8 library management tips to future-proof your Koha

Open source library software like Koha keeps your data accessible and adaptable. With flexible configuration options, it can be overwhelming knowing where to start. To help, Rōpū kohinga shares eight practical ways to future-proof your library system.

8 Koha library management tips

1. Start strong with configuration 

Investing the time early to set up your Koha circulation rules and system preferences will save your team effort in the future. By clearly documenting the reasons why Koha is configured the way it is, it streamlines onboarding and helps with internal self-service.

2. Understand your library’s data 

The Koha Reports module enables you to understand your library’s data. You can run reports and display results as a table, pie chart, or bar chart. You can quickly identify:

• busy hours
• highly requested items
• what content isn’t being borrowed
• lost items
• average loan time.     

Plus, if you enable ‘logging system preferences’, you can investigate changes to catalogue records, library patron accounts, circulations and Koha configurations. Learn more about using the Koha Log Viewer to understand your library’s data.

You can also add user attribute types to your users to identify groups and trends. For instance, if you wanted to separate students out by year, or create a list of those who have signed up for your newsletter by adding a yes/no dropdown.

Bonus tip: You can use the user-friendly guided reports tool to create custom reports for fetching specific data from your Koha database. You can also use AI tools to help you write more elaborate reports.

3. Make data-driven decisions 

Use your findings from Koha reports to implement changes. For instance:  

• plan staff resourcing: identify busy periods around holidays or days of the week
• weed resources: Choose what to withdraw from collections.
• inform social media campaigns: For instance, the most popular resources for first-year undergrads.

Additionally, you can use insights from your user attribute types to influence marketing campaigns and ensure your users gain access to information useful to them.

4. Respond to changing login requirements

If your organisation has a login platform such as Azure AD, you can easily integrate it with Koha, which is provider-agnostic. Single-sign-on (SSO) is a great example of where changing security policies and customer expectations can be supported within the Koha ecosystem. Setting up  SSO alongside user provisioning means your Koha will automatically create Koha user accounts. 

Another way to automatically create Koha user accounts is through Koha REST API endpoints (chunks of code that other systems can run) to fetch information or make a change in Koha. When integrated with your user management system, this is taken care of for you.

If you don’t have the in-house expertise to set this up, contact your Koha support vendor for help. Check out our blog post on various authentication methods for Koha.

5. Set up your future self by automating library processes

There are several ways to automate your processes in Koha. For example, instead of manually changing the status of long-overdue items to 'lost,' you can set up an automated script to do this. If you have a few tasks you’d like to automate, consider talking to your Koha support vendor, who can set this up for you.

6. Improve your user experience with plugins and integrations

Koha plugins extend Koha functionality out of the box. These are good for specific use cases, such as including Australian Indigenous languages in your catalogue. Koha REST API endpoints also enable integration with tools such as VuFind and DSpace, which are useful when you have records from multiple databases.

7. Extend your team by 20,000+ Koha libraries

Get the most out of your Koha by engaging with the global Koha open source community. Koha is used by 20,000+ libraries around the world. Join the community to collaborate on ideas, ask questions and connect with others.

• Talk to the Koha community on chat
• Read Koha resources
• Join Koha special interest groups
• Sign up for Koha mailing lists

Plus, if you’re looking to upskill, there are free webinars and blog posts from Koha vendors that explain ways you can make the most out of your Koha with little or no code.

If you’re after more focused Koha training, partner with a Koha vendor who can tailor their offering to your needs.

8. Reduce technical debt

Consider sponsoring your customisations back to Koha so the Koha community maintains them and they're compatible with major Koha upgrades. Examples of Koha enhancements that were upstreamed by Catalyst include:

• customisable pages with Koha as a CMS
• the ability to request in-demand check-out items to be returned sooner with Recalls 
• bulk automated catalogue uploads to Te Puna.