Item Search
If you’re responsible for Collection Development but SQL and creating custom reports feels intimidating and out of reach, Item Search is the powerful little tool you need. Item Search builds an SQL report in the background with no need to know SQL. It is a user-friendly tool for staff to search for items in their catalog.
Item Search Form
The Item Search form allows the user to select multiple options for each field. Click in the field and select the parameters to search.
Limit by Availability
Item search allows users to exclude checked-out items. Other options include Ignore or Not checked out.
Custom Searches
Item search is a powerful tool for libraries to run reports on their collections by facets like shelving locations, number of circulations, and item statuses, to name just a few. However, sometimes libraries have local fields in the MARC data that they would also like to search. Or, for example, item search has options for filtering by lost and not for loan statuses, but not damaged statuses.
Luckily, there is a way to add fields to item search. Under Administration -> Catalog settings is an option for Item Search Fields. From there, libraries can add the fields they want to add to item search. Here is an example of how to add Damaged status to item search, adding a drop-down selection of available damaged statuses by connecting the search to the DAMAGED authorized value.
- In the staff client go to Administration --> Catalog --> Item search fields.
- To add a new search term simply click the ‘New search field’ button.
- Add a name for the field for you to identify the search term.
- Next, provide a description in the label that will appear on the item search page.
- Select the MARC field which field you’d like to search in.
- Add the MARC subfield you’d like to search in.
- Finally, add an Authorized values category to turn this search field into a pull-down instead of a free text field.
- Click submit.
Once additional fields have been added, they can be searched as 'is' or 'is not' operators beneath the built-in search options.
In the above example, I've added non-public notes and damaged statuses as additional search fields. Because I connected the damaged field with an authorized value, that search field has a drop-down menu to select a damaged status, but the non-public notes field has no connected value, leaving it a free-text field.
These are two common fields that partners ask to be able to search in item search, just looking at item holding data, but the search can query for items on records with any MARC field like a 650$a subject heading or a local 5xx note field, giving libraries a great way to customize a powerful tool.
Item Search Categories
An item search category allows libraries to group together multiple item types into one "Search Category". This means when a user is on the OPAC and wants to look for a specific title in Books, having a Search Category set up for Books, can include Large Print, Lucky Day Books, Paperback, and Hardcover. These are all the different item types the library has set up to uniquely identify the format or define the circulation rule.
Setup
For a library to set up a search category, the first step will be to create the search categories within the Authorized Value section of the Administration Module.
The Authorized Value category is called, ITEMTYPECAT. Here a library will want to create their over-arching Item Type Search Categories.
Once a library has created these values in the Authorized Values, they then can allocate those Search Categories within the Item Types. In the Item Type setup, there is an option to attach an item type to this newly created Authorized Value:
Now for the user, when they search and limit by Item Type "Book" in the OPACand Koha will return all the item types linked to the Search Category.
Sort and Search Within Results
From the search results, we can select any column to sort by that field.
Selecting the column again reverse sorts it. The small blue triangle indicates how the results are sorted.
In addition to sorting, we can also search within the results by typing in the box just below the column heading. In this example, I’m looking for any items from Candlewick Press.
Batch Item Operations
Links for batch item operations appear at the top of your Item Search results table when any items are selected. We are big fans of saving clicks and simplifying workflows!
With the ability to mark items returned from Batch item modification (bug 32019), it’s easier than ever to identify your items that have been lost, retain any replacement fees charged on patron accounts while removing the items from their checkouts, and then deleting them - all from Item Search!
Only staff with batch item permissions will see these options (items_batchdel and items_batchmod).
Shareable Links
Staff have the ability to share an Item Search with a link. A 'Copy shareable link' button to item search results is located above the search results in the staff interface.
Column Configuration and Table Settings
Click on Columns to make a temporary change to the item search results table. Click on Configure to permanently hide columns. Table configurations are also available from Administrations.
- Navigate to Administration > Additional parameters > Table settings.
- Scroll down to Catalog.
- Table id: results (Page: itemsearch).
- Make selections and save.
Tutorial Videos
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