basket

If you now click on the "View" button, you see a different shopping basket detail screen (in this case, with only one item in the basket):

Figure 4.12. Basket ready to order

Clicking on the "[order]" link at the top of the Fund column deducts the estimated cost of the order from the amount available in the fund(s) listed. The new available total will be displayed the next time you open the Acquisitions main page.

As items in an order arrive from the vendor, you need to "receive" them into your Koha database. This process starts exactly the same way you start the process of building an order, only now you click on the "Receive" icon (an in-box) instead of the "Order" icon.

Figure 4.13. Receiving an order

This displays a screen for gathering some basic information about the shipment you have just received, namely the invoice number, any taxes, and any freight charges.

Figure 4.14. Order details

Click on "save" to store this basic information about the shipment and proceed to the screen for searching your order lists for matching items:

Figure 4.15. Search orders

The search should (of course) find a matching line in a saved order and display it, allowing you to enter details about this item from the invoice.

Figure 4.16. Receiving items

In our example, we are going to assume we have received both copies that were ordered, but we will add them individually, so that we can assign one item to the MAIN library, and the other to a branch, each copy with it's own unique barcode. This adds the items immediately to the database as soon as you click on the "save" button. Now your order receipt summary displays the total costs, which should match the invoice total if you have entered everything correctly.

Figure 4.17. Receipt summary