Koha Community Newsletter: July 2016

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July 2016

Volume 7, Issue 7
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

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Table of Contents

Development

Koha 3.20.13 Released

by Chris Cormack
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 3.20.13.
This is a maintenance release and only contains a few bug fixes.

It includes 2 bugfixes.

Packages should be available soon.

You can read the release notes here.

Bugs and Features

This section highlights upcoming projects, features as well as bugs needing attention.

Bug 16892 – Add automatic patron registration via OAuth2 login
by Mark Tompsett
With the inclusion of Google OAuth2 authentication in bug 10988, this bug takes it to the next level and allows automatic registration for Google authenticated users.
This work is the first official patch submission sponsored by Tulong Aklatan, a Philippines-based Koha support provider.

Project Mana
by Paul Poulain
Some months ago I sent an email to koha-devel, to announce that BibLibre was planning to work on a new project, dedicated to sharing informations between Koha (https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/SharingDatasBetweenKohas_rfc).

I’m proud an happy to give you feedback about this project: things are moving quickly & nicely.

  • *Morgane*, our intern -alex_a being the tutor) is doing a great job (you can congratulate her on #koha )
  • we’ve named this project “*Mana*”. It’s a Maori word (once again :D), easy to pronounce & write. http://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?&keywords=mana : “*(verb)* to be legal, effectual, binding, authoritative, valid.” I’ll ask for mana.koha-community.org DNS entry soon !
  • as announced by Morgane, we’re using the same framework as for HEA for the server side. The code is available on our git: http://git.biblibre.com/biblibre/koha-mana (will be pushed later on git.koha-community.org). The DB is here, some webservice are already here & working.
  • The koha-side is being worked, below are some screen shots.
  • we changed some things compared to my initial RFC. Everything is on trello, splitted into cards (https://trello.com/b/BslL6i9p/mana-biblibre trello not public, claire, the owner is not here today, we’ll change the status in a day or 2.) Note that there can be some French on trello, even if Morgane avoid it.

We plan to have MANA working at the end of august, at least for subscriptions (pattern & numbering) sharing. Maybe also for SQL reports & vendors.

Some screen shots & features descriptions:

in subscription management, you can now *share* a subscription pattern, by sending it to Mana:

When you click on “share”, after validation, you get a *feedback*:

Anyone can then retrieve the numbering pattern & frequency calculation when creating a subscription (work being done this week). After the 1st screen of subscription creation, Koha will automatically query mana and check if there is some data available:

The librarian will then be able to see what is available and get it locally in one click.
Every time a librarian “get it locally”, a counter will be incremented on Mana. Thus, if more than 1 frequency/pattern is submitted for a given title, the librarians should be able to see which one is “preferred” by other librarians.

Additional features:

  • we will create a script that will help populate Mana from a CSV. We will probably issue a RFF (“Request For File” ) later. Our idea is that we want to launch Mana with many data already available.
  • comment. Any librarian will be able to add a comment to a shared data, as well as marking it as “obsolete”.
  • a syspref will be added to deactivate Mana (will be ON by default)

Community

Pakistan Library Association’s Koha Implementation Program (PLA’s KIP)

by Furrukh Hussain Zai
The Pakistan Library Association (Sindh Branch) announced the Koha Implementation Program (KIP) in the mid of December 2015 to voluntary support the library automation projects in Sindh province with Koha that is one of the world best free and open-source Integrated Library System (ILS).

The first phase of PLA’s KIP has been completed in June 2016 with successful implementation of Koha at the following institutions/libraries.

  1. Pakistan Air Force Air War College, Karachi.
  2. Pakistan Navy Central Library, Karachi.
  3. Pakistan Navy Rahnuma Library (HRD Center), Karachi.
  4. Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Khairpur.
  5. BVS Parsi School Library Network, Karachi.
  6. The Generation School Library Network, Karachi.

The PLA’s KIP based on following stages:

  • Prior implementation consultancy about the hardware, software, internet access, etc.
  • Implementation of 100% secured Koha on the server machine that includes the LAMP structure (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl script) and also the configuration of jQuery and zebra index.
  • Customization of integrated modules such web OPAC and staff panel along with cataloging, patrons’ management, circulation, acquisition, serial management, reports, etc.
  • Responsive interfaces designing of staff and OPAC as per the requirement of institution.
  • Data migration of all print and electronic holdings in MARC21 format.
  • Import of patrons’ records.
  • Live the library system on intranet (local host) or internet (remote) as required.
  • Basic and advanced operational and administrative trainings to the library and IT staff.
  • Three months free consultancy after the implementation.

This program is initiated and conducting by Mr. Furrukh Hussain Zai (life member) under the supervision of Mr. Khawaja Mustafa (president) and support of Mr. Furrukh Inayat for training in MARC 21 cataloguing. The Second Phase of PLA-KIP will be started from the beginning of September 2016. If you wish that PLA (Sindh) may help you in library automation with Koha-ILS. Kindly register your institution by the end of August 2016 at http://bit.ly/plakip. For further details and photographs, kindly visit at http://bit.ly/kipdetails. This offer is for automation of libraries in the Sindh province of Pakistan.

New Koha Libraries

Community Gossip

Joann Ransom posted the final itinerary for her speaking tour.

How To

Interested in VuFind or cloud based backups? Check out the following posts from Vimal Kumar:


Upcoming Events

Koha-US 2016 Meeting

by Christopher Davis
I am excited about this year’s Koha-US conference in Monterey,
California. Thus far, around fifty participants have registered for
this conference, so if you have not yet registered, please do so now
at <http://goo.gl/forms/Z0udUsi7Ll>. Even if you are not yet sure
whether you will be attending the conference this year, please
register so that we can make sure we have enough meals, drinks/snacks,
programs, etc. (it’s better for us to have a few extra than not
enough). Remember that registration for the conference is FREE;
however, please bring $20 with you to cover the cost of the drink and
snack service.

WARNING: do not look at the schedule below unless you want to get
excited about going to this conference:

August 3rd

  • 8am – Registration
  • 9am – Opening Statements and discussion about Mentorship in Koha
  • 9:30am – Keynote – Christopher Brannon and Nick Clemens: Community and the future of Koha
  • 10:30-11 – Break
  • 11-12 – Chris Rohde – Innovations In Our Library – Using zones to optimize staff and enhance customer service in an automated library
  • 12 – 1:30 lunch on your own
  • 1:30 – 2:30 Nick Clemens SQL for Koha Beginners
  • 3-4 – Round Table discussions – Reports (Robin – Christopher Brannon)/ Circulation (Nancy Keener)

August 4th

  • 9am – Opening Statements/organization business and discussion of Koha US organization
  • 9:30 – 10:30 Christopher Davis – Issues of Open Source Software in Libraries
  • 10:30-11am break
  • 11-12 – Fred King – Modifying Koha For Unique Uses
  • 12-1:30 lunch on your own
  • 1:30-2:30 Christopher Brannon – Self-check in Koha
  • 3-4 Round Table Discussions – Cataloging (Nancy Keener) / Acquisitions (Sandre – Chris Rohde)
  • 6pm – Reception at Pacific Grove Public Library (transportation provided)

August 5 – Hackfest

  • 9am – Opening Statements and discussion on Koha’s Future
  • 9:30 – 10:30 – Todd Goatley and Chris Rohde – Libki’s Future and How It’s Used In One Library
  • 10:45 – 11:30 – Joy Nelson – Bibframe/Linked Data in Koha
  • 11:30 – 1:30 Lunch provided by Bibliotecha – discussion of RFID products during lunch
  • 1:30 – 2:30 – Nick Clemens – Simple Bug Squashing
  • 2:45 – 4 Breakout Groups: Guided Bug Squashing/Virtual Box setup

August 6 – Hackfest

  • 9am – Opening Statements and discussion on Developments in Koha
  • 9:30 – 10:30 – Breakout Session 1
  • 10:30 – 11:30 – Breakout Session 2
  • 11:30 – 1:30 Lunch
  • 1:30 – 2:30 – Breakout Session 3
  • 2:45 – 3:45 – Breakout Session 4
  • 3:45 – 4 – Wrap up and goodbye

Hackfest/Breakout session topics:

  • SQL for Reports
  • Tweaking Your Koha – (JQuery, CSS and HTML)
  • More Bug Squashing
  • Playing with Virtual Boxes

So, you read the schedule anyway- exciting huh? Well, don’t say that I
didn’t warn you.

Past Events

July General IRC Meeting

The July general IRC meeting was held on the 6th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is here.


Symposium Koha, Lyon (France), 27 – 29 June 2016

by Sonia Bouis, For KohaLa Association
Last month, KohaLa, Koha user association in France, organised the symposium Koha at the University Lyon 3. Almost 70 attendees were present during those 3 days. As usual, there was several simultaneous presentations, some for people discovering Koha and other for Koha users.

The topics were around the Koha community, focus on functionalities, installation, change of version, merger of two Koha, plugin for Ebsco Discovery Tool,…The third day was dedicated to workshops: translation party, testing party and discovering catmandu. Some of the attendees of those workshops were newbies so they learned a lot and achieved a little. They were all enthusiastic.

Some conference sessions have been recorded and we will send the video url on the Koha Lists as soon as it will be ready.

July Development IRC Meeting

The July Development IRC meeting was held on the 13th at 14:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is here.

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