System preferences administration

This page allows you to set the system preferences that control much of the basic behavior of Koha. These parameters should be set before any other parameters.

• acquisitions -- The choices are either "normal" or "simple." "Normal" sets the system to track orders and update budgeting and vendor information as you add materials to your collection. "Simple" tells Koha that you are going to add materials to the collection without tracking orders.
• authoritysep -- The separator used in authority/thesaurus. Usually " -- ". Deprecated and useless in Koha 2.2
• autoBarcode -- The barcode number to be assigned to items is automatically assigned (sequentially) by Koha if this is set to "yes" ("1" = "yes").
• autoMemberNum -- The membership number (patron card number) to be assigned to new library users is automatically assigned by Koha if this is set to "yes" ("1" = "yes").
• checkdigit -- Validity checks on membership number (patron card number): none or "Katipo" style checks. In most cases, you will choose "none" because you will be using pre-printed barcodes.
• dateformat -- Choose "metric," "us," or "iso" date format (us = mm/dd/yyyy, metric = dd/mm/yyy, ISO = yyyy/mm/dd). This controls how dates are displayed, not how they are stored in the database.
• gist -- "gist" is "GST" (Good and Sales Tax) rate. If your local tax laws require you to pay taxes on purchases from your suppliers, enter the tax rate here. Set to "0" if you are not required to pay tax.
• insecure -- The best choice is "no." If you choose "yes," users do not have to login and all information is open to anyone. Be careful if you set this to "yes!"

• ISBD -- Koha can display records in International Standard Bibliographic Description format. the syntax of this field is quite complex :

  it's divided into blocks, that can contain a text before, X fields, each having -or not- a string before, a string after, and a text after :

  #995|<br>Items :|{\n995b}{ - 995j}{/995k}|

  means the "block" 995 has <br>Items : BEFORE, then fields 995b, 995j and 995k, repeated for each item (995 is an UNIMARC standard), then nothing after the block.

  The # means "beginning of a block", the | is the separator of each part, the {} being used for each subfield. A subfield can have up to 3 digits BEFORE and up to 3 digits AFTER each subfield

  The UNIMARC (partial) definition for ISBD is

  #700|<label>Titre/auteur</label>|{700a}{701a}{702a}| ; #200||{200a}{ [200b] }{. 200c}{ : 200e}{. 200h}{. 200i}{ / 200f}{ ; 200g}|
  #230||{ ; 230a}|
  #205||{ ; 205a}{ , 205b}{ = 205d}{ / 205f}{ ; 205g}|
  #210|<br/><label>Editeur</label>|{ ; 210a}{ (210b) }{ : 210c}{, 210d}|
  #210|(|{210e}{(210f)}{ : 210g}{, 210h}|)
  #215|<br/><label> </label>|{ ; 215a}{ : 215c}{ ; 215d}{ + 215e}|
  #225|<br/><label>Description</label>|{ (225a}{ = 225d}{ : 225e}{. 225h}{. 225i}{ / 225f}{, I225x}{ ; 225v}|)
  #606|<br/><label>Sujets</label>|{ 606a - }|<br/><br/>
  #995|<br>Exemplaires :|{\n995b}{ - 995j}{/995k}|
  

• KohaAdminEmailAddress -- The email address that will receive requests from borrowers for modification of their records.
• ldapserver and ldapinfos -- Koha 2.0 can use Perl LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, see http://search.cpan.org/~gbarr/perl-ldap-0.3202/lib/Net/LDAP.pod) to manage user access and privileges. To avoid a useless Perl package for libraries without ldap, all what is related to LDAP has been moved to KohaInstall/modules/C4/Auth_with_ldap.pm. Ask your system administrator to set up LDAP with Auth_with_ldap.pm (perldoc Auth_with_ldap.pm for help). Those 2 parameters are useless in 2.2 and have should not appear on a new install.
• LibraryName -- The library name or message that will be shown on the main OPAC page. You may use HTML tags to format the name. Example: Welcome to Koha
  Free Software ILS
• marc -- Turn on MARC support. Set to "no" if you do not intend to use MARC records.
• marcflavour -- Your MARC flavor (MARC21 or UNIMARC). This choice tells Koha how to interpret your MARC records.
• maxoutstanding -- The maximum amount of outstanding charges a borrower may have before he/she is barred from making reserve requests. The number represents units of your local currency (e.g. "5" means $5.00, if the dollar is your local currency.)
• maxreserves -- The maximum number of reserves a member can make.
• noissuescharge -- The maximum amount of outstanding charges a borrower may have before he/she is barred from checking out items. The number represents units of your local currency (e.g. "5" means $5.00, if the dollar is your local currency.)
• opaclanguages -- Set your language preference. (Despite the name, this choice controls the language used for all Koha screens, not just the OPAC). The top language in your list will be tried first.
• opacthemes -- Set the preferred order for themes. The top theme will be tried first.
• printcirculationslips -- if set to 1, circulation "slips" are printed on your receipt printer. If set to 0, no slips are printed.
• suggestion -- If set to 1, the Suggestions feature is activated in the OPAC. This feature allows OPAC users to suggest book purchases. When a suggestion is made in the OPAC, it is assigned the status "ASKED." A librarian then manages the suggestion and can set the status to "REJECTED" or "ORDERED." When a book is ordered and has arrived in the library, the status becomes "AVAILABLE." Suggestions that are not yet "AVAILABLE" are visible to all users of the OPAC.
• template -- Preference order for screen templates. Koha comes with several different options for templates that control the look and feel of your Koha screens, and you can also write your own templates.
• timeout -- Inactivity timeout period (in seconds). If a workstation is idle for longer than this period, the user will have to login again.
• virtualshelves -- Set virtual shelves management on or off ("1" or "0"). Users can set up and manage their own "virtual bookshelves" of favorite library items if this feature is turned on.