Table of Contents
The following guide will walk you through the areas of Koha you need to look at in order to prepare to start using the system.
Before you can start using Koha you'll need to have some data. This can be done by entering it all by hand, but most people already have their data in electronic format of some sort and just need to reformat it a bit for importing into Koha.
Create a list of libraries and enter their info and codes into Libraries & Groups
Define your list of Item Types
Define your patron categories and enter the categories and their codes into Patron Categories
Enter any additional patron information fields you use in your library in the Patron Attributes
Requires that you first set the ExtendedPatronAttributes system preference if you have custom fields
Define all of your Authorized Values
Item statuses (lost, not for loan, damaged, withdrawn)
Plus any others that are needed in your library
Optionally define City/State/Postal Code combos
Map your bibliographic data from your legacy system to Koha fields and migrate (remembering to use the collection, shelving, item type and library codes you entered in the above setting areas)
Map your patron data from your legacy system to the Koha fields and migrate (remembering to use the patron and library codes you defined above)
Test your migrated data to be sure that everything is as you expect it to be, some things to test include:
Check some of your titles with diacritics and make sure that they migrated properly.
Check titles in a series and make sure that series information migrated properly.
Make sure that your patrons have their contact information in the right fields.
If your serials data was migrated search for these records in the catalog and confirm that they look right.
If your serials data was migrated search for these records in the serials module and confirm that they look right.
Check marc records to verify a variety of items are cataloged correctly
Check cataloging process to see if all necessary fields are available
If fines are migrated, check to see that they are applied correctly
If holds are migrated, check to see they are accurate in catalog and patron record