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Migrating from Polaris to Koha: MARC, Items, and Matching Rules

A practical checklist for preparing Polaris catalogue data for Koha migration, including MARC records, item data, local fields, and matching rules.

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Migrating from Polaris to Koha: MARC, Items, and Matching Rules

A Polaris to Koha migration requires careful review of MARC records, item data, local fields, and matching rules.

The goal is to avoid three common problems:

  • records import but items are missing;
  • duplicate bibliographic records are created;
  • local data is lost or imported into the wrong place.

Start with a representative sample

Export a small but varied sample before full migration.

Include:

  • common books;
  • older records;
  • records with multiple copies;
  • records from different branches;
  • records with local notes;
  • records without ISBNs;
  • withdrawn or suppressed items;
  • records with accented characters.

Review bibliographic data

Check core fields:

  • title;
  • author;
  • ISBN;
  • publisher;
  • subjects;
  • notes;
  • classification;
  • Leader and 008.

Use MARCReady to identify common quality issues before Koha import.

Review item data

Confirm that item data is present and usable.

Check:

  • barcode;
  • branch;
  • location;
  • item type;
  • call number;
  • copy number;
  • price;
  • status;
  • old item ID.

If item data is not in the MARC file, determine whether it requires a separate export.

Review local fields

Polaris exports may include local fields or identifiers that are important for migration.

For each local field, decide whether to:

  • preserve;
  • transform;
  • map to Koha;
  • remove;
  • use only during migration.

Plan matching rules

If importing into an empty Koha system, matching may be simple. If importing into an existing catalogue, matching rules matter.

Review possible match points:

  • ISBN;
  • control number;
  • old system ID;
  • title and author;
  • local identifier.

Clean ISBNs and identifiers before relying on them for matching.

Use MARCReady before Koha staging

MARCReady can help identify:

  • invalid indicators;
  • ISBN formatting issues;
  • duplicate fields;
  • empty subfields;
  • encoding problems;
  • incomplete Leader and 008 fields;
  • local fields that need review.

Export a repaired sample and stage it in Koha before processing the full catalogue.

Next Steps

After Deployment
Post-Installation Setup
Recommended
Security Best Practices
Keep It Running
Monitoring & Maintenance

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