Advanced Cataloging Editor

Advanced Cataloging Editor

There are two ways to catalog a record in Koha, the basic editor and the advanced editor. To use the advanced editor, there is a system preference to enable this cataloging process. Set the system preference EnableAdvancedCatalogingEditor to enable to use the Advanced Editor. A library can have this enabled and also use the basic editor. So the flexibility is there for different staff to choose their preferred way to catalog.

The Advanced Editor has some key benefits:
  1. Usability - only fields that appear in the record will show up. There is less scrolling and more keyboard focused on this feature over the basic editor.
  2. Customizability - within the Advanced Editor users can create Macros to easily add marc fields while cataloging.
  3. Keyboard Shortcuts - A user can customize the keyboard shortcuts created in the advanced editor to fit their needs.
Staff will need to have the permission to use the Advanced Editor which can be found in the patron account permission settings under the heading:

Edit catalog (Modify bibliographic/holdings data) (editcatalogue)

- Use the advanced cataloging editor (requires edit_catalogue) (advanced_editor)


Features

  1. Import: Within the Advanced Editor, a user can import a marc file into this form and edit that record.
  2. Settings: Users can change font size, font type, switch over to the basic editor.
  3. Alerts: Any time a user saves a record and receives an error during a session, the error will save under Alerts.
Koha has created keyboard shortcuts for users to be able to insert delimiters, insert line breaks, delete lines and more! This allows this cataloging module to be used primarily with the keyboard. These shortcuts can be redefined, the option to redefine them can be accessed through the Admin module under Additional Parameters. If these shortcuts are altered in the Keyboard Shortcut option, this change will apply to all users.



Using Z39.50 search targets within the Advanced Editor is also available. The far-right search box will allow the user to add key fields, such as title, author, ISBN - and immediately search the targets set up in Koha. Clicking on the Advanced Search will open up a more comprehensive version of a z39.50 search for the user and also include searching the existing Koha records within this site and is called "Local Catalog".



Clicking on the Advanced Search will open up a more comprehensive version of a z39.50 search for the user and also include searching the existing Koha records within this site- called "Local Catalog".


Once a record has been found, under the tools button, the user can import this record into the Advanced Editor to make further edits.

Macros

Macros can be extremely helpful if your library adds specific MARC fields into a record and would like to streamline this process, such as adding RDA fields. Another way macros can be used is when the library would like to delete fields that are normally imported into the record.

A "Public macro" box can be found in the Macros option. This allows users to share the macro to the users within the same system.

Jessie and Kelly in the tutorial video above showed adding the 942$c to a record
new 942=‡cBOOK

In this example BOOK is the code for Book within the system. Each library may use a different code for item types. Go to the Administration Module > Item Types to find out the code of the item type.

And also adding a macro when needing to suppress a record from the catalog:

new 942=‡n1
Alert
Note: If you have added macros that aren't appearing in the macro list, it is likely because you have reached the limit set by the system preference RESTdefaultPageSize. Increase the number there to see all of your macros.

Deep Dive Tutorial



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