Batch modification tool - information pack
This document includes instructions for some of different batch modification tools on Koha.
How to use the batch modification tools with the reports module
There are a variety of ways to collect records for batch modification or deletion. These instructions will outline how to use the Reports module to locate and send records to the different modification tools.
The options for sending records to be modified or deleted using the Reports module are to identify bibliographic records or item records.
Identifying bibliographic records to be modified requires a report which retrieves biblionumbers.
Identifying item records to be modified requires a report which retrieves item numbers.
It is possible to create a report with both biblionumbers and item numbers which will provide the option to use either the item modification tool or the bibliographic record modification tool.
Option 1 - Using a report to modify bibliographic records
The example below uses a report for records added between two dates. This is just a random scenario to demonstrate how completing a batch record modification from an SQL report can be completed. Please be aware this is a very general report and this should be tested to ensure it won’t slow your site by being too large. If you have any concerns, or would like support in creating your own SQL report, please contact Interleaf Technology directly.
Go to Reports > Guided reports > Use saved.
This will bring you to a table of reports on your site.
In this example, the report is found by searching for the title in the search box at the top of the table. This narrows the table to a single report
which can then be run by clicking the Run button in the Actions column.
The report results are generated and as they include a bibliographic number there is a button at the top of the table called Batch operations with 20 visible records.
This is the feature that allows staff to send records in the report to be batch modified or deleted. Only records that actually appear on the first page of the report will be sent to be altered, records on the other pages of the report will not be sent. This limitation is to prevent too many items being sent through to the modification or deletion tool and slowing the system.
To increase the number of items appearing on the first page of the report click the box to the right of the line Rows per page and select the appropriate number from the dropdown menu.
After altering the amount of results appearing on the first page of the report the button has changed to Batch operations with 50 visible records.
When the Batch operations with 50 visible records is clicked the options for changing bibliographic records appear, Batch record modification, Batch record deletion and Add to list.
Clicking Batch record modification will send the visible records to the Batch record modification page.
Option 2 - Use a report to batch modify item records
Go to Reports > Guided reports > Use saved.
This will bring you to a table of reports on your site.
In this example, the report is found by searching for the title in the search box at the top of the table. This narrows the table to a single report
which can then be run by clicking the Run button in the Actions column.
The report results are generated and as they include an item number there is a button at the top of the table called Batch operations with 20 visible records.
This is the feature that allows staff to send records in the report to be batch modified or deleted. Only records that actually appear on the first page of the report will be sent to be altered, records on the other pages of the report will not be sent. This limitation is to prevent too many items being sent through to the modification or deletion tool and slowing the system.
To increase the number of items appearing on the first page of the report click the box to the right of the line Rows per page and select the appropriate number from the dropdown menu.
After altering the amount of results appearing on the first page of the report the button has changed to Batch operations with 50 visible records.
When the Batch operations with 50 visible records is clicked the options changing item records appear, Batch item modification and Batch item deletion.
Clicking Batch item modification will send the visible records to the Batch item modification page.
Option 3 - Use a report with the option of either item or bibliographic modification tools
Go to Reports > Guided reports > Use saved.
This will bring you to a table of reports on your site.
In this example, the report is found by searching for the title in the search box at the top of the table. This narrows the table to a single report
which can then be run by clicking the Run button in the Actions column.
The report results below include both item number and biblionumber. There is a button at the top of the table called Batch operations with 20 visible records.
When the Batch operations with 20 visible records button is clicked the options for both modifying the item records and the bibliographic records appear.
This is the feature that allows staff to send records in the report to be batch modified or deleted. Only records that actually appear on the first page of the report will be sent to be altered, records on the other pages of the report will not be sent. This limitation is to prevent too many items being sent through to the modification or deletion tool and slowing the system.
To increase the number of items appearing on the first page of the report click the box to the right of the line Rows per page and select the appropriate number from the dropdown menu.
After altering the amount of results appearing on the first page of the report the button has changed to Batch operations with 50 visible records.
When the Batch operations with 50 visible records is clicked the options changing item records appear, Batch item modification and Batch item deletion.
| Version | Date | Detail | Author |
| 1.0 | 05/03/20 | Document created | Holly Cooper |
| 2.0 | 02/04/20 | Adding information | Holly Cooper |
| 2.1 | 03/04/20 | Adding information to screenshots | Holly Cooper |
| 2.2 | 06/04/20 | Published | Holly Cooper |
| 2.3 | 22/06/20 | Transferred to Zoho | Daphne Hoolahan |
| 2.4 | 21/07/26 | Updated for newer release of Koha | Holly Cooper |
Using a report to modify bibliographic records
The example below uses a report for records added between two dates. This is just a random scenario to demonstrate how completing a batch record modification from an SQL report can be completed. Please be aware this is a very general report and this should be tested to ensure it won’t slow your site by being too large. If you have any concerns, or would like support in creating your own SQL report, please contact Interleaf Technology directly.
Go to Reports > Guided reports > Use saved.
This will bring you to a table of reports on your site.
In this example, the report is found by searching for the title in the search box at the top of the table. This narrows the table to a single report
which can then be run by clicking the Run button in the Actions column.
The report results are generated and as they include a bibliographic number there is a button at the top of the table called Batch operations with 20 visible records.
This is the feature that allows staff to send records in the report to be batch modified or deleted. Only records that actually appear on the first page of the report will be sent to be altered, records on the other pages of the report will not be sent. This limitation is to prevent too many items being sent through to the modification or deletion tool and slowing the system.
To increase the number of items appearing on the first page of the report click the box to the right of the line Rows per page and select the appropriate number from the dropdown menu.
After altering the amount of results appearing on the first page of the report the button has changed to Batch operations with 50 visible records.
When the Batch operations with 50 visible records is clicked the options for changing bibliographic records appear, Batch record modification, Batch record deletion and Add to list.
Clicking Batch record modification will send the visible records to the Batch record modification page.
Use a report to batch modify item records
Go to Reports > Guided reports > Use saved.
This will bring you to a table of reports on your site.
In this example, the report is found by searching for the title in the search box at the top of the table. This narrows the table to a single report
which can then be run by clicking the Run button in the Actions column.
The report results are generated and as they include an item number there is a button at the top of the table called Batch operations with 20 visible records.
This is the feature that allows staff to send records in the report to be batch modified or deleted. Only records that actually appear on the first page of the report will be sent to be altered, records on the other pages of the report will not be sent. This limitation is to prevent too many items being sent through to the modification or deletion tool and slowing the system.
To increase the number of items appearing on the first page of the report click the box to the right of the line Rows per page and select the appropriate number from the dropdown menu.
After altering the amount of results appearing on the first page of the report the button has changed to Batch operations with 50 visible records.
When the Batch operations with 50 visible records is clicked the options changing item records appear, Batch item modification and Batch item deletion.
Clicking Batch item modification will send the visible records to the Batch item modification page.
How to perform a batch modification of items
Identifying the items to be modified
In order to batch modify items from your system it is necessary to have an identifying number for the items to be modified. This identifying number can be barcodes or itemnumbers. These can be accumulated in a number of ways, however, it is common to use the reports module to gather the information. The type of report created will depend upon what types of items are to be modified e.g: items to be moved to a new collection or location, items that have been damaged etc.
If you require assistance determining what kind of report would be the best to use for your purposes please contact Interleaf Technology with this report request form. If contacting Interleaf Technology for this purpose, please state the intention of the report is to help with a batch modification.
If you use a report to retrieve a list of barcodes for items to be modified, download the results to your computer and, if necessary, delete any columns not containing the identifying numbers.
Navigating to the batch modification tool
Go to Cataloging > Batch editing > Batch item modification.
This will bring you to a new page to input the items to be modified.
The batch modification tool
Use a file
This section allows you to load a file of barcodes or itemnumbers for the items to be batch modified. This is the file that can be downloaded from a report or manually created.
Barcodes
These are the unique numbers that are manually applied to the items by the cataloguing staff. This should not be confused with the ISBN barcode that comes as standard on every book. These can be found on the physical copies of the items, on the catalogue records or through the reports module.
Itemnumbers
These are the internal identification numbers which Koha automatically applies to each item. These can be found through the reports module.
If you are using a file there are two things to be aware of:
The file used must be a CSV file
Identifying numbers must be saved in a single column with no spaced between the barcodes on the list.
Or scan items one by one
This option allows a list of barcodes to be added to an empty box. These barcodes can be copied and pasted from existing records on the site or scanned from the physical copies of the items to be modified.
If you are scanning the barcodes, they must be scanned one to a line, with no spaces between the line.
Populate fields with default values from default framework
Koha comes with a number of default frameworks already present in the system. One of these frameworks is the Default Framework, which should never be edited. Some tags in this framework come pre-populated with information already present in their subfields. By clicking this option, this pre-populated information will be added to the various fields in the items being modified. This can be useful for standardising the catalogue, but the process should be tested on a staging server before being attempted on the live to be clear on what the resulting changes would be.
The actual modification
Once the identifying numbers have been added, click Continue.
This will bring you to a new page with a table containing information about the items you have added for modification and at the end of the page a form with the features of the items available for modification.
It is possible to change items using the dropdowns or the freeform boxes and it is possible to change multiple features at once.
Once you are satisfied that all aspects you want modified have been addressed, click Save.
This will take you to a new page with a confirming that the modification job has been scheduled.
To see details of where in the process the job is, click the View detail of the enqueued job link.
| Version | Date | Detail | Author |
| 1.0 | 11/11/25 | Document created | Holly Cooper |
How to use the batch edit tools through catalogue
There are a variety of ways to collect catalogue records for batch modification or deletion. These instructions will outline how to use the catalogue search function to locate and send records to the different modification tools.
Search the catalogue for records to be modified
Go to the context sensitive search bar at the top of the homepage and click on the Search catalog the catalog tab.
The Search catalog option will be underlined in white, which means the search box will be primed to search through the title catalogue specifically. If another option is underlined in white then the search box will search another resource.
Complete a search through the search bar. This will bring up a list of results and at the top of the results table there will be a greyed out Edit box, as circled in the screenshot below:
Select records to be edited
Use the tick boxes in the second column on the results table to select records to be edited and the Edit box will become active.
Edit options
If you click the edit box you will get a dropdown menu of options for batch edits.
Batch edit records
Clicking batch edit records will send the records to the Batch record modification tool under the Tools module.
To edit the records, select the template to edit the bibliographic records and click the Modify selected records button and select the template to use to change the bibliographic records.
For details on how to create and use the MARC modification templates, please contact Interleaf Technology directly.
Click Batch delete records
Clicking this will send the records to the Batch delete records tool under theTools module.
To delete the records, click the Deleted selected records button.
Please be aware that doing this will delete both the bibliographic and items records.
For details on batch bibliographic record deletion, please contact Interleaf Technology directly.
Click Merge records
Clicking this will send the records to the Merge record tool.
For more detailed instructions about using this tool, please check our Help Centre or contact Interleaf Technology directly.
| Version | Date | Detail | Author |
| 1.0 | 15/07/21 | Document created | Holly Cooper |
| 1.1 | 03/08/21 | Adding details | Holly Cooper |
| 1.2 | 22/-07/26 | Updating for newer version of Koha | Holly Cooper |
| Version | Date | Detail | Author |
| 1.0 | 21/07/26 | Document created | Holly Cooper |