Monday Minutes: eHoldings EBSCO

by Jessie Zairo on Sep 11, 2023

In this week's Monday Minutes, Kelly and Jessie will discuss eHoldings with EBSCO in Koha's ERM Module. With the eHoldings module, staff can track electronic titles and packages (group of titles) that your library subscribes to through a specified provider. This week we talk about connecting to EBSCO.

Set Up

The eHoldings within Koha allow integration to connect directly with the EBSCO Knowledge Base enabling staff to manage resources held in the EBSCO HoldingsIQ. This does require a subscription to EBSCO's HoldingsIQ.

If your library has a subscription with EBSCO then staff will want to check the EBSCO checkbox in the ERMProviders system Preference.

In order to set up the API connection with EBSCO eHoldings, staff will need to enable the 2 system preferences to activate the EBSCO connection.

• ERMProviderEbscoApiKey - API key provided by EBSCO
• ERMProviderEbscoCustomerID - customer ID

Searching Titles and Packages

Once this connection is set up staff will be able to search titles and packages within their EBSCO subscription in Koha. These titles are not stored in the Koha database. This integration just provides the same experience for staff through Koha in the same way you would if you were using EBSCOadmin.

Important Note: This API connection works both ways between Koha <-> EBSCO. If a staff member makes a change in EBSCO, it will appear in Koha. And if the staff member makes a change in Koha, it will appear in EBSCO.

Additional Resources

Koha ERM Module

Koha ERM Module - eHoldings