“Using Koha as a CMS has changed everything for us,” says Ed. For him, it’s essential to be able to customise pages, test ideas, and update the OPAC catalogue (the front page) as much as possible, without relying on vendor support. This way, the library can action changes when needed to respond to members’ needs rather than relying on a product roadmap.
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Koha Reports: An Australasian library's success with data-driven decisions
28 Nov 2025, 3:16 PMExplore the practical ways Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand uses Koha to promote and provide access to resources.
Background
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) supports over 130,000 financial professionals across Australia and New Zealand. The library holds a collection of technical and core-skill resources to support role and career development. Since adopting Koha library management system in 2011, the CA ANZ library has used Koha to flex and scale up its library services.
For over 14 years, Catalyst has provided hosting and support services for the CA ANZ Koha instance. Recently, we caught up with Ed Zhou, System Librarian, and Carolyn White, Manager, Library Services at CA ANZ, about their collection and Koha.
Opportunity
To best support members with re-registration and professional development, CA ANZ ensures library resources are easy to access. CA ANZ uses its library software as both a means to provide access and a marketing tool to showcase available resources.
Solution
CA ANZ chose Koha, a web-based library management system, for its flexibility and has evolved how it is used for nearly 15 years. In fact, CA ANZ was one of the organisations that helped expand Koha into a content management system (CMS), a development that is now key to the ways they have been able to tailor library content for members.
Before CMS pages, CA ANZ relied on a 15-page PDF guide to help members navigate resources, which was difficult to update and read. Now, the library team can:
- test different layouts and messaging in Koha with little to no need to write code
- display library resources by categories such as legislation, tax jurisdiction, and accounting software
- filter and surface resources more intuitively.
Carolyn shares that she enjoys bringing ideas to life in Koha, “that can be quite difficult with proprietary, large user bases, long lead time for enhancements, and what you can do can be quite limited.”
CA ANZ was one of the first libraries to use reports(external link) results to create custom displays for popular resources, but needed vendor support at the time. Now, a decade later, the library is empowered to create new pages and displays due to the flexibility and usability of Koha.
Koha Reports have contributed to the improvements we’ve seen in the member experiences.
Better search and user experience
The team has made several enhancements to the Koha OPAC to help members find what they need, including:
- Adding search prompts: The search bar now rotates through example search terms to guide members.
- Curating lists: CA ANZ uses the list function to promote curated resources and improve discoverability for members.
- Including redirect messages: Because the Koha system is separate from CA ANZ’s main website (which hosts CPD), librarians added a catalogue note to redirect members who had landed in the wrong place.
Data-driven decisions with Koha Reports
Pictured: Examples of Koha reports in a pie, line, and bar graph.
Koha Reports enable the CA ANZ library to streamline its day-to-day work. Ed shares that Koha tooling and reports have changed how they operate.
“If we didn’t have these features, it would be impossible to do these tasks. Before, we would’ve had to do everything manually.”
CA ANZ uses Koha Reports and Tools to:
Pictured: Ed Zhou, System Librarian, CA ANZ.
- Weed unused content: Identify items that haven’t been borrowed so they can use data-driven evidence to decide what to retire. With the support of Koha Reports, the team has deleted over 13,000 records in the last few years.
- Automate ‘What’s New’ displays: Reports feed directly into new content displays on the OPAC.
- Bulk manage metadata: For example, when a vendor changed all download links, they used reports to quickly identify and update them. This would have been a manual and time-consuming process otherwise.
- Track digital usage: By measuring article and magazine views, CA ANZ can pay royalties accurately.
Tip for librarians
You don’t need to know SQL to use Koha Reports. There’s a handy guided reports wizard that can generate queries for you, and pre-written reports are available.
Future-proofing the CA ANZ collection
Pictured: Carolyn White, Manager, Library Services at CA ANZ.
CA ANZ has always kept its members at the centre of decisions. As the organisation has grown, the team have used data from web analytics and reports to identify and focus on what members need the most. The library has been early adopter of enterprise-wide initiatives like single sign-on and mobile-first design considerations, while also considering what features are no longer required.
Carolyn shares that they’re shifting towards a digital-only collection to make content easier to find and ensure the longevity and equity of access. The library holds some of the only copies of resources, so if a physical item is lost, they can’t replace it. Now, the collection is around 90% digital.
Catalyst and community Koha support
Before joining CA ANZ, Ed hadn’t used Koha. He quickly taught himself the basics with the information shared on the Koha Community Wiki. He shares that it’s one of the real highlights of Koha. Whenever he wants to test something, he can either easily search through the Community Wiki, Manual, or ask Rōpū kohinga at Catalyst for support.
We love to hear how libraries use Koha and what they want out of their library system. If you have any questions about Koha, we’re here to help.
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