Koha Newsletter: Volume 2, Issue 11: November 2011

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Official Koha Newsletter (ISSN 2153-8328) Subscribe
Volume 2, Issue 11: November 2011

 

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

Koha Development

Koha 3.4.6 Released
by Chris Nighswonger

It is with pleasure that I announce the release of Koha 3.4.6.

The package can be retrieved from:

http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.04.06.tar.gz

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

http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.04.06.tar.gz.MD5
http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.04.06.tar.gz.MD5.asc
http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.04.06.tar.gz.sig

Release notes for 3.4.6 are at http://koha-community.org/koha-3-4-6.

Koha 3.4.x String Freeze
by Chris Nighswonger

The 3.4.x branch will enter a string freeze on 30 November. Koha 3.4.7 will release on 7 December.

Koha 3.6.1 Released
by Chris Nighswonger

It is with pleasure that I announce the release of Koha 3.6.1.

The package can be retrieved from:

http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.06.01.tar.gz

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

http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.06.01.tar.gz.MD5
http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.06.01.tar.gz.MD5.asc
http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.06.01.tar.gz.sig

Release notes for 3.6.1 are at http://koha-community.org/koha-3-6-1.

Request for Koha Data for Development
by Chris Nighswonger

A common problem among those of us who do development work on Koha is the lack of complete datasets for the development and testing of features. This is probably more of a problem for those of us who do not support a large variety of organizations running Koha.

I would like to see some good, sanitized datasets available for development and testing. Several of us have pleaded for this for years. Just now, the lack of a good dataset including a sizable number of serials is preventing me from doing some testing and development on DataTables integration work, which has been started by Biblibre.

So, this is a request to all of you libraries out there with small, medium, or large datasets who would be willing to contribute sanitized data for development purposes, to do so. It would be a great way to give back to the community that has provided such a wonderful product with all of its attendant benefits.

Kind Regards,
Chris Nighswonger
Koha 3.4/3.6 Release Maintainer
cnighswonger@foundations.edu

Koha Community

New Koha Libraries

  • Hernando County Public Library (via ByWater Solutions)
  • Reserve Bank of New Zealand (via Catalyst)
  • Shasta Historical Society (via ByWater Solutions)

Community Gossip

Albert Oller has joined ByWater Solutions as Development Support Specialist.

ByWater Solutions has posted a Koha Testing Plan at http://bywatersolutions.com/koha-testing-plan/.

Chris Cormack has posted a visualisation of when work is done on Koha at http://blog.bigballofwax.co.nz/2011/11/04/nice-visualisation-of-when-work-is-done-on-koha/.

Chris Hall is back working on Koha at Catalyst for the New Zealand summer.

Ed Veal has joined ByWater Solutions as Development Support Specialist.

Ian Walls writes about integrating Solr into Koha at http://bywatersolutions.com/2011/11/02/kohacon-11-solr-and-koha/.

Laurence Lefaucheur is now posting a French translation of the Koha community newsletter at http://www.koha-fr.org/category/tags/newsletter.

Paul Poulain, Koha 3.8 Release Manager, will be publishing a monthly newsletter summarizing 3.8 developments of the previous month. His first issue can be read at http://lists.koha-community.org/pipermail/koha-devel/2011-November/036525.html.

Paul Poulain has also posted a first draft of a document outlining how the release manager pushes a patch at http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/How_the_RM_push.

PTFS/LibLime Granted Provisional NZ Koha Trademark

PTFS/LibLime has been granted provisional use of a trademark for the use of the term Koha as it applies to Integrated Library Software (ILS) in New Zealand. PTFS’s press release is at http://www.liblime.com/ptfsliblime-granted-provisional-use-of-koha-trademark-in-new-zealand?a=1&c=1254.

Joann Ransom’s plea to assist Horowhenua Library Trust in disputing the decision is at http://library-matters.blogspot.com/2011/11/plea-for-help-from-horowhenua-library.html; her update is at http://library-matters.blogspot.com/2011/11/update-on-nz-koha-trademark.html.

Nicole Engard is maintaining a bibliography of the dispute. Her initial post is at http://www.web2learning.net/archives/4910; updates are at http://www.web2learning.net/archives/4915 and http://www.web2learning.net/archives/4921. The entire bibliography can be viewed at https://www.zotero.org/groups/koha/items/collectionKey/RR77I3HT/order/dateModified.

Past Koha Events

KohaCon11 Reports

KohaCon11 was held 31 October to 6 November 2011 in Thane, India.

Bob Birchall reports:

One of the exciting aspects of the Hackfest was that a Koha training course was conducted for about 36 local librarians and students. Run over two days, the course covered all major features of Koha. Trainers were Jo Ransom (New Zealand), Marijana Glavica (Croatia), Irma and Bob Birchall (Australia) and Savitra Sirohi (India); Brooke Johnson (US) helped out and ByWater Solutions provided the training Koha instance – a real international effort! It was a pleasure to teach these librarians who were so hungry for knowledge of Koha. Also during the Hackfest the translation of Koha into Hindi was progressed and translation into Marathi started. Congratulations to the staff and students of VPM Thane for this outstanding contribution to Koha.

Robin Sheat reports:

A few of us got together to work on improving Koha’s Open Library integration. On the OL side there was Noufal Ibrahim and Anand Chitipothu. From the Koha side, Dobrica Pavlinušić, Ian Walls, Savitra Sirohi, and I spent time discussing how to make things work. I then spent much of the hackfest adding features to Koha that would allow Open Library to become something of a central cover repository with streamlined uploading to it. At the same time, Anand was working on the APIs on the OL side that Koha would talk to to make this easy. This project is still a work in progress, but the current state can be seen at http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=7152. For more stuff about the Open Library + Koha integration that went on, have a look at Noufal’s blog post at http://blog.openlibrary.org/?p=954.

JoAnn Ransom blogged about some of her KohaCon11 experiences at http://library-matters.blogspot.com/2011/10/notes-from-day-1-of-kohacon11-in-thane.html. The slides from her keynote address are at http://www.slideshare.net/jransom/it-takes-a-village-9955138.

Paul Poulain blogged about BibLibre’s presentations at http://drupal.biblibre.com/en/blog/entry/kohacon11-our-presentations.

Mumbai-based newspaper DNA reported on KohaCon11 at http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?edorsup=Sup&queryed=37&querypage=7&boxid=30762914&parentid=153604&eddate=11/05/2011.

November General IRC Meeting

The November general IRC meeting was held on 16 November 2011. For more info, including the agenda and links to the minutes, see http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/General_IRC_Meeting,_16_November_2011.

Global Bug Squashing Day
by Magnus Enger

A Global bug sqashing day was held on 4 November 2011, and there was much rejoicing.

For the numbers, see http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/2011-11-04_Global_bug_squashing_day.

Upcoming Koha Events

December General IRC Meeting

The December general IRC meeting will be held on 7 December 2011. For more info, see http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/General_IRC_Meeting,_7_December_2011.

KohaCon12

MJ Ray reports that KohaCon12 will probably be held 5-7 June 2012 for the conference and 9-11 June for the hackfest.

 

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