International schools
Koha for International School Libraries
For international schools anywhere in the world: one catalog for the books in every language your families read, students and parents who use it from home, and a system that does not depend on the librarian who set it up staying.
What we hear
The problems international school libraries bring us
“Our mother-tongue collection is in a dozen languages, and the catalog cannot search half of them.”
“The librarian who set up our system left at the end of their contract, and nobody knows how it works.”
“Our primary and secondary campuses have two catalogs that do not talk to each other.”
“Parents want to see what their children have borrowed, and our system cannot show them.”
How we set it up
Set up for how an international school library works
Whether we install a new Koha, migrate you onto one, host it, or support the Koha you already run.
Every language your families read
Records are stored in Unicode, so Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, French, German and Spanish books sit in one catalog and are searched in their own script. Koha’s screens come in English and dozens of other languages, and on Koha Cloud slips and labels print Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Indian scripts correctly.
A system that outlasts one contract
Koha Cloud is hosted and upgraded by us, and how your library is set up is written down, not kept in one person’s head. When a new librarian arrives, we train them online in their first weeks.
Students, parents and campuses
Each campus is a branch of one catalog. Students are imported from a class list each year, and parents can be linked to their children’s accounts, so a parent sees what a child has borrowed where you allow it. Everyone searches from home on any device.
What you get
Everything an international school library needs
| What | How it works | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Collections | Every script, stored in Unicode | Mother-tongue books catalogued and searched in their own language |
| Screens | English plus French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and more | Families use the catalog in their own language |
| Printing on Koha Cloud | Latin, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian scripts | Slips and spine labels print the script, not empty boxes |
| Campuses | A branch per campus, one catalog | Primary and secondary share one search |
| Students | Class list imported each year | Leavers expire and new families arrive without retyping |
| Parents | Linked to their children’s accounts | A parent can see a child’s loans where you allow it |
| School year | Terms, holidays and closures in the calendar | Nothing falls due while the school is closed |
| Where you start | Destiny, Oliver, Accessit, Alexandria or a spreadsheet | Records, students and loans moved and checked |
| Time zone | Your school’s own zone, wherever it is | Due dates and notices on local time |
| Price | Koha Cloud Basic, published in US dollars | Budget without surprises, three months free |
International and bilingual schools in any country, from early years to the final year of secondary school.
Included
What we look after
Every language, one catalog
Mother-tongue collections searched in their own scripts.
Every campus together
Primary and secondary libraries in one search.
Leave your old system
Destiny, Oliver, Accessit or Alexandria, moved and checked.
Handed over, not lost
Your setup written down, and each new librarian trained online.
Families at home
Students and linked parents use the catalog from any device.
A published price
Koha Cloud Basic has a public price in US dollars and three months free.
More in Koha Cloud, not in standard Koha
Tamper-evident records
Every book’s movements and every fine, payment and waiver in an append-only history. Any change is detected and flagged.
Audit-ready recordsGate register and footfall
Members and walk-ins check in and out; time spent, peak hours and daily trends are reported.
Visitor managementMembership plans
As many paid plans as you sell, with freezes, grace days, study-only passes and renewals.
Membership plansPartner-library loans
Lend to and borrow collections from libraries outside the system, with agreements, deposits and due dates tracked.
How partner loans are trackedAI built into Koha Cloud
Advanced library automation, with an AI assistant for your staff and readers
Koha Cloud is more than hosting. On any plan, your library can add an AI assistant inside the librarian panel that catalogues, audits and reports alongside your staff. Write to it in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese or Korean, and it answers in the same language. It proposes; a librarian approves every change.
Copy cataloguing from every source
Give it an ISBN or a title. It searches your own Z39.50 and SRU servers in the order you rank them, then Google Books and Open Library, and brings back the 10 best matches, each labelled with its source. You pick one; the record is drafted for you to confirm.
DDC numbers and author marks
Suggests a Dewey number and a Cutter-style author mark worked out from cataloguing rules and your library’s own convention, for one book or every record missing one. A librarian approves each change.
Catalogue health score
40 checks rolled into one score out of 100: missing marks, invalid ISBNs, likely duplicates, records with no copies. It ranks the worst problems first, tracks the score over time, and fixes them in reviewed batches.
Stock audits and registers
Accession register, stocktake summary, missing items, item history, holdings as of any date and reconciliation, asked for in a sentence instead of built as a report.
Reports on request
Most-borrowed titles, dormant stock, overdues, fines, branch comparisons: 28 ready reports, asked as a question and saved for next time.
Patrons search in plain words
On your public catalogue a reader can type “books on climate change in Urdu published after 2015” or “Agatha Christie novels on the shelf right now”, and the AI turns it into a catalogue search with the right filters.
The same assistant also runs the circulation desk, acquisitions, patron registration, labels and your library's public website by chat, within each staff member's own permissions.
Koha Cloud pricing
Hosted Koha from $30 a month
Or $300 a year, saving $60. Up to 5,000 titles and 10,000 copies, 5 staff and 1,000 patrons, with hosting, a subdomain, data migration, the public catalog, cataloguing, circulation, acquisitions, administration and training. The same price in every country; larger libraries get a tailored quote.
Not ready to change your library system? Put just your catalogue online from $10 a month, from your spreadsheet, SLiMS export or register.
Already running Koha?
We support and fix the Koha you have, on your own server, and train your team in live sessions.
Koha supportMoving to Koha?
From another library system or a spreadsheet, validated and reconciled before go-live.
Koha data migrationYour team needs training?
Private live sessions for your staff on your own Koha, in your working hours.
Koha staff trainingFAQ
What international schools ask us
Can you move us from Destiny, Oliver, Accessit or Alexandria?
Yes. Bibliographic and item records, students, open loans and holds are moved with a test load and a reconciliation report before go-live, and we plan the switch for a school holiday.
Will our mother-tongue books be searchable?
Yes. Records are stored in Unicode, so a Korean, Arabic, Chinese or Hindi title is catalogued in its own script and found by searching in that script. On Koha Cloud, slips and spine labels print those scripts correctly too.
What happens when our librarian leaves?
The library keeps running. How it is set up is written down, the system is hosted and upgraded by us, and we train the next librarian online in their first weeks.
How is it priced?
Koha Cloud's Basic plan has a published price in US dollars, the same in every country, with the first three months free and training included. A group of schools or a very large collection gets a written quote.
Related reading
Background reading
Koha for schools
Is Koha the right fit for a school library? An honest look.
Read the guideKoha data migration
Moving from your current system without surprises.
Read the guideKoha and MARC21
Fields and frameworks, including vernacular script.
Read the guideKoha in your region
By type of library
Our services
Get a quote
Talk to us about your library
Tell us where you are and what you run today. We reply in your working hours.