Koha Newsletter: Volume 3, Issue 3: March 2012

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Official Koha Newsletter (ISSN 2153-8328) Subscribe
Volume 3, Issue 3: March 2012

 

Edited by Daniel Grobani, Koha Community Newsletter Editor.
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Table of Contents

Koha Development

Koha 3.6.4 Released
by Chris Nighswonger

It is with pleasure that I announce the release of Koha 3.6.4.

The package can be retrieved from:

http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.06.04.tar.gz

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

http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.06.04.tar.gz.MD5
http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.06.04.tar.gz.MD5.asc
http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.06.04.tar.gz.sig

Release notes for 3.6.4 are at http://koha-community.org/koha-3-6-4.

Koha 3.8 Status

Koha 3.8.0 is scheduled to be released on 23 April 2012.

As of 26 March, 3.8 is in a feature freeze.

Paul Poulain, Koha 3.8 Release Manager, has posted a roadmap to 3.8.

Koha 3.10 Roles
by MJ Ray

With the release of Koha 3.8.0 scheduled for 23 April 2012, it’s time to start thinking about roles for the 3.10 series.

We would like volunteers for:

  • Release Manager
  • Translation Manager
  • Documentation Manager
  • Database Documentation Manager
  • Quality Assurance (QA) Manager
  • Assistant QA Managers
  • Specific Module maintainers
  • Release Maintainers
  • Packaging Manager (and grasshopper)
  • Bug Wranglers (the more the merrier!)
  • Meeting chair

Anyone who wants take on any of these roles is more than welcome to write their name next to one on the Roles for 3.10 wiki page and perhaps link to their proposal.

The community will vote on these during the April General IRC meeting, 4 April 2012 at 10:00 UTC +0000, straight after the release news.

Please, consider stepping forwards to help lead Koha’s development.

Release Manager’s Newsletter

Paul Poulain, Koha 3.8 Release Manager, is publishing a monthly newsletter dedicated to Koha 3.8 development. It can be found on the Koha Community website in the Koha News category. The fourth issue is here.

Koha Statistics

Chris Cormack, statistician par excellence, has posted some recent stats on Koha:

February bug/enhancement statistics
Statistics for Koha 3.6.4

Koha Community

New Koha Libraries

  • Columbia County Rural Library District (via ByWater Solutions)
  • Kalamaria Public Library (Thessaloniki, Greece) (via Union Catalog of Academic Libraries)
  • Plum Creek Library System (via ByWater Solutions)
  • Southern NH Library Cooperative (via ByWater Solutions)
  • Walla Walla Public Library (via ByWater Solutions)
  • Washoe County Library System (via ByWater Solutions)
  • Wilderness Coast Public Libraries (via ByWater Solutions)

Community Gossip

Marc Balmer reports that he has integrated the proprietary arcapos point of sale system with Koha using the SIP protocol. This combination enables the sale of items in the library with seamless integration of fee processing and payment. More info is here.

Stefano Bargioni has developed a Perl script to generate authority records from bibliographic records, which would be useful for migrating data to Koha from an ILS that lacks authority records. You can download the script and get more info here. Stefano would appreciate help with replacing XML::Simple with YAML::Sick and with preparing config files for non-MARC21.

Mysore University Library has implemented a mobile version of their Koha opac.

Kristina D.C. Hoeppner posted to her blog an account of her introduction to squashing bugs during Global Bug Squashing Week.

Vimal Kumar V. has posted a survey to measure adoption and user perceptions of potential Koha users in India.

Chris Cormack tweeted that by upgrading to Koha version 3.6.4, Horowhenua Library Trust, the New Zealand library that sponsored the original development of Koha, is now running a version of Koha containing a contribution by the 14-year-old son of the Trust’s Head of Libraries, Joann Ransom. Chris added that when the original Koha first went live, it also contained a contribution by the son of the Head of Libraries at that time.

Chris has also posted info on using Koha with citation managers Zotero, Endnote, and RefWorks.

New Zealand Meeting Call
by Hannah Benbow

We’re keen for another Koha users group meeting here in New Zealand. If you’d be interested in coming along, let me know so we can get an idea of interest. Contact me on: +64 4 917 6103 or email Hannah.benbow@treasury.govt.nz.

I’ve heard really great things about the last meeting hosted by the Horowhenua Library Trust and would be keen for something similar—an opportunity for users to talk about how to get the best out of Koha and to share their knowledge and ideas.

If there’s enough interest for this to proceed, the Central Agencies Shared Services Information Management team would be happy to host it here at Treasury.

Meeting Logs
by Galen Charlton

Minutes and logs of community meetings that are recorded by MeetBot can now be found at http://meetings.koha-community.org/. I’ve updated all links to meeting minutes on the wiki and instituted a redirect from the previous URL base. I ask any webmasters who link to meeting logs to update their links accordingly.

Past Koha Events

Marseille Hackfest

Paul Poulain has posted an extensive report on the Hackfest that took place in Marseille from 19-25 March.

Gaëtan Boisson posted an earlier report.

March General IRC Meeting

The March general IRC meeting was held on 21 March 2012.

More info, including the agenda and links to the minutes, is here.

Global Bug Squashing Week 2012-03-19
by Magnus Enger

Global bug squashing days are days designated to a concerted effort to get bugs and patches moving along in the right direction. A global bug squashing week is 5 global bug squashing days in a row. 😉

The week of 19-23 March 2012 was a global bug squashing week, coinciding with the Marseille Hackfest. More info is here.

Upcoming Koha Events

April General IRC Meeting

The April general IRC meeting will be held on Wednesday, 4 April 2012.

More info is here.

KohaCon12

KohaCon12 will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 5-7 June 2012. A hackfest will be held 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 papers and registrations will be posted soon.

Details (travel, hotels, agenda draft, etc) can be found linked from here.

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.

 

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