Koha Newsletter: Volume 2/Issue 2: February 2011

Posted on Posted in Koha Newsletter

Official Koha Newsletter (ISSN 2153-8328)
Volume 2, Issue 2: February 2011

Table of Contents

 

Koha Developments

Koha 3.2.5 Available
by Chris Nighswonger

Please note: This release is a security release. It is strongly recommended that users apply this upgrade immediately to production systems. If you are installing a new system, please use this version rather than earlier versions.

The package can be retrieved from:

http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.02.05.tar.gz

You can use the following checksum and signature files to verify the download:

http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.02.05.tar.gz.MD5
http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.02.05.tar.gz.MD5.asc
http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.02.05.tar.gz.sig

Release notes for 3.2.5 can be found here.

RFC Roundup: System Administration
by MJ Ray

This month, I’m looking at some Requests For Comments pages about Systems Administration improvement ideas. If you’ve any comments on any of these, please visit the wiki and just edit the pages to add your ideas or comment on the suggestions that are already there. Alternatively, you could start a discussion on the email list or web forum at http://koha-community.org/support/.

  • Enhance renewals parameters
    • This page says the suggestion is aimed at Koha 3.4, so time is running out for it. It’s currently the really short idea that “Renewable
      … should be part of smart-rules.pl and take more parameters into account: ability to renew X time for patron Category Y, for item type Z in Branch A”. Could you tidy this idea up, link it to a bug and get it ready for development? If so, please visit the wiki and help Koha develop.
  • Managing permissions on acquisition module
    • This is a more complete request, suggesting we follow a similar model for the acquisitions module as for the tools module, with much more granular permissions. It suggests splitting acquisition permissions into nine smaller permissions which would allow different users to be authorised to do different parts of the process. If you’d like to see the suggested split and maybe suggest groupings or others, go to visit the wiki.
  • Improving statistics on acquisitions RFC
    • Well, the other side of monitoring acquisitions is to collect statistics for reporting afterwards. This RFC was aimed at Koha 3.2, so either it needs marking as completed, or it needs updating for 3.4 or 3.6.
  • Support for Syndetics enhanced content RFC
    • I think this might already be in Koha 3.2 – at least my Koha site has a Syndetics section in the Enhanced Content system preferences page. If you use Syndetics with Koha, could you update this page to say that it is completed and working, please?
  • Translation Process: Installer and Javascript libraries improvements
    • This RFC needs some work to make it clearer what users want from the developers when it comes to installing other languages, and
      probably linking to an enhancement bug.
  • Guided reports serials RFC
    • A plan to expand the guided reports concept to the serials table, sponsored by St Etienne University and developed by BibLibre, expected for/deadline: 2011-05-01 – I think that will make it just miss Koha 3.4’s release, so there should still be time to comment on the wiki.

Please Contribute!

Please, if you have any feedback or encouragement for any of the above, follow the link and add comments, or start a discussion. It really does make a difference, helping Koha to develop in the best way possible, in collaboration between users and developers.

 

Koha Libraries

South Taranaki District Libraries move to Koha
by Susan McMillan

The South Taranaki District Council (STDC) Libraries are pleased to announce that they are changing to Koha in March.

While initially skeptical that a “free” system could provide for the needs of a modern public library (in South Taranaki’s case made up of seven branches), staff were pleasantly surprised with the features that Koha offers straight out of the box.

After Council’s IT Manager, Pete Sayers and Customer Services Librarian, Cath Sheard, attended Koha10 conference last year the IT department decided to trial Koha. Soon Cath and I were getting emails and excited phone calls from IT telling us how they had set up a borrower, added a book (their cataloguing was abysmal!) and issued items to themselves … all with no training or library knowledge what-so-ever.

Cath and I soon had some MARC records imported, set up lending rules, Google book covers, carousels and personalised the OPAC. What we found tricky was the change in terminology between our current management system and that used in Koha.

We are looking forward to going live with Koha after Taranaki Anniversary weekend on 14 March.

Koha Article: OSS in Italy
by Zeno Tajoli

Abstract: Koha is an open-source Integrated Library System (ILS) developed in New Zealand and deployed for the first time in January of 2000 for Horowhenua Library Trust. Koha is a full-fledged software with basic and advanced features. Koha has also a strong and wide community of librarians and developers. In particular, it is suitable to all institutions who want to automate their libraries using a system that allows a complete control over data and over software itself. CILEA worked to adapt Koha to Italian libraries and now it is a part of the community.

Koha in Mongolia
by J. Begzsuren

Central Public Library of Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia has been working to implement Koha in our library since August, 2010. As of now we have successfully tested the conversion of our Softlink Alice “ansi” database into a Koha “unicode” database. Our partners are KOICA, volunteer He Shin Young, librarian and Mongolian Libraries Consortium Gantulga, IT specialist.

This is the first library in Mongolia to implement Koha to a public library and the first known ansi database conversion. We are still working on conversion but our system will be live soon at http://koha.pl.ub.gov.mn.

Koha in the Maldives
by Aminath Riyaz

Koha is making waves in the Maldives library sector. A few personnel from the Maldives library and information sector have been exposed to Koha briefly during the last few years, at the short term training programs hosted by the SAARC Documentation Center, New Delhi, India.
Koha made a loud enough impact in the Maldives with the formation of DLNetSA (Digital Library Network of South Asia) in July 2010. This was followed by a “training of trainers” workshop on Koha held in Male’, Maldives, organized by the Maldives Greenstone support Network and facilitated by resource persons from HealthNet Nepal. A trial database was hosted by HealthNet Nepal at http://115.187.27.13.

With online support of HealthNet Nepal, Maldives Library Association (MLA) is introducing Koha to the libraries in the Maldives. As a first step, the MLA will be setting up Koha in four libraries selected strategically from different parts of the island nation. More information about this pilot project is available at http://infomalias.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/computerise-your-library. The interest shown by the library sector is overwhelming. This is not unexpected, as there are only a few libraries in the country with even an online library catalogue. The only library known to be using an integrated library system at present is the Maldives National University Library.

The MLA is very enthusiastic about this endeavor and is very thankful for the support from HealthNet Nepal, University of Waikato, and the Maldives Greenstone support Network. This project is a huge step for MLA given the small group of Library and Information Science professionals in the country.

 

Koha Events

KohaCon 2011 in India
by Nicole C. Engard

The KohaCon 2011 Location Survey is closed. We had a total of 877 responses. If you voted for a location as your first choice it got 4 points, your second choice 3 points, and so on. Below is the break down in points.

  • Thane, India [ End October – Beginning November ] 2640+150+62+33= 2885
  • Kathmandu, Nepal [ November / December 2011 ] 432+96+186+24= 738
  • Kolkata, India [ November / December 2011 ] 156+339+104+33= 632
  • Somerset or Bristol, UK [ September / October 2011 ] 160+141+72+108 = 481

A break down of results can be found here and raw results available upon request.

Even if we ignore votes from those who didn’t fill in all the information I’m pretty sure we have a winner.

In addition, I recommend that we soon move on to voting for the location for 2012 so that we can get on top of things and conference planners have more time to prepare.

 

 

Newsletter edited by Nicole C. Engard, Koha Documentation Manager.

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