Koha Community Newsletter: November 2013

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October 2013

Volume 4, Issue 11
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Daniel Grobani, Koha Community Newsletter Editor.
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Table of Contents

Development

Koha 3.14.0 Released
by Galen Charlton

The Koha community is pleased to announce the release of version 3.14.0 of the Koha library automation system.

Koha 3.14.0 is a major functionality release that includes various new features, including:

  • A new default theme, “Bootstrap”, for the public catalog interface. The Bootstrap theme provides a responsive design that works well both for desktop web browsers and mobile devices.
  • A new course reserves module.
  • A new offline circulation module that is entirely browser-based.
  • A revamp of the serials predication system which allows for significantly more flexibility in managing patterns.
  • The ability to create lists of patrons.
  • The ability to search for items to check out by keyword rather than barcode.
  • The ability to overlay item records during batch imports.
  • The ability to define rules (called MARC modification templates) for batch-modifying MARC records during import.
  • Numerous acquisitions workflow improvements, including the ability to move orders from one vendor to another, search acquisitions history, merge duplicate invoices, and get warnings if a new order would over-commit a fund.
  • Cataloging improvements including the ability to import authority record via Z39.50, the ability to merge authority records, and the ability to save and continue editing bib records.
  • Support for schema.org microdata in the OPAC to increase the visibility of your catalog to search engines.

There are also a number of under-the-hood improvements, including:

  • Zebra DOM filter support for UNIMARC bib and authority records.
  • The introduction of an ORM, DBIx::Class.
  • Significantly improved unit test coverage.

And, as always, there are numerous bugfixes and minor improvements.

Koha can be downloaded from download.koha-community.org. Debian packages of Koha 3.14.0 will be available shortly.

Release notes are here.

As release manager for Koha 3.14, I would like to thank everybody who contributed patches, documentation, testing, moral support, money, and time to the effort. Koha users both old and new should find 3.14 a tasty piece of Π indeed.

Koha 3.12.7 Released
by Tomas Cohen Arazi

The Koha community is proud to announce the release of 3.12.7. This is a bugfix/maintenance release and contains 8 enhancements and 42 bugfixes.

This release can be downloaded here; installation instructions are here or in the INSTALL files that come in the tarball.

Release notes are here.

Koha 3.16 Roles

Community members who would like to assume any of the roles for the Koha 3.16 release are welcome to add their name to the list of roles on the wiki and, optionally, add a proposal and link to it.

BibLibre Patches Needing Testing for Koha 3.16
by Jonathan Druart

I am a Koha developer working for BibLibre and a member of the QA team (freshly re-elected for the 3.16 cycle). Koha 3.14 was just released and we have 6 months to work together to release version 3.16.

A lot of BibLibre’s patches are in the patches queue (marked needs signoff or needs QA), and I think some could interest you. We never communicate enough, so I have listed and explained some of the features that you can already test here.

And there are a lot of others patches! I am hoping you will be motivated to sign off them (and all others!), or QA them, and to give your attention to what remains in the queue. If something is not clear, don’t hesitate to leave a question on a note on the appropriate report.

During the last year, it was really difficult to rebase patches again and again for two reasons: 1. Patches are not tested and 2. Other features don’t take into account patches already submitted. So developers, please check if an existing patch does not exist before to start to write a new feature.

All of these features could be in the next release; it all depends on you 🙂

Don’t forget: a list of BibLibre’s development exists in this doc. We try to keep it up-to-date.

And sandboxes are available, so you don’t have any excuse not to test patches. (Thanks and welcome to PTFS Europe on the sandbox area.)

I hope to share with you on these reports 🙂

Community

New Koha Libraries

Community Gossip

Brendan Gallagher initiated a discussion on the Koha mailing list with a summary of the KohaCon13 open session during which funding the future of Koha was discussed. Several people responded with their thoughts.

Chris Cormack tweeted that a Koha bug was recently reported, patched in New Zealand, signed off in Canada, QA’d in the UK, and pushed to code repositories in the USA, all in one hour 20 minutes.

Marshall Breeding is encouraging libraries to particpate in the Perceptions 2013 International Library Automation Survey.

Vinod Kumar Mishra has released a Live DVD of Koha 3.14.

Joy Nelson posted an account of her visits to libraries and her interest in their architecture and ILS’s.

Galen Charlton posted his Koha Dev Tidbit #1 on the control of space.

Kohala reports that over 60 people have registered for the 4 December presentation in Paris on Koha 3.14.

Daniel Grobani, editor of the last 28 issues of the monthly Koha community newsletter, is passing newsletter duties to Chad Roseburg as of the December 2013 issue. Thanks and welcome, Chad!

Support Provider News

Eric Bégin of inLibro presented Koha to the Congrès des milieux documentaires du Québec 2013 in Montréal.

Barton Chittenden has joined ByWater Solutions as Development Support Specialist.

Upcoming Events

December General IRC Meeting

The December general IRC meeting will be held on 4 December 2013 at 18:00 UTC.

The agenda and other information are here.

KohaCon 2014 Dates Announced

KohaCon14 will be held in Córdoba, Argentina, from 6-10 October 2014. The organizers report that the first three days will most likely be devoted to the main part of the conference, followed by the hackfest, with some fun during the weekend and more hackfest for those who stay longer.

Oslo Koha Conference

A conference and workshop dedicated to Koha will be held 10-11 December 2013 at the Norges Informasjonsteknologiske høgskole in Oslo. More info is here.

Past Events

November General IRC Meeting

The November general IRC meeting was held on 6 November 2013.

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

Global Bug Squashing Day
by Magnus Enger

Global bug squashing days are dedicated to a concerted effort to get bugs and patches moving along in the right direction.

A Global bug sqashing day was held on Friday November 15th 2013, and there was much rejoicing. This day was dedicated to testing for the imminent release of Koha 3.14.

More info is here.