Resources & Guides

Can MARCReady Be Used Without Koha?

MARCReady is built by KohaSupport, but it can also be used as a standalone MARC quality review and repair tool for non-Koha workflows.

May 19, 2026 3 min read

Can MARCReady Be Used Without Koha?

Yes. MARCReady is built by KohaSupport and is especially useful for Koha migrations, but it can also be used as a standalone MARC quality review and repair tool.

If your library needs to inspect, repair, or convert catalogue records before using them in another system, MARCReady can still help.

What MARCReady does

MARCReady helps libraries:

upload catalogue files in MARC21, MARCXML, MRK, CSV, TSV, Excel, or JSON format;
review common MARC quality issues;
apply rule-based repairs automatically;
map CSV, TSV, Excel, or JSON data into MARC;
identify problematic records and review per-field suggestions;
export MARC21 binary or MARCXML files.

Those output formats are useful beyond Koha because they are standard library metadata formats.

When non-Koha libraries might use MARCReady

MARCReady can help when:

a vendor sends records that need checking;
a legacy system exports inconsistent MARC;
a spreadsheet needs conversion to MARC21;
records contain broken accents or encoding issues;
ISBNs are inconsistent;
a catalogue audit is needed;
a migration team wants to inspect data before choosing a system;
records need cleanup before being sent to another vendor or platform.

What is Koha-specific?

Some MARCReady guidance is Koha-oriented because KohaSupport specialises in Koha on AWS.

Koha-specific topics include:

Koha staged MARC import;
Koha item field mapping (field 952);
Koha matching rules;
Koha branch and item type values;
Koha migration planning.

If you are not using Koha, you can still use MARCReady for MARC quality review, but you should adapt the final import steps to your destination system.

What to check with your destination system

Before using MARCReady output outside Koha, confirm:

which MARC format the system accepts;
whether it prefers MARC21 or MARCXML;
how it handles item data;
how it handles local fields;
how it handles authority records;
which matching rules it uses;
whether it expects UTF-8;
whether any vendor-specific import requirements apply.

Use the free preview

The free preview lets you upload a sample file and review up to 3 records per upload at no cost (up to 15 records per month). This is useful even if you are not migrating to Koha — you can evaluate whether the repair suggestions are relevant to your records.