[Koha] Acquisitions of books for the student bookstore

[library at ssst.edu.ba]

Hello Joel,

No, as the system stands now they don’t. Unfortunately the in-house catalog doesn’t have any ordering capabilities, and it’s clear that the development team will not be able to make a book order module for several more months, possibly a year due to other obligations, and I need to find a solution ASAP. I don’t have a budget for any commercial solution, so if you or anyone else know of any open source one I could manage myself, I would be forever in your debt.

There is a possibility that the uni will switch to having the students use books then return them at the end of the semester, in which case I could use Koha’s acquisitions module for that, correct? But that won’t be any time soon, not until many meetings and discussions etc.

I only know that I can’t use Excel any more and I am desperate to find a solution.

Best regards

Aida Đikić


From: Coehoorn, Joel <jcoehoorn at york.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 5, 2023 3:51 PM
To: library at ssst.edu.ba
Cc: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
Subject: Re: [Koha] Acquisitions of books for the student bookstore

Koha does have a robust purchasing module, but honestly I wouldn't use it for this. The purpose of purchasing out of Koha is getting the cataloguing and library inventory right, and these books do not really need to be cataloged (or circulated) at all. You'll probably do better with a Point of Sale/Retail solution.

Joel Coehoorn
Director of Information Technology
York University
Office: 402-363-5603 | jcoehoorn at york.edu<mailto:jcoehoorn at york.edu> | york.edu<https://york.edu>


On Tue, Jul 4, 2023 at 3:32 AM library at ssst.edu.ba<mailto:library at ssst.edu.ba> <library at ssst.edu.ba<mailto:library at ssst.edu.ba>> wrote:
Hello acquisitions folks,

I have some questions for you. I'm a solo librarian here, so I wear lots of different hats. One of them is acquisitions of textbooks for the student bookstore. The price of the textbooks is included in the price of the student fees so they don't need to buy them themselves either by ordering online or buying from the bookstore; the bookstore gets the list of courses and textbooks per department, a list of students, and prepares a package for each student, who can pick up the books once the finance department confirms that they have taken care of their financial obligations.

Most of these books will not go to the library. Some might eventually, e.g., if a student drops out or graduates and donates their books to us, or if an extra copy or two was ordered for the specific purpose of being available in the library, or if an instructor donates their older edition because they received a new gratis one from the publisher.

I have been handling these orders in Excel, but as the university grows, it has become increasingly complicated to manage all the packages, especially since minor courses can be attended by students from other departments (e.g., a CS or PSIR student can take a management or business minor or minors from their own departments). Is there a way for me to handle these orders in a more simplified way in Koha, perhaps in combination with course reserves where I could keep a permanent list of courses in an academic year (fall and spring semesters)? I'm still going through the manual and checking demos in order to understand how best to set up my budget and funds, but I thought I'd throw this question out there and see if anyone might have a workable idea. Thank you in advance!

Best regards

Aida Đikić
Librarian
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