[Koha] Electronic Collections in Koha (items, holdings, coded?)

[Bales (US), Tasha R]

Good afternoon,

I'm writing to ask how people tend to handle electronic collections in Koha.  I'm coming from Millennium and also Alma.

Does Koha offer any special advantages or have any idiosyncrasies with respect to electronic holdings?  At this point, I assume I will just create item records for everything and put URL's in the bib 856.  Is it typical to allow the item records to have an "available" status, but just make sure they can't be put on hold?

Has anyone taken the approach of not creating item records or else using checkin/holdings record instead (not sure if either is even possible in Koha).

Also, if I wanted to create a "scope" of all digital collections to allow limiting in the OPAC, is this best done by declaring the collection a "library", or by using collection code(s), locations, library groups, or some combination of all?  Although we really are only one library, some of our collections are so distinct that I've been wondering if I could realize some advantage by setting them up as libraries (and then using library groups to collocate the digital collections, etc.).

I'm continuing to experiment to see the results in action, but it's been slow and unfortunately, I'm working with a deadline, so can't leisurely compare and contrast approaches as I would like.  Any advice as to not configure something so as to avoid being sorry later is appreciated.  Thank you!

Thanks for your time!


Tasha R. Bales