Koha Bootcamp

Task: Perform a basic search by author for “Colleen Hoover” and return results for Valley Cottage Library only.

1.) Click "Search catalog" (or press ALT+Q) to change the green bar function from "Check out."

2.) Within the search box, click the abacus icon () to reveal the menu for more options.

3.) Change the search index dropdown to search by author, subject, ISBN, etc. and change the library dropdown to limit results to Valley Cottage Library, or another library.

1.) Refine your search - similar to refining searches in Aspen Discovery, you can quickly select filters in the side menu to further narrow down the results.

2.) Search within results - in addition to the quick select filters in the side menu, you can also perform another keyword (or other index search) to further narrow down the results.

3.) By clicking a checkbox within the list of search results (i.e., the checkboxes in the column to the right of the cover image column), you can quickly select records to place multiple results on hold at once, or review a subset of records in more detail with the "Browse selected records button."

4.) Sort - click the sort button to sort the search results by various options. The default sort selection is by relevance (according to the Koha Community Manual, "relevance" is calculated based on the weight of fields and the number of occurrences of the search terms in each field.)

5.) Show Items in All Libraries - this button did not exist when we first received access to the test server, but has since been added (an improvement already!). Selecting this button will show system-wide holdings for all the items in the search results as opposed to just VCL. The yellow plus () under the location column will similarly expand to reveal all the libraries that own an item, but only for that individual search result.

6.) Click the item title to view the full item record.

7.) Holds and Add to cart - From the search results you can quickly determine how many holds are already placed on the item. Clicking Holds (X) will display the current holds table for the item and allow you to add a patron to that holds table.

• Add to cart - one useful feature in Koha is the ability to add multiple items to a temporary holding place called a "cart" (similar to online shopping carts). Carts are useful for when a patron wants to place multiple holds requiring multiple searches—once you have all the items a patron is looking for in a cart, you can then place all of those items on hold at once.

8.) Location column - from the search results screen you can quickly determine where an item is in the library or if it is checked out. (notice the color-coded "1 checked out") above the location info box in the screenshot.