Hi Everyone, We have recently completed our first stock-take since moving across to KOHA. We are quite shocked at the apparent under-development of the inventory area. What are other libraries experiences like within this area? Do other libraries even use the stock-take feature? Things we thought should be standard and automatic, were either not standard and required additional, costly reports to be written, or were available but in such a round-about way that the process was tiresome. We believe stock-take is very important and should be a major feature within KOHA. Some things we were surprised were not included are: 1. Items on loan were listed as missing, not on loan 2. Collection can't be specified (ie: specific call number range or collection (eg: DVDs or reference) selected to be stock-taked) meaning the entire collection had to be scanned 3. Items not scanned should be automatically marked as missing but we had to run a report to identify them and then do a batch item modification 4. Previously missing items now found should be automatically marked as found but we had to run a report to identify them and then do a batch item modification These things, to me, seem like they should be standard within any stock-take module. Have we missed something or are there other libraries with these types of experiences in stock-takes as well? We were using the first option of stock-take where we loaded a barcode txt file into KOHA. We have KOHA version 3.10.04 on a Linux server with Zebra 2.0.44. Thanks for your feedback, Kerrie Stevens Harvest Bible College Melbourne, Australia
Hi Kerrie, We stock take our collections (86000 odd items) every year (though we are just deciding whether to move this out to two yearly). We have just completed out second stock take using Koha but did not use any of the Koha stocktake functionality. They way we do it is to use a laptop with a barcode scanner attacked and physically scan the barcode of each item. This changes the last seen date to the current date. Doing it this way means we pick up on items that are still on issue, needed for reserve, or shelved at the wrong branch. Once all 7 libraries have completed the scanning process I run a report which lists items in the collection. I then whittle that down to only items with a last touch date prior to the stocktake beginning. Libraries search for these items again in case a shelf has been missed in the process (likely when you get interrupted by the public etc!). Once that is completed all items still not found are deleted along with their bibliographic records. I have looked at the Koha stocktake feature but as you say it is cumbersome. I found the same problem in the previous LMS that we used. While the process that we use now is time consuming, I think it gives a very good end result. Regards Susan McMillan Cataloguing and Systems Administrator| South Taranaki District Council 105-111 Albion St, Private Bag 902, Hawera 4610, New Zealand Phone: +64 6 278 0555 | www.southtaranaki.com -----Original Message----- From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Kerrie Stevens Sent: Monday, 1 July 2013 12:40 p.m. To: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: [Koha] Stock-take/Inventory in KOHA Hi Everyone, We have recently completed our first stock-take since moving across to KOHA. We are quite shocked at the apparent under-development of the inventory area. What are other libraries experiences like within this area? Do other libraries even use the stock-take feature? Things we thought should be standard and automatic, were either not standard and required additional, costly reports to be written, or were available but in such a round-about way that the process was tiresome. We believe stock-take is very important and should be a major feature within KOHA. Some things we were surprised were not included are: 1. Items on loan were listed as missing, not on loan 2. Collection can't be specified (ie: specific call number range or collection (eg: DVDs or reference) selected to be stock-taked) meaning the entire collection had to be scanned 3. Items not scanned should be automatically marked as missing but we had to run a report to identify them and then do a batch item modification 4. Previously missing items now found should be automatically marked as found but we had to run a report to identify them and then do a batch item modification These things, to me, seem like they should be standard within any stock-take module. Have we missed something or are there other libraries with these types of experiences in stock-takes as well? We were using the first option of stock-take where we loaded a barcode txt file into KOHA. We have KOHA version 3.10.04 on a Linux server with Zebra 2.0.44. Thanks for your feedback, Kerrie Stevens Harvest Bible College Melbourne, Australia _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and destroy any copies. Any dissemination or use of this information by a person other than the intended recipient is unauthorised and may be illegal. Please note that this communication does not designate an information system for the purposes of the Electronic Transactions Act 2002. <p><b>CAN'T OPEN ATTACHMENTS?</b></p> The Council has upgraded to Microsoft office 2007 suite. This may mean you cannot open attachments if you have older versions of office. <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en"> Click here to access Microsoft Office 2007's compatibility website.<a/>
Kia Ora! I had a really small collection to deal with, and when I had to deal with it about a decade ago, you wouldn't imagine the state that Koha was in at that time. :) Thankfully, some developer or another (or mebbe a group :D) threw together statistics capabilities that were more or less modeled after the Massachusetts Annual Information Survey. So once again, our developers ++. Also, this is probably all my fault, sorry! First, I wanted to figure out what weeds I had in my collection and get rid of em. Why take stock on summat that you're not going to have any more? In the last ten years, there are now oodles of SQL reports you can run, and a rather easy to get to interface to plug em into. This one might be helpful for weeding, and should be done before you scan stuff in, which will alter the last seen date: http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/SQL_Reports_Library#Non_Circulating_Item... Inevitably, those pesky Patrons will insist on issuing things while you're meant to be counting items. The nerve! Just one flavour of figuring out what's gone is: http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/SQL_Reports_Library#All_Checked_Out_Book... This one might be helpful for last steps: http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/SQL_Reports_Library#Count_of_all_Bibs_an... I realise that this isn't what you meant or wanted, but I felt the frustration you had about reports and wondered if somehow you might have missed the wiki page. Even if you knew about it, someone else might not have, so I decided to post. Finally, I wanted to thank you for the suggestions, because I think they do a wonderful job of pointing out the gaps, which will help make Koha better in the long run. Cheers, Brooke
participants (3)
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BWS Johnson -
Kerrie Stevens -
Sue McMillan