1st Australian Koha User Group Meeting : Melbourne (Vic), Thursday 26 April at 6pm at The Melbourne Athenaeum Library

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