Using Mana for Serial Subscriptions

by Kelly McElligott on Oct 17, 2019

Mana

The idea behind Mana-kb is that the Koha community can begin sharing knowledge such as Serial Prediction Patterns and Reports! Serial prediction pattern sharing and searching have started in Koha 19.05. This means a library can set up their Koha to integrate with Mana-kb and search for Serial patterns within Mana-kb and also share their own patterns with the community.

How exciting is this?!

Setting up Mana

There is a whole blog post on how your library can integrate your Koha with Mana, please see this blog post : Setting Up Mana

Using Mana with the Serials Module

The advantage of using Mana in the Serials Module is that if another library has shared the subscription pattern of a specific serial with Mana, then a library will be able to import this subscription from Mana into their library module and have less set up for a new serial!

Creating a new Subscription using Mana

Searching Mana for an existing Subscription:

A library can first Search Mana prior to creating a new subscription to see if this subscription does exist in Mana.

From the serials module, there is an option to “Search Mana” on the left of the Serials Module. The search can look by the ISSN, Title or Publisher.

If a result is found, these results will be listed.

Creating a Subscription in Koha using Mana:

A library will go through the same first step of creating a subscription. On the second step of creating a subscription, if a subscription has been found, an alert will appear on this page.

If you would like to see the Mana results to verify that this / or one of the subscription is one that you would like to use, click Show Mana Results

This result will appear:

The options will be listed on the left under Actions- Import or Report.

Import:

If Import is chosen, then this Numbering Pattern will be imported into your Koha system. The next step for the library would be to finish setting up the subscription, this would include adding the Last Value of the Volume/Number issuing that the library is starting with.

This numbering pattern imported from Mana will now be available in your Koha for any future subscriptions.

Report:

If Report is chosen, the library has an option to add a comment to this particular subscription pattern. Any comments will appear in the Comment box.

Close:

If the library chooses not to use a subscription from the Mana list, the option to Close this box is available.

Sharing with Mana

Did you find that a serial wasn't in Mana?

If you have a subscription pattern that your library has created that you would like to share- it is very easy to send this to the Mana knowledge base for others to use.

Give Back!

From the subscription detail page, there is a new option, "Share".

In the "Setting up Mana" blog post, there is an option to have this auto shared with Mana, if your library has chosen this option, then you will not have to manually share a new subscription, it will be done automatically.

Tutorial Video on Using Serials Module with Mana

More Mana

Setting Up Mana