There is no official Koha mobile app. That is the honest answer to the question most people are actually asking, and it is worth stating plainly before anything else.
What exists instead: Koha's staff interface is usable on a tablet at a push, some libraries pair a Bluetooth barcode scanner with a phone, and a handful of third-party apps exist with varying quality and support.
The more useful question is what mobile circulation would need to be genuinely worth having.
Is there an official Koha mobile app?
No. The staff interface is a web application designed for a desk. It renders on a tablet, and staff do use it that way, but it assumes a keyboard, a pointer and a scanner plugged into something.
The OPAC — the public catalog — is responsive and works acceptably on a phone. So patrons can search and manage their accounts from a phone today; staff circulation is the gap.
What mobile circulation actually needs
- Scan an item and a patron card with no extra hardware. If it needs a Bluetooth scanner, you have moved the hardware rather than removed it.
- Work one-handed, standing up. A form designed for a mouse fails here.
- Survive a weak signal — a phone in the stacks has worse connectivity than a desk PC.
- Show holds and fines at the point of contact, so staff are not walking back to a terminal.
The barcode scanner problem
A tethered USB scanner assumes a desk and a PC. Every desk, every branch, every additional station is another unit to buy, replace and find a port for. They also fail, usually at the busiest moment of the term.
The phone in your pocket already has a camera that reads a barcode. The technology is not new or difficult — what has been missing is library software built to use it, because most systems assume the scanner.
What phone-based circulation makes possible
Not features — practical differences to a working day:
- Check out from anywhere in the building. A queue at the desk can be halved by a second member of staff with a phone, with no second terminal.
- Stocktake in the stacks. Scan on the shelf instead of trolleying books to the desk and back.
- Open a temporary desk in minutes. A book fair, an orientation week table, a new branch — a phone is the terminal, so there is nothing to procure or install.
- No hardware line item. A scanner per station, at every branch, removed from the budget.
On a system where every circulation field has a camera scan button and a quick-submit mode scans and submits in one motion, this is simply how circulation works — and because it is hosted, there is no server behind it to run either.
Where a phone is the wrong tool
Being straight about this matters, because anyone who has worked a returns trolley already knows it:
- High-volume returns. A morning's book drop is faster with a fixed station, and a dedicated sorter is faster still.
- Long batch operations — bulk edits, imports, batch item modification. Desk work.
- Detailed cataloging and MARC editing. Nobody is editing a 952 field on a phone. See our MARC guide.
- Where a self-check unit genuinely serves patrons better — a busy public library entrance, where the point is that patrons serve themselves. See our SIP2 guide.
Mobile circulation is a complement to the desk, not a replacement for it.
If you already own RFID or self-check hardware
It is not wasted. SIP2 is the protocol those units speak, and it is what keeps that investment working alongside anything else you adopt. Our RFID guide covers how the pieces fit — and includes an honest section on whether the RFID spend is justified at your circulation volume, given that a phone camera achieves much of the same saving for a fraction of the cost.
Patron-side mobile
Patrons want four things from their phone: search the catalog, renew a loan, see what they owe, and be told when a hold is ready.
Two details make a disproportionate difference. Notifications that arrive with the app closed — an email that lands in a spam folder is not a notification, as our guide to notices not sending explains. And signing in without another password: a student who has to remember a library password will not renew online, they will let it go overdue.
What to look for in mobile library software
- Does it scan with the device camera, or does it need extra hardware?
- Can staff do a complete transaction — patron, item, confirmation — without switching apps?
- Does it show holds and fines at the moment of checkout?
- What happens on a weak connection?
- Can patrons sign in with an account they already have?
- Do notifications reach a closed app, or only an inbox?
Tired of buying a scanner for every desk? Ask us about circulation that runs on the phone your staff already carry — and we will tell you where a fixed station is still the better answer.