Koha Question of the Week: Where do Cover Images Come From in Koha?

by Kelly McElligott on Jan 28, 2022

Each Friday, we will bring you a new Koha Question of the Week. We will select real questions that we receive and share the answers with you!

Question: Where do cover images come from in Koha?

Answer: Coce Server or other places!

Koha users have several options when it comes to displaying cover images on the OPAC.

Users can choose from these system preferences:

OPACAmazonCoverImages, GoogleJackets, OpenLibraryCovers, which are free.
Or paid services, like Baker and Taylor cover images or SyndeticsCoverImages.

Koha also has a Coce Server. When Coce is enabled it will look at three services: Amazon, Google, and Open Library. It matches the ISBN in the MARC record (020 field) and finds the best match out of those 3 services.

• Google API
• Amazon Product Advertising API
• Open Library Read API

If a book cover is not available from a provider but is available from another one, Koha will be able to display a book cover! Which is fantastic, that there are options! Amazon book covers are retrieved with Amazon Product Advertising API, which means that more covers are retrieved (ISBN13).

To enable Coce go to Administration –> System Preferences –> Enhanced Content

The Coce server URL is listed in the screenshot, so if your library is blank, feel free to plug this in. From the system preference, CoceProviders, you can choose all of the three providers or opt to choose just 1 or 2 of the choices.

Note: If Coce is enabled, make sure to select Don’t show or Don’t Add for the following system preferences OPACAmazonCoverImages, GoogleJackets, or OpenLibraryCovers. If both are enabled, you will get multiple images on the OPAC.

Currently, you can’t rank which service it looks at first, Coce sends the first available URL.