Introduction / Inventory questions
Hi all, I am working in a departmental library and have inherited a KOHA database. I have been spending some time getting used to the system. The previous students with my job description have catalogued most of our books here. Now I'd like to generate an inventory list to print so that I can check off books which are here and see which books have walked off the shelves. The problem is that when I go to the inventory/stocktaking option and try to generate a report, it's blank. An extra button pops up that lets me page through page after page of fantastically blank inventory. Actually, I haven't figured out how to generate any kind of report at all. Any and all combinations of options I try don't work. Has anyone else run into this problem? We are on KOHA version 2.2.9, and I have been avoiding updating while I get used to the system and finish cataloguing the books. If the answer to my question is "that bug was fixed / feature was implemented five versions ago; update!" then can someone kindly point me to documentation on how to back up the database before I do that? ^^;; Thanks for your help, --Natalie -- Natalie Weber MA student Department of Linguistics University of British Columbia
Hi Natalie, We undertook a stocktake earlier this year using Koha 3.4. We didn't use the stocktake module though. What we did was return all items through the circulation desk. This changes their last seen date to the current date. Once we had done that I then made a report which showed the biblio/item details and included whether the item was on loan or not and the date last seen. Any item not on issue or not seen prior to the date the stocktake began was considered missing and its status was changed to lost. We have undertaken stocktakes using the same process and with three different Library Management Systems and have come to the conclusion it is the best method. Using a laptop with scanner and wifi connection means you aren't dragging books to the issue desk. Below is the report I use, which could also be used as a shelf check list. If you only have one branch then take out the highlighted line. Not sure that it would work in your version but worth a try :) SELECT items.barcode,items.homebranch,items.holdingbranch,items.datelastseen,items.ccode,items.itemcallnumber,biblio.author,biblio.title,items.onloan,items.reserves FROM items LEFT JOIN biblioitems on (items.biblioitemnumber=biblioitems.biblioitemnumber) LEFT JOIN biblio on (biblioitems.biblionumber=biblio.biblionumber) WHERE items.homebranch=<<homebranch|branches>> ORDER BY items.datelastseen asc Regards Susan McMillan Cataloguing and Systems Administrator| South Taranaki District Council, New Zealand. 105-111 Albion St, Private Bag 902, Hawera 4610, NZ Phone: +64 6 278 0555 | www.southtaranaki.com 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/>
Salvete!
We undertook a stocktake earlier this year using Koha 3.4. We didn't use the stocktake module though. What we did was return all items through the circulation desk. This changes their last seen date to the current date. Once we had done that I then made a report which showed the biblio/item details and included whether the item was on loan or not and the date last seen.
Any item not on issue or not seen prior to the date the stocktake began was considered missing and its status was changed to lost.
We have undertaken stocktakes using the same process and with three different Library Management Systems and have come to the conclusion it is the best method. Using a laptop with scanner and wifi connection means you aren't dragging books to the issue desk.
Below is the report I use, which could also be used as a shelf check list. If you only have one branch then take out the highlighted line. Not sure that it would work in your version but worth a try :)
I concur that this is a stellar way to ensure accuracy. A side benefit is that you can shelf read, weed, and shift as you go along. Cheers, Brooke
On 16 October 2012 12:43, BWS Johnson <abesottedphoenix@yahoo.com> wrote:
Salvete!
We undertook a stocktake earlier this year using Koha 3.4. We didn't use the stocktake module though. What we did was return all items through the circulation desk. This changes their last seen date to the current date. Once we had done that I then made a report which showed the biblio/item details and included whether the item was on loan or not and the date last seen.
Any item not on issue or not seen prior to the date the stocktake began was considered missing and its status was changed to lost.
We have undertaken stocktakes using the same process and with three different Library Management Systems and have come to the conclusion it is the best method. Using a laptop with scanner and wifi connection means you aren't dragging books to the issue desk.
Below is the report I use, which could also be used as a shelf check list. If you only have one branch then take out the highlighted line. Not sure that it would work in your version but worth a try :)
I concur that this is a stellar way to ensure accuracy. A side benefit is that you can shelf read, weed, and shift as you go along.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no reports module in 2.2.9 (not in the way there is in 3.2.0 onwards anyway). So without access to the db itself (and a knowledge of sql as the tables are a bit different), that report won't be able to be used. However on the good news front, the rest of the method will work just fine. The trick will be getting the data out of the database. Here is how you can back up the database, http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Backing_up_Koha#Complete_dump (You are running the Koha server on linux eh?). Now for some more bad news, upgrading from 2.2.9 (which is I think 6 years old now and about 27 versions behind) is not super easy. Here are some instructions http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Upgrading_2.2 . HOWEVER don't do this on your live system, please set up a copy of it somewhere, and upgrade that first to test. Hope this is some help Chris
On 16/10/12 10:50, Chris Cormack wrote:
On 16 October 2012 12:43, BWS Johnson <abesottedphoenix@yahoo.com> wrote:
Salvete!
We undertook a stocktake earlier this year using Koha 3.4. We didn't use the stocktake module though. What we did was return all items through the circulation desk. This changes their last seen date to the current date. Once we had done that I then made a report which showed the biblio/item details and included whether the item was on loan or not and the date last seen.
Any item not on issue or not seen prior to the date the stocktake began was considered missing and its status was changed to lost.
We have undertaken stocktakes using the same process and with three different Library Management Systems and have come to the conclusion it is the best method. Using a laptop with scanner and wifi connection means you aren't dragging books to the issue desk.
Below is the report I use, which could also be used as a shelf check list. If you only have one branch then take out the highlighted line. Not sure that it would work in your version but worth a try :)
I concur that this is a stellar way to ensure accuracy. A side benefit is that you can shelf read, weed, and shift as you go along.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no reports module in 2.2.9 (not in the way there is in 3.2.0 onwards anyway). So without access to the db itself (and a knowledge of sql as the tables are a bit different), that report won't be able to be used.
However on the good news front, the rest of the method will work just fine. The trick will be getting the data out of the database.
Here is how you can back up the database, http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Backing_up_Koha#Complete_dump (You are running the Koha server on linux eh?).
Now for some more bad news, upgrading from 2.2.9 (which is I think 6 years old now and about 27 versions behind) is not super easy. Here are some instructions http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Upgrading_2.2 . HOWEVER don't do this on your live system, please set up a copy of it somewhere, and upgrade that first to test.
Hope this is some help
Chris
I'd actually go further and recommend not upgrading from 2.2.9 (although you can do so). I think you'll get a cleaner result by exporting your data from 2.2.9 and importing it to a fresh install of 3.8.x. Of course it depends on how much history you need or want to retain and the expertise available to help you, but there are several pain points in coming all the way from 2.2.9 (which as Chris says is very old now) to 3.8. Just my opinion, hope it helps. Bob Birchall Calyx
Greetings, My gut first question is: Is this a windows installed version? The number makes me think of a windows version. GPML, Mark Tompsett
participants (6)
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Bob Birchall -
BWS Johnson -
Chris Cormack -
Mark Tompsett -
Natalie Weber -
Sue McMillan