Koha Earns Tops Marks in the 2016 Perceptions Survey

Posted on Posted in Surveys Tagged with , ,

2/1/2017
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla, KC Media Coordinator
ncurulla@gmail.com

Koha Earns Tops Marks in the 2016 Perceptions Survey

Koha, the world’s first fully web based and open source integrated library system, received top marks in this year’s “Perceptions 2016: An International Survey of Library Automation” conducted by Marshall Breeding. The survey ranked both Koha supported independently as well as Koha supported by various open source vendors, and gave the world a glimpse into how Koha stacks up against the competition. In many categories Koha excelled in comparison to the proprietary alternatives in the marketplace. Some mentionable rankings from this year’ survey include:

  • Koha (vendor supported) ranked #1 in Company Loyalty for Small Public Libraries and Smaller Academic Libraries and #1 in Customer Support for Medium Sized Public Libraries
  • Koha (vendor supported) ranked #2 in General ILS Satisfaction, Overall ILS Functionality and Satisfaction with Customer Support for Small Public Libraries
  • Koha (vendor supported) ranked #3 in General ILS Satisfaction for All Public Libraries
  • Koha, supported independently, and/or Koha supported by a vendor, ranked in the top 3 for all Academic Libraries in the categories of:
    • General ILS Satisfaction
    • General ILS Functionality
    • Effectiveness in Managing Print Resources
    • Satisfaction with Customer Support
    • Company Loyalty

The survey was conducted internationally and responses were submitted from over 92 different countries, making up roughly 30% of the total responses.

The full results of this year’s survey can be viewed at: https://librarytechnology.org/perceptions/2016/

About Library Technology Guides:
Library Technology Guides provides comprehensive and objective information surrounding the many different types of technology products and services used by libraries. It covers the organizations that develop and support library-oriented software and systems. The site offers extensive databases and document repositories to assist libraries as they consider new systems and is an essential resource for professionals in the field to stay current with new developments and trends. The site was created and is maintained by Marshall Breeding, an independent consultant, speaker, and author. For more information please visit: https://librarytechnology.org/

About Koha:
Koha is the first web based and first free software library automation package. In use worldwide since 1999, its development is steered by a growing community of users collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. Since its creation, Koha has become the most downloaded ILS in the world with tens of thousands of libraries utilizing it globally.

Full-featured ILS: In use worldwide in libraries of all sizes, Koha is a true enterprise-class ILS with comprehensive functionality including basic and advanced options. Koha includes modules for acquisitions, circulation, cataloging, serials management, authorities, flexible reporting, label printing, multi-format notices, offline circulation for when Internet access is not available, and much more. Koha will work for consortia of all sizes, multi-branch, and single-branch libraries.

Multilingual and translatable: Koha has a large number of available languages, with more languages every year.

Full text searching: Powerful searching and an enhanced catalogue display that can use content from Amazon, Google, LibraryThing, Open Library, and Syndetics, among others.

Library Standards Compliant: Koha is built using library standards and protocols such as MARC 21, UNIMARC, z39.50, SRU/SW, SIP2, SIP/NCIP, ensuring interoperability between Koha and other systems and technologies, while supporting existing workflows and tools.

Web-based Interfaces: Koha’s OPAC, circ, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies–XHTML, CSS and Javascript–making Koha a truly platform-independent solution.

Free Software / Open Source:  Koha is distributed under the Free Software General Public License (GPL) version 3 or later.

No Vendor Lock-in: It is an important part of the free software promise that there is no vendor lock-in: libraries are free to install and use Koha themselves if the have the in-house expertise or to purchase support or development services from the best available sources. Libraries should be free to change support company and export their data at any time, make sure your support company allows this. For more information please visit: https://koha-community.org