Using Mana for Serial Subscriptions

Mana-kb is a knowledge base for serial subscription patterns that is shared with the Koha community. This means a library can set up their Koha to integrate with Mana-kb and search for Serial patterns within Mana-kb and also share their own patterns with the community.

Activating Mana

Mana is not active by default. To activate it, set the Mana system preference to "Enable."

To receive an authentication token, go to Administration > Share content with Mana KB. Set the "Use Mana KB" dropdown to "Yes" and Save, then add a name and valid email address and select "Send to Mana KB." This will automatically send an email including the token and a link to the KB website.

In the email, follow the confirmation link and the token will automatically populate into your Koha site on the “Share Content for Mana kb” page and to the system preference Manatoken.

Using Mana with the Serials Module

Using Mana with the Serials module allows a library to import subscription patterns for specific serials directly into Koha rather than setting them up manually.

To find out if a serial has a subscription in Mana, from within the Serials module select "Search on Mana" from the left-hand sidebar, then search by subscription ID, ISSN, title, or publisher. 

Results will be shown in a table, though it is not possible to import a subscription from search results. Instead, it will be attached when creating a new subscription.

Creating a Subscription in Koha using Mana

Follow normal procedures for the first step of creating a new subscription. Based on the bibliographic record used for the subscription, Koha will search the Mana KB to find potential matches. 

If a subscription is found, there will be an alert at the top of the second step of creating a new subscription. 

Click "Show Mana results" to view potential matches. In the Actions column a library may choose to import the subscription, which will auto-fill numbering pattern information. If a Mana result is incorrect or obsolete, a library may choose to report an issue. 

After importing a numbering pattern, finish setting up the subscription as normal. 

Sharing with Mana

If a library wishes to share its subscriptions with the Mana KB community, this can be done automatically or manually.

To manually share individual subscriptions, select "Share" when viewing a subscription. 

To share automatically, check "Auto Subscription Sharing" from Administration > Share content with Mana KB and set the AutoShareWithMana system preference to "All" or "Subscriptions."

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