[Koha] Koha for Libraries

[Scott Owen]

Gautam,

I am fairly new to Koha, and am working on some of the same issues. 
These are my solutions.
I don't know if these are the "correct" or "prefered" solutions...but 
they work for me.
(I am using ver 2.2.9 on Windows)

1. Patron Database(s) can be imported to the Koha system using a number 
of tools. I think version 3 has a mass patron import utility built into 
it? I am using:
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/gui-tools/5.0.html (free software)
for importing a CSV full of my student information. Make sure to 
download a version with the "Query Browser".
Launce the Query browser and search for "import" under the help menu.
You should find information on importing text and CSV files.

---------------------snip------------------
To import a comma separated file on the Windows platform use the 
following syntax:

LOAD DATA INFILE “C:/Documents and Settings/peter/My 
Documents/spreadsheet/data.csv”
INTO TABLE alldata
FIELDS TERMINATED BY “,”;

The default field terminator is a tab character so if you use a 
different terminator you must specify it as shown in the preceding statement
----------------/snip----------------------

You will need to get your user data in the correct format before importing.
You can get the format by preforming a query on the "borrowers" table 
and then (right clicking ) and exporting the output as a CSV.
the fields will need to be setup something like this:

borrowernumber cardnumber surname firstname title othernames initials 
streetaddress suburb city phone emailaddress faxnumber textmessaging 
altstreetaddress altsuburb altcity altphone dateofbirth branchcode 
categorycode dateenrolled gonenoaddress lost debarred studentnumber 
school contactname borrowernotes guarantor area ethnicity ethnotes sex 
expiry altnotes altrelationship streetcity phoneday preferredcont 
physstreet password flags userid homezipcode zipcode sort1 sort2

You may be able to automate this process....I'm not familiar with KLP.

2. Do you have the MARC records (in MARC format) in the spreadsheets 
anywhere?? By far, the easiest way to import the book database is to get 
the MARC records of the books and then do a mass import using the 
command line tools built into Koha.
In my case I use:
Open a cmd prompt, and cd to c:\usr\koha229\scripts\misc\migration_tools
type bulkmarcimport.pl hit enter and read the command line options

bulkmarcimport –file (path to raw txt file) –t
will “test” the mass import file….no changes will be made to the database.

bulkmarcimport –file (path to raw txt file)
will add biblio records…..they bypass the reservoir.


3. I have no idea how to import your current transactional information.

Good luck!

-Scott Owen
Alma Public Schools




Gautam John wrote:
> Hello:
>
> I'm sorry about the non-descriptive subject line!
>
> A short introduction:
>
> I'm helping the Akshara Foundation [1] implement Koha across their 400 
> odd libraries in Bangalore and we are working with a developer in 
> Bangalore to do the customizations for us. We have a peculiar set of 
> requirements:
>
> 1. The patron database [2] is, as of now, housed externally from Koha 
> as that database exists for other common projects too. We need to find 
> a way for Koha to access that database to be able to pull patron and 
> branch information out of it. As of now, we're looking at exporting 
> the data from the KLP DB (where it is stored) via CSV and importing 
> that into Koha on a periodic basis.
> 2. The book DB will be stored within Koha but as of now it exists as a 
> set of Excel files. We need to import that into Koha.
> 3. We also need to be able to send the transactional information back 
> to the KLP DB for aggregation and GIS based display.
>
> We're using the Koha 3 Beta.
>
> Where we need some help is, at this early stage,:
>
> 1. In understanding the data model for Koha wrt to patrons, books and 
> transactions. The last one because we also have transaction collected 
> in Excel sheets.
> 2. Ways and methods to import xls or csv files into Koha for patrons 
> and books.
> 3. Ways and methods to make available to KLP transactional information 
> so that they can generate reports.
>
> We've only just begun this project. One additional complication is 
> that out of the 400 libraries a significant number don't have internet 
> access so we also have to think/find a way to have an offline method 
> of capturing transactions. One way we've considered is to use the 
> transaction importer we hope to write to then, on a fortnightly basis, 
> import the xls/csv files that we receive from the offline schools.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Best,
>
> Gautam
>
> [1] http://aksharafoundation.org/
> [2] http://www.klp.org.in
>
> -- 
> Please read our new blog at:
> http://blog.prathambooks.org/
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