Koha Question of the Week: How Do You Merge Records?

by Kelly McElligott on Feb 11, 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: How do you merge records in Koha?

Answer: There are a few ways to merge records in Koha! Let's break down the options:

Merging from a Search

When a staff member searches in the staff interface, within the results screen- there is a button "EDIT" that gives the staff the option once records are chosen, to merge them! A staff member does need permission which would allow them to edit the records.

Edit catalog (Modify bibliographic/holdings data) (editcatalogue)

• Edit catalog (Modify bibliographic/holdings data)(edit_catalogue)

From this search, once records are chosen from the list, the EDIT button will be clickable, and the user can choose to MERGE these two records:

From the Cataloging Search

Another way in Koha to merge records is to use the "Cataloging Search" option. This search is found in the Cataloging Module. Click on Cataloging, and the search bar will add a new option within the search to search the Catalog and the Reservoir.

This search will give the results in a slightly different layout than a standard Search the Catalog.

But the same process will be done, the staff member will choose the records to merge, use the MERGE button on the top of the results screen.

Let's Merge

Either way a library chooses to pick the records they wish to merge- will not change the process of actually merging the records. Once the merge has been selected, the staff member will then choose which record will be kept and which will be deleted. Koha calls the record that is getting kept, the reference record.

The reference records MARC fields will all be defaulted to be kept for the end result. However, a staff member can choose to eliminate any specific MARC fields from this reference record that they choose not to keep.

In this image, Koha has started the merging process by capturing all the MARC fields from the reference record and copying them to the "Destination" record. Any of these fields can be 'unchecked' meaning they won't copy over to the "destination" record.

In the other tab, there are the MARC fields that have yet to be copied over, so a user can choose to add MARC fields from the record that Koha is not keeping to the "destination" record. This is a true merge, giving the staff the ability to pick and choose which MARC fields from which records to keep and not keep.

Once the merge has been submitted, Koha will provide a link and the bibliographic number of the record kept and also the one that was deleted.