Koha Community Newsletter: May 2015
Koha Community Newsletter 
April 2015
Volume 6, Issue 5
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor
Please submit news items to 
Table of Contents
- Development
- Community
- Upcoming Events
- Past Events
Development
Koha 3.20.0 Released
by Tomas Cohen Arazi
It is with great pleasure that I announce the release of Koha 3.20, the latest major release of the Koha open source integrated library system.
Koha is the first free and open source software library automation package (ILS). Development is sponsored by libraries of varying types and sizes, volunteers, and support companies from around the world.
The Koha 3.20 tarball and install instructions can be found on the download page.
More install instructions and useful information can be found on the wiki and in the INSTALL files that come in the tarball
Koha 3.20 is a major release, that comes with many new features.
It includes 5 new features, 114 enhancements and 407 bugfixes.
Please check out http://koha-community.org/koha-3-20-0-released/ for the complete release notes.
Koha 3.18.7 Released
by Chris Cormack
Koha is the first free and open source software library automation package (ILS). Development is sponsored by libraries of varying types and sizes, volunteers, and support companies from around the world.
The website for the Koha project is http://koha-community.org and Koha 3.18.7 can be installed via packages, or downloaded from: http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.18.07.tar.gz.
Installation instructions can be found at http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Installation_Documentation or in the INSTALL files that come in the tarball.
Koha 3.18.7 is a bugfix/maintenance release.
You can read the full release notes at http://koha-community.org/koha-3-14-14-released/.
Koha 3.16.11 Released
by Mason James
The Koha release team are proud to announce the release of Koha 3.16.11.
This is a bugfix/maintenance release
As always, the best option is to upgrade using the debian packages, at
debian.koha-community.org.
Otherwise you can download the tarball at download.koha-community.org.
Installation instructions can be found at http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Installation_Documentation or in the INSTALL files that come in the tarball.
It includes 1 enhancements and 12 bugfixes.
Full release notes are here
http://koha-community.org/koha-3-16-11-released/
Elastic Search Update
by Sebastian Hierl, Ph.D.
ElasticSearch integration in Koha is making progress. Since the announcement of the EBSCO grant to the Koha Gruppo Italiano this past February, the community, through an effort coordinated by ByWater Solutions, completed considerable work on the browse feature and enhanced patron functionality API access. Progress can be tracked through bugs #12478 and #13799 on the community Bugzilla site.
Bugs and Patches
Bugs needing attention.
Noisy Unit Tests
From Mark Tompsett
A recent conversation between Tomás Cohen Arazi and myself about tests on IRC the other week covered tests with floody warnings. To which he challenged me: “How is it that you haven’t already cleaned all the warnings from the unit tests?”
Well, never fear! I started. Bugs 14110-14118, and 14120-14121 basically cover all of t’s noise, and start into t/db_dependent. Many have been signed off by Bernardo Gonzalez Kriegel (Thank you!), but some have yet to be signed off.
If you hate floody tests, take a look.
Links to the bugs:
- Silence warnings t/00-load.t
- Silence warnings t/Auth_with_shibboleth.t
- Silence warnings t/Charset.t
- Silence warnings t/Date.t
- Silence warnings t/Debug.t
- Silence warnings t/Label*
- Silence noise t/Scrubber.t
- Silence warnings t/Search_PazPar2.t
- Silence warnings t/DataTables/Members.t
- Silence warnings t/db_dependent/Auth.t
- Silence warnings t/db_dependent/Auth_with_cas.t
Community
New Koha Libraries
- Bahria University Libraries Union (Pakistan) via Bahria University Pakistan
- Perimeter Institute Library in Ontario (Canada) via ByWater Solutions
- Perry County Libraries in Pennsylvania (USA) via ByWater Solutions
Community Gossip
Barton Chittenden writes about the importance of precise language when submitting support tickets and including a koha URL where possible.
Chris Cormack writes about the wonderful community we’re all a part of in Koha Kindness.
Mirko Tietgen announced meinkoha, “a platform offering free personal Koha
instances to librarians and students of library and information science in the German-speaking world”.
How To
Vimal Kumar shows you how to clean the fine amounts in Koha’s accountlines table.
Christopher Brannon walks you through styling patron expiration dates with JQuery in Koha.
Carmen Hernandez shows you the basics of patron management in Koha 3.18.
Amy Kearns gives you a workaround for missing due dates on your Koha slips.
Let Vimal Kumar walk you through Installing Koha on Ubuntu 14.04.
DP Tripathi created a script for installing Koha 3.20 with a single command on Ubuntu 14-04 LTS.
Pierre Vandekerckhove shows you how to add chat to your OPAC.
Support Provider News
Fourteen ByWater Partner Libraries Bring Features to Koha 3.18
Upcoming Events
June General IRC meeting
The June general IRC meeting will be held on the 10th at 20:00 UTC.
The agenda and other information is here.
June General IRC meeting
The June Development IRC meeting will be held on the 3rd at 15:00 and 22:00 UTC.
The agenda and other information is here.
KohaCon 2015
Registration is now open!
They are also accepting presentation proposals – so Submit your talk!
Location:International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) lbadan, Nigeria
Dates: October 19 – 21
For more information, please see http://kohacon15.projektlinkkonsult.com/ .
Koha North American User Group Conference 2015: Registration Info and Schedule
The schedule has been finalized, see it here: Koha North American User Group Conference 2015 Schedule
Dates: August 5-8, 2015
Location: Bayfront Convention Center in Erie, Pennsylvania
Website: http://www.mercyhurst.edu/academics/library/2015-koha-north-american-users-group-conference
Registration is NOW open!!! Deadline for registration is July 20th. Register here. Credit cards not accepted — mail a check to:
NEKLS4317 W. 6th Street
Lawrence, KS 66049
Make it out to Northeast Kansas Library System
Now accepting presentation proposals. From the announcement:
The Koha North American User Group Conference planning committee is seeking session proposals for the 2015 meeting on August 4-7, in Erie, PA. The committee invites proposals that: attract Koha end users such as librarians, technical services and support staff in libraries; offer work arounds for known system issues and bugs; highlight technological advances impacting Koha development; deliver work-flow best practices and innovative approaches to using Koha; utilize other open-source software within Koha; provide tips and tools for cataloging, serials management, accounts clean-up, patron uploads, record maintenance, and other system functions.
Submit session topics here.
Past Events
Pakistan: Library Management and Digital Resources
by Sher Afzal Khan
A five day workshop on “Library Management and Digital Resources were recently organized by the National Centre for Rural Development on April 13-17, 2015. More than 48 IT and Library Professional from across the country i.e Karachi, Baluchistan, Punjab, KP and Gilgat Baltistan attended the workshop. Mr Sher Afzal Chief Librarian Bahria University Islamabad was the key resource person. He delivered comprehensive sessions and hands on practice with Dspace institutional repository Software. The LIS professionals were trained about the Free and open source institutional repository software Dspace.
May General IRC Meeting
The May general IRC meeting was held on the 6th at 20:00 UTC.
The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is here.
May Development IRC Meeting
The May development IRC meeting was held on the 19th at 21:00 UTC.
The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is here.
Editor, Koha Community Newsletter