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Koha
Circulation desk, cataloging workbench, acquisitions office, serials room, and public catalog all share one roof in Koha, an open-source library system that scales across school libraries, branch networks, and consortia. Staff search the catalog with facets for availability, authors, holding libraries, and item types, then open a record to see its cover, subjects, classification numbers, and every copy with its call number, status, and barcode. Catalogers edit MARC 21 or UNIMARC records field by field, copy records in via Z39.50 and SRU searches, and link authorities automatically. At the desk, staff check out, check in, and renew items, work with holds, bookings, and claims, and see overdue warnings and outstanding charges beside each patron. Circulation and fine rules vary by library, patron category, and item type. Acquisitions handles vendors, baskets, budgets, and funds. Serials track subscriptions and issue receiving. A guided report wizard, SQL reports, and statistics wizards summarize circulation and collections. Patrons search the public catalog, place holds, save lists, tag and rate titles, and suggest purchases. Staff tools design notices and slips, print patron cards, set holiday calendars, and import or batch-edit patrons. SIP2 serves self-checkout kiosks, OAI-PMH sets share records, and a REST API exposes patrons, holds, checkouts, and biblios. Lending continues during outages with offline circulation. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. GPL-3.0 licensed.
Benefits
- One System For Every Library Task
- Cataloging, circulation, acquisitions, serials, authorities, label printing, and reporting share one database, so staff, patrons, and reports all work from the same records instead of separate systems that must be synchronized.
- Interoperate With Library Standards
- MARC 21, UNIMARC, Z39.50, SRU, SIP2, and a documented REST API let Koha exchange records and patron data with other catalogs, self-checkout kiosks, and third-party library software.
- Serve One Branch Or Many
- Library groups, per-library circulation and fine rules, and transfer limits let one installation serve a single school library, a multi-branch network, or a consortium.
- Own Your Catalog Without Licensing Fees
- The GPL license carries no per-seat or per-branch fees and no vendor lock-in; libraries can export their data at any time and choose any support provider, or run it themselves.
Features
- MARC Cataloging And Authorities
- A MARC 21 and UNIMARC editor with customizable frameworks, authority types, record matching and overlay rules, and copy cataloging through Z39.50 and SRU servers.
- Circulation And Holds
- Check out, check in, renew, holds, bookings, and claims, governed by circulation and fine rules per library, patron category, and item type, with offline circulation for outages.
- Patron-Facing Public Catalog
- The OPAC offers advanced and authority search, holds, personal lists, tags, ratings, comments, and purchase suggestions, with enhanced content from Amazon, Google, LibraryThing, Open Library, and Syndetics.
- Acquisitions And Serials
- Vendors, baskets, order lines, budgets, funds, and currencies with exchange rates cover purchasing, and the serials module handles subscriptions, numbering patterns, routing lists, and issue receiving.
- Reports And Statistics
- A guided report wizard, custom SQL reports, saved and scheduled runs, a report dictionary, and statistics wizards for circulation, holds, serials, and acquisitions turn library data into answers.
- Search, SIP2, And REST API
- Elasticsearch or Zebra powers faceted search, SIP2 serves self-checkout kiosks, OAI-PMH sets share records, and a documented REST API covers patrons, holds, checkouts, and biblios.
