Adding New Books to the Catalog

Adding One Book at a Time

1. Click Catalog in the sidebar menu.
2. Click the Add New Record button.
3. Fill in the book details:
   • Title (required) -- the full title of the book. Maximum 500 characters.
   • ISBN-13 (13-digit number, if available) -- must be exactly 13 digits, no dashes or spaces.
   • ISBN-10 (10-digit number, if available) -- the older 10-digit ISBN format.
   • Authors (separate multiple authors with commas) -- for example: "Jose Rizal, Nick Joaquin"
   • Subjects (separate multiple subjects with commas) -- for example: "Philippine Literature, Fiction, Historical"
   • Language (default is English) -- use the two-letter language code (e.g., "en" for English, "tl" for Tagalog)
   • Published Year -- must be between 1000 and 2100
   • Edition -- for example: "2nd Edition" or "Revised Edition"
   • Page Count -- the number of pages
   • Description -- a summary or abstract of the book (up to 5,000 characters)
   • Classification Number (call number, like the Dewey Decimal number) -- for example: "813.54"
   • Classification System -- choose one:
     • Dewey (Dewey Decimal Classification) -- most common in Philippine schools
     • LCC (Library of Congress Classification) -- common in college libraries
     • Custom -- if your school uses its own system
   • Status -- choose "Active" (visible in catalog), "Draft" (hidden, still being set up), or "Withdrawn" (removed)
4. Click Save.

What you'll see: The new book appears in your catalog. An accession number is automatically created for it using your school's prefix (for example, "SJCS-0001").

Adding Books by ISBN (Auto-Fill)

If you have a book's ISBN, the system can automatically fill in most of the details for you.

1. In the Catalog, click Add New Record.
2. Type the ISBN number.
3. The system searches online databases (like Open Library and Google Books) to find the book's information.
4. If found, the title, author, publisher, and other details are filled in automatically.
5. Review the information and make any changes needed.
6. Click Save.

Importing Many Books at Once (CSV/MARC)

If you have a large list of books to add (for example, from another library system), you can import them all at once.

1. Click Import Catalog in the sidebar menu.
2. Choose your file format:
   • CSV -- a spreadsheet file (like from Excel). Results appear right away.
   • MARC21 -- a standard library file format (a .mrc file). This processes in the background.
3. Click Choose File and select your file (maximum 50 MB).
4. Click Import.

For CSV imports:

• Results appear immediately.
• You will see how many books were added successfully and how many had errors.
• If there are errors, the system shows you which rows had problems and why.

For MARC21 imports:

• You will see a message: "Records dispatched to queue for processing. Check back shortly."
• The books are added in batches of 50. Large files may take a few minutes.
• Check back later to see the results.

If something goes wrong:

• CSV errors -- Make sure your file is saved as UTF-8 encoding. Check that ISBN-13 numbers are exactly 13 digits. Check that published years are realistic (between 1000 and 2100).
• MARC21 errors -- Make sure your file is in MARC21 binary format (not MARCXML). The file must be smaller than 50 MB.