LISolutions in collaboration with Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP), The University of Waikato, New Zealand and Digital Library Network of South Asia (DLNetSA) is organizing a Three Days Training on Free & Open Source Integrated Library Systems (ILS)

Introduction: Free and Open Source Movement has provided great opportunities for library community around the globe. This training will consist of hands-on practical sessions on the following Free and Open Source Software (FOSS):

• Koha ILS (Latest Version)
• Greenstone Digital Library Software (GSDL)
• DSpace (A favorite Digital Library Suite)

Important Documents for Registration and Nominations:

• Training Brochure
• Online Registration Form
• PDF Registration Form
• Invitation/Nomination Letter for HODs

Event details are as under:

Title: Three Days Training on Free & Open Source Integrated Library Systems (ILS)
Date: May 17-19 2012
Venue: ICMAP Campus, Plot No. 16, Sector H-9, Islamabad, Pakistan

View Larger MapOrganizers:

• LISolutions Pakistan
• Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP)
• The University of Waikato, New Zealand
• Digital Library Network of South Asia (DLNetSA)

Training Team:

• Mr. Ata ur Rehman (Team Lead)
• Mr. Zahid Iqbal
• Mr. M. Shafiq Rana

Organizing Coordinator:

• Mr. Zahid Iqbal
  kashan.zahid@yahoo.com
  +92 331 504 4430

Training Fee: PKR 5000/- (US $ 60 for foreign participants )

Fee includes:
Koha, GSDL, DSpace DVD, Training Kit, LISolutions’ Membership, Certificate, Lunches/Refreshment

How to Register?:

Deposit training fee online and get the payment slip. Then get registered here.

Online Registration

Account Title: LISolutions Trust
A/C No: 0541001951005064
Bank: MCB F-7 Markaz, Islamabad -44000

Important Note: As we have limited seats available, interested participants are requested to get registered on first come first serve basis according to following procedure:

Training Outcomes:
After successful completion of this training the participants will be able to:

• Deploy / Install Koha on your own computer /server
• Learn basic commands of Linux which may be helpful to use Koha and other FOSS software more
• Effectively Configure / customize Koha according to your needs
• Learn the practical use of GSDL and DSpace

Location and map: The Melbourne Atheneaum Library 

Moyra McAllister emailed the Koha e-list with the following invitation: "I am a Koha user based in Melbourne, and I know of a few others. At the recent VALA conference held here it was suggested that we form a user group to meet a few times a year to exchange tips and ideas and provide support for newbies. If there is anyone on the list who is interested in this idea could you contact me (off list please). Moyra E-mail: moyrab@internode.on.net"

Moyra is a senior librarian who has many years experience installing and using Koha in several library contexts. We congratulate Moyra on her initiative.  At CALYX, we have wanted to see Koha user groups established in major Australian cities, but preferred to see this done by librarians, not by a support company.  So we are thrilled that that is now occurring with Melbourne the first city to host the 1st Koha user group meeting in Australia. We hope that librarians in other cities will create their own Koha user group too. Moyra also said “As a number of you work in other states, it has been suggested that we could perhaps use Skype for teleconferencing. “ We don't know if this will be possible at this first meeting.

Have you ever noticed in the Koha Release Notes, Maori proverbs like this one? "Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini" It means, 'Success is not the work of one, but the work of many.' The Koha project gains its strength from the community of librarians and support companies.  The Maori word 'Koha' means 'gift': in Maori culture, it is a gift given with some expectation of reciprocity.  Participating in a user group and sharing your experience with others is a great way to give back to the community.

Best wishes, Irma 

Koha & Dspace training and certification workshops being offered in Mumbai and Bangalore.

The objectives of this program are to:
- Train library professionals & staff on using Koha/Dspace
- To test and certify their readiness to use the software

This is a 2 day program for Koha and 1 day program on Dspace, covering the key modules and functions in the software. At the end of program, participants will be required to demonstrate their skills on the various modules. Participants who complete 60% of the exercises successfully will be awarded a Basic skills certificate.

Participation fee for the workshops are as follows:
Koha (2 day workshop): Rs. 3,000 per head
Dspace (1 day workshop): Rs. 1,500 per head.

Participants can register in one (Koha or Dspace) of both the programs, as the are on contiguous dates.

The Koha workshops are scheduled as follows:

Mumbai: 27th (Friday) & 28th April (Saturday), 2012
Bangalore: 4th (Friday) & 5th May (Saturday), 2012
Mumbai: 22nd (Friday) & 23rd June (Saturday), 2012
Bangalore: 6th (Friday) & 7th July (Saturday), 2012
Mumbai: 24th (Friday) & 25th August (Saturday), 2012
Bangalore: 31st (Friday) August & 1st September (Saturday), 2012
Mumbai: 19th (Friday) & 20th October (Saturday), 2012
Bangalore: 2nd (Friday) & 3rd November (Saturday), 2012

And the Dspace workshops are scheduled as follows:

Mumbai: 29th (Sunday) April, 2012
Bangalore: 8th July (Sunday), 2012
Mumbai: 26th August (Sunday), 2012
Bangalore: 4th November (Sunday), 2012

For more information including registration details and workshop outline please visit these pages:

http://www.osslabs.biz/koha/training-certification
http://www.osslabs.biz/dspace/training-certification

The call for conference papers is open for this year’s kohacon! We’d love to see presentations from librarians for librarians, sharing their experiences, tricks and tips. Talk times are flexible, with long and short options, so please consider registering as a speaker.

We are particularly keen to receive proposals about archives/special libraries using Koha, Resource Description Framework/Semantic Web/Linked Data and the Koha packages, in both the main conference and the later hackfest.

Please complete the proposal form at http://koha-community.org/kohacon12/ before 20 April 2012.

About KohaCon12

KohaCon12 will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 5-7 June 2012, followed by the hackfest 9-11 June.

This is a free conference for everyone interested in the Koha library system, which is Free and Open Source Software. There is no registration fee, but we will ask that attendees pre-register. Further calls, including calls for registrations and sponsors will be posted soon.

Details (travel, hotels, agenda draft, etc) can be found linked from http://koha-community.org/kohacon12/

KohaCon12 is the fifth KohaCon, following last year’s successful conference in India which brought together users and developers worldwide. KohaCon12 will feature an international slate of speakers (both Koha users and active Koha contributors) conducting presentations and workshops on a diverse range of topics. Talks will cover a range of topics from general experiences of Koha through to technical information on the various modules.

“We expect this event to have wide appeal,” said MJ Ray of host organisation and Koha support provider software.coop. “The conference is for both techies and non-techies. In addition to presentations on the technical side of Koha, the conference will be a demonstration of how users and developers around the world cooperate to improve Free and Open Source Software. software.coop is delighted to host KohaCon in Edinburgh in our tenth anniversary year and this UN International Year of Co-operatives.”

“Koha conferences are always an informative and uplifting event, I have no doubt that this years conference in Edinburgh will be the best conference yet.” said Chris Cormack, one of the original authors of the Koha version 1.0.

About Koha

Koha is the first Free and Open Source Software Integrated Library System (ILS). Gifted by Horowhenua Library Trust and now in use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. The impressive set of features available in Koha continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. Koha has lived up to its name, which means ‘Gift’ in the Maori language of New Zealand.

To learn more about the Koha project, visit: http://koha-community.org

Press Contacts: MJ Ray or ML Edmondson at software.coop +44-844-4437-237

LISolutions and Pakistan Librarian Welfare Organization (PLWO) Jointly organizing “National Training on Total Library Solution (TLS)” [What is TLS?]

Title: National Training on Total Library Solution (TLS)
Date: Saturday-Sunday July 9-10, 2011
Venue: Computer Lab, Hailey College of Commerce, University of the Punjab, Lahore
Organizers: LISolutions and Pakistan Librarian Welfare Organization (PLWO)
Partners: PULISAA and Hailey College of Commerce

Training Team:

• Dr. Muhammad Ramzan (Chief Librarian, LUMS)
• Mr. Ata ur Rehman (ata.rehman@gmail.com)
• Mr. M. Shafiq Rana (cyberarianpk@gmail.com)

Total Library Solution (TLS) is a suite of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) used for library operations.  Some of them are as under:

• Koha ILS (3.4.x)
• DSpace
• GSDL
• Joomla
• WordPress
• OHS

Further details can be found here or http://lisolutions.org/tls-training-registration/

KUDOS (Koha Users and Developers of Open Source) will be holding a conference in Madison, Wisconsin, USA on May 2 and 3, 2011. From the announcement and call for volunteers sent by Vicki Teal Lovely:

Put May 2 and 3, 2011 on your calendars for the KUDOS conference to be held in Madison, Wisconsin at the UW Madison Pyle Center. More information on transportation and housing will be coming soon. This will be a conference for and by users of Koha in collaboration with vendors that support or interact with Koha. We are hopeful that this conference will be a low cost/no cost option with the help of sponsorships from vendors and libraries.

We are looking for volunteers to serve on the planning and program committees. If you are interested in helping out, please let me know. We need to get to work on this right away!

Please not that this is NOT going to be a KohaCon and at this time no Hackfest is being organized.

Koha Kenya invites all its members and interested individuals to this year’s conference / workshop to be held on Saturday 18th December,  2010 at Gretsa University in Thika. The conference begins at 9.00 am and ends at 4.30 pm. Some of the issues to be tackled will include:

• Authorities & Choice of Subject Headings in Koha-3.x – Mrs. Geetje Wanjohi (UoN)
• MARC 21 & Use of Indicators in Koha-3.x – Tito Wawire (Library of Congress – Nairobi)
• Among others.

In addition, the issue of Kenya National Bibliography and the Koha Kenya-Cat will be tackled.

If you intend to attend, please confirm by writing an email to library@gretsauniversity.ac.ke, on or before Thursday 17th December 2010.

Gretsa University – Thika,  is located 3 Kms from Thika Town along Garissa road, and approx. 40 kms from Nairobi.

To get to the venue by public means:

From Nairobi use Matatu Number 237 (Thika – Makongeni), and drop-off at the main-gate of Gretsa University. (These Matatus are available opposite Naivas Supermarket, along Ronald Ngala Street)

From Thika town, use matatu for Posta-Makongein and drop-off at the Main-gate of Gretsa University or Engen filling station.

The next general IRC Meeting will take place on the 8th of December at 10:00 UTC+0

The agenda as of today reads:

• Update on Roadmap to 3.2

• Update on Roadmap to 3.0
• Update on Roadmap to 3.4
• Follow-up on actions from General IRC Meeting, 10 November 2010.
• Agree times of next meetings.

To add to the agenda or see the most recent updates visit the official meeting wiki page.

This is a 3 day program, covering the key modules and functions in Koha. At the end of program, participants are required to demonstrate their skills on the various modules. Participants who complete 70% of the exercises successfully are awarded a Koha skills certificate.

The next set of workshops are scheduled as follows:

• Mumbai: 26th to 28th November, 2010
• Bangalore: 10th to 12th December, 2010

http://www.osslabs.biz/koha/training-certification