Try the Z39.50 search in the Cataloguing module - often a title and author search will find a useful record (you can add other Z39.50 sources to the ones provided) and will overlay the record you have open.  So I just open a blank record and run the search.

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gary McGath
Sent: Saturday, June 08, 2013 8:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Setting up Koha for a volunteer library

An non-profit club I'm associated with is looking into using Koha to
catalogue its in-house circulating library of several thousand books.
Right now there's no catalogue, and the circulation system is a paper
sign-out book. As the resident library techie, I figure I should help
somehow, though my experience isn't with ILSs or OPACs.

The obvious first question is how to get all those books into the system
using volunteer labor. Koha imports MARC records. A barcode scanner to
get ISBNs is an obvious start, but possibly half the books are pre-ISBN,
so they'll have to be entered by hand. The Worldcat API
(http://xisbn.worldcat.org/xisbnadmin/doc/api.htm#getmetadata) looks
like the thing for getting metadata from the ISBN, and turning the XML
into MARC won't be hard.

I'm willing to write some code to help them along, but to the extent
that there are free tools that work, it makes sense to do them. Can
anyone with similar experience offer suggestions?

-- 
Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer
http://www.garymcgath.com