Expanding Your Research Hub: How to Catalog Articles and Chapters in Koha

From Books to Research Hub: Cataloging Articles & Analytics in Koha

Adding articles—such as journal papers, book chapters, or seminar presentations—alongside your monographs is a powerful way to enhance your Sirah Research Database. In library science, these are referred to as Analytics or Component Parts.

To integrate these into Koha, you must link the article to its "host" (the parent journal or book) using specific MARC tags and adjust your display settings to make them stand out in the OPAC.

1. The Core MARC Tags for Articles

When cataloging an article, the most significant changes occur in the Leader and the 773 field.

A. The Leader (Position 07)

This position identifies the bibliographic level of the record. Changing this tells Koha: "This is a part of a larger work, not a standalone book."

• Leader/07: Change from m (monograph) to a (Monographic component part).

B. The 773 Field (Host Item Entry)

This field creates the bridge between your article and the host record.

• 773 $t: Title of the host (e.g., Journal of Islamic Studies).
• 773 $g: Relationship info (e.g., Vol. 5, No. 2 (2024), pp. 10-25).
• 773 $w: The Biblio Number of the host record in your Koha system. This creates a functional, clickable link in the OPAC.

2. Differentiating Articles from Books in the OPAC

Researchers need to know at a glance if they are looking at a 500-page book or a 10-page article. Here are three ways to achieve that:

Method 1: Using Item Types (Recommended)

Create a specific Item Type for articles in Administration > Item Types. Assign it a "document" or "page" icon. When users see the icon next to the search result, they will immediately recognize the material type.

Method 2: Custom Visual "Badges" via CSS

You can add a visual highlight to article results using the OPACUserCSS system preference:

/* Highlight 'Article' results with a green border */
.results_summary.itemtype_ARTICLE {
    border-left: 5px solid #2ecc71;
    background-color: #f9fff9;
}
    

Method 3: XSLT Customization

For a professional finish, modify your OPACXSLTResultsDisplay. You can set a condition: If Leader/07 = 'a', display the Host information (773) prominently instead of the standard publisher info.

3. Comparison: Book vs. Article Cataloging

Feature	Book (Monograph)	Article (Component Part)
Leader/07	m	a
Main Title (245)	Title of the Book	Title of the Article
Source Information	260/264 (Publisher)	773 (Host Journal/Book)
Identifier	020 (ISBN)	022 (ISSN of the Host)

4. Essential System Preferences

To ensure your "One Point" database functions smoothly, enable these settings:

• ShowComponentRecords: Set to "Show". This adds a "Components" tab to the parent book record, listing all chapters inside.
• EasyAnalyticalRecords: Set to "Display". This simplifies the process of linking articles to parents in the staff interface.

By following these steps, you provide your researchers with a deeper, more interconnected view of scholarly literature.