How to perform a batch modification of items

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.

Notes
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. 

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: 

  1. The file used must be a CSV file

  2. 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. 
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VersionDateDetailAuthor
1.011/11/25Document createdHolly Cooper









































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