Inventory

Note

Only staff with the inventory permission (or the superlibrarian permission) will have access to this tool.

Get there: More > Cataloging > Reports > Inventory

Koha’s inventory tool can be used in one of three ways:

By creating a shelf list that you can then mark items off on;

By uploading barcodes gathered by a portable scanner;

By comparing barcodes gathered by a portable scanner or scanned directly to a generated shelf list.

Creating a shelf list

If you do not have the ability to use your barcode scanner on the floor of the library, the option available to you is to generate a shelf list based on criteria you enter. You can then print it to use while walking around the library checking your collection or use it directly in Koha on a portable device.

The inventory form, the sections Item location filters, Optional filters for inventory lists or comparing barcodes, and Additional options

First, choose the criteria for the items you want to print out on a list. All parameters are optional, but if none are selected, the resulting list might be quite large.

Library: choose the branch you want to check, as well as if that branch is the home library or the current holding library of the items.

Shelving location (items.location) is: you can filter by location.

Item callnumber between … and …: you can also limit the list to a specific range of callnumbers.

Call number classification scheme: if filtering by call number, make sure to choose the correct classification scheme

You can filter even more with item statuses (not for loan status, lost status, withdrawn status or damaged status). Check the boxes next to the statuses you want to include. For example, if you are using the list to shelf read, check only the ‘for loan’ status as the other items probably won’t be on the shelves.

Last inventory date: enter a date here to skip items that have been marked as seen recently.

Skip items on loan: check this box to filter out loaned items from the list.

Skip items on hold awaiting pickup: check this box to filter out items that are awaiting pickup by patrons

Item types: check the boxes next to the item types you want to include in your shelf list

Export to CSV file: check this box to generate a CSV file for altering in an application on your desktop. If this box is unchecked, the list will be presented on the screen.

Click on ‘Submit’ to generate your shelf list.

A table presenting the items corresponding to the filters

Once you have found the items on your shelves, return to this list and check the boxes next to the items you found. Next, click on one of the three buttons to continue:

Buttons in the inventory tool Mark seen and quit, Mark seen and continue, Continue without marking

Mark seen and quit: updates the ‘last seen’ date and time of the selected items to now and returns to the previous screen.

Mark seen and continue: updates the ‘last seen’ date and time of the selected items to now and shows the next page of the list.

Continue without marking: doesn’t update any of the items on this page and shows the next page of the list.

Uploading barcodes with a scanner

If you have a portable scanner (or a laptop and USB scanner) you can walk through the library with the scanner in hand and scan barcodes as you come across them (on a laptop, scan the barcodes into a text file or directly into the on screen text box). Once finished you can then upload the text file generated by the scanner to Koha.

The inventory form, the sections Use a barcode file, Or scan items one by one, and Parameters

Set inventory date to: choose the date you want to mark all items as last seen.

Compare barcodes list to results: uncheck for this method.

Do not check in item scanned during inventory: unless this is checked, Koha will check in items scanned, as it is assumed that they are on the shelf and so not loaned out. If you do not want to check in scanned items, check this option.

Check barcodes list for items shelved out of order: if this option is checked, Koha will compare the call numbers and make sure they are in the correct order.

Click ‘Submit’. This will update all the items’ ‘last seen’ date to the chosen date (time last seen will be 00:00).

Once you have the updated the last seen date for all items scanned during the inventory it is possible to use reports to identify items that were not scanned and can therefore be assumed missing (you can use the batch item modification tool to change the LOST status of these items). There are sample reports you can use on the Koha SQL Reports Library.

Comparing scanned barcodes to a shelf list

Alternatively, you can combine the two methods to automatically compare a list of scanned barcodes with a generated list.

First, upload you barcode file or scan the barcodes in the box.

Set inventory date to: choose the date you want to appear in the items’ ‘last seen’ field (the time last seen will be set to 00:00).

Compare barcodes list to results: should automatically be checked.

Do not check in items scanned during inventory: make sure to check this option if you do not want the scanned items to be automatically checked-in if they are checked-out.

Choose the filters (library, shelving location, callnumbers, statuses or item types) to generate a list with which to compare your barcodes. Click on ‘Submit’.

Note

Depending on the number of barcodes you are comparing, this may take a few minutes. It is not recommended to compare lists of more than 1000 barcodes as this may cause a session timeout.

Once Koha has finished comparing the barcodes file to the generated list, it will return the number of items updated and a list of problematic items.

Note

Unlike when creating a shelf list, the list that will be presented here will only contain the items that Koha has determined are problematic.

Missing (not scanned): the item is in the generated list but not in the barcodes file.

Found in wrong place: the item is in the barcodes list, but not in the generated list.

Still checked out: the item is checked out, but is in the generated list. It was not automatically checked in.

No barcode: the barcode doesn’t exist.

Unknown not-for-loan status: the item has ‘not for loan’ status that is not in the NOT_LOAN authorized value category

Item may be shelved out of order: the callnumber is out of order

FAQ Category
Koha
Summary
Inventory Note Only staff with the inventory permission (or the superlibrarian permission) will have access to this tool. Get there: More Cataloging Reports Inventory Koha’s inventory tool can be used in one of three ways: By creating a shelf list that you can then mark items off on; By uploading barcodes gathered by a portable scanner; By comparing barcodes gathered by a portable scanner or scanned directly to a generated shelf list. Creating a shelf list If you do ...