An Ode to Item Search

by Catrina Berka on Oct 8, 2024

We’re not shy about our love for Item Search - it has its own fan club and associated sticker! Hebah was even dubbed the “Item Search Defender” at the last Koha-us Conference in Round Rock, Texas. 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. The last few upgrades have brought increasing functionality to Item Search, so you may not know all that it can now do. Let’s show off a few of its newer features and see if we don’t have you looking to join the Item Search Fan Club, too! Oh, Item Search, how we love you! Let us count the ways…

1. Simplicity

The latest release introduced a sleeker look and easier multi-select options. Prior to this, you could select more than one option per field, but you had to use keyboard shortcuts (Command/Control) to do so. Now, you can just select multiple choices in the field from the drop down menu.

2. Custom fields

In addition to the hard-coded fields included in Item Search, you can also add your own custom Item search fields. Maybe you frequently add non-public notes to your items and you want an easy way to retrieve them. Using the % or _ wildcard characters, you can find any items you’ve noted as Staff picks, donated by a particular source, or anything else you’re tracking in that field.

Bug 13823 would hard code the public and non-public note fields into Item Search.

You can even link your custom Item Search fields to authorized values, such as Damaged:

3. 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.

These features make it easier to find what I’m looking for from within my search results.

4. Links to batch item operations

A few releases back, batch item modification and deletion were linked from Report results. With bug 34227 in 23.11, we now have this link from the Item Search results, too. Before this, you had to select the results of your search, export to a barcodes file, navigate over to Cataloging, and select the Batch item modification or Batch item deletion tool there. Now, those links 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!

Note: Only staff with batch item permissions will see these options (items_batchdel and items_batchmod).

5. It just keeps getting better and better

Developers are adding enhancements and functionality to Item Search in every release.

• In 24.11, we’ll have shareable links to Item Search results so we can more readily collaborate with coworkers (bug 14322).

• We are close to having table settings on the Item Search results, to make that huge table easier to view and manage (bug 37238).

• Once we have table settings on Item Search results, that will open the pathway for progress on adding other fields such as date last seen (bug 13965) and public and non-public notes (bug 13823).

• Rather than just sharing a link to Item Search results, what if you could translate the Item Search into an SQL report (bug 35178)?

Are you convinced? Are you an Item Search believer? Join the conversation in Bugzilla about what you think Item Search needs.

Additional Resources

• Koha Question of the Week: Can We Add Fields to the Item Search?
• Monday Minutes: Item Search Enhancements
• Monday Minutes: Batch Item Modification Improvements