Koha 21.11: Upgrade Webinars and Q&A

by Sara Brown on Apr 25, 2022

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this upgrade's What's New Webinars, where we showcased some of our favorite new features and enhancements in Koha 21.11! We also held two Q&A sessions about the exciting changes coming with the upgrade.

Webinars

Webinars were held on Tuesday, June 21 and Thursday, June 23. Recordings are below, and the webinar agenda is linked here.

Q&A Sessions

Q&A sessions were held on Wednesday, July 6 and Thursday, July 7.

[24223] Convert OpacNav system preference to news block and [24224] Convert OpacNavBottom system preference to news block
Will our current customizations be copied into the new place under tools? Yes

Does the AdditionalContentsEditor default to WYSIWIG? Yes

[11879] Add a new field to patron record: main contact method
Is Text messages an option? Not currently

Will the main contact method show up on the hold pop-up? No

Is this a consortium wide item, or single library decision? It's consortium-wide. We can customize by location for printing on holds notices.

Is this something patron can choose in self registration? Yes

[22435] Clarify account_offset types by converting them to clear codes
Is the accounting history [change] retrospective, or only presented in this lovely way [for transactions] after the upgrade? It is retrospective!

But if we don't have reports limiting by offset type then we don't need to fix anything? There shouldn't be anything to fix in that case.

[23678] Cancel holds in bulk
For bulk cancellation, can staff cancel a hold for another library's patron? Yes

Is the bulk hold cancel available on the patron record as well? Not currently

[24019] Patron batch modification based on borrowernumber
Does this extend to batch patron deletions? No, this doesn't affect the selection options there.

[28445] Use the task queue for the batch delete and update items tool and [29020] Missing Background jobs link in admin-home
What if you wanted to fix something? Not a re-do, but a "new-do"? This would need to be started as a new job.

But does it show what was actually changed? It shows the new information, but not a comparison. The change would be reflected in your modification logs (if kept).

Can you modify them again in that screen? No, you would need to run the modification again

[28180] Use a lightbox gallery to display the images on the detail pages in OPAC
[Is it possible] to prefer cover images from a particular source, is that possible? E.g. show local if we have it, then resort to COCE if not?Not currently, but Lucas is looking in to it!

[15788] Split borrowers permission into create/edit and delete
For the permission to delete borrowers, will that be automatically turned on for everyone who previously had the [combined] permission to delete/add borrowers? This WILL need to be turned off when applicable for everyone who could add/delete.

[28819] Add link to item search from mainpage.pl
Can you explain the benefit of using item search? This runs on SQL, so it's more targeted than advanced search. Great for 'project librarians', cleanup/collection maintenance, making quick reading lists (by selecting a range of publication dates, for instance). It can also be wueful with claims return - staff can search on a regular basis (for instance, weekly) for items with a claims returned status to see if they can find them. It's also useful to generate barcode files for batch item modification and deletion. Also, we can add custom search fields beyond what’s there!

Looking for more 21.11? Find links to release notes, blog posts and more at our Koha 21.11 Upgrade Hub.