Koha Community Newsletter: November 2016

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November 2016

Volume 7, Issue 11
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

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Table of Contents

Development

Koha 16.11.00 Released

by Nathan Curulla
The Koha Community is proud to announce the release of Koha 16.11

Koha, the world’s first fully web based and open source integrated library system has now been released as version 16.11. This release will include over 240 enhancements as well as numerous bug fixes. Koha 16.11 builds on the system’s already robust functionality and adds many architecture improvements to make the impressive speed of this fully web based system even faster. Some key highlights of the 16.11 release include:

  • Added ability to place article requests and document delivery in Koha
  • Addition of a patron quick add form for on the fly patron additions
  • A new Housebound Readers Module, adding the linking of deliverers, item choosers and homebound patrons
  • Additional improvements to Koha’s EDI ordering and invoicing functionality
  • Additional improvements to Syndetics and Novelist Select embedded content
  • Improved ability to use Elastic as preferred search engine in Koha, adding speed and scalability to Koha’s searching capabilities
  • Enhancements to REST API infrastructure, paving the way for Koha to be the most accessible and integrated ILS in the world
  • Added ability to place multiple holds per patron per record, allowing for multiple item level holds

The many other features contained in the 16.11 release can be viewed in the full release notes: Here

Kyle Hall, Release Manager for Koha 16.11 commented on the newest release of Koha:

“Koha 16.11 contains many important architecture and plumbing improvements to the system which pave the way for the next few releases and the exciting enhancements lined up to be included. Because architecture improvements are typically behind the scenes they are more difficult to find funding for, so taking care of these improvements will result many long term gains for Koha.”

The Koha Community would like to thank the following libraries and companies who are known to have sponsored new features in Koha 16.11:

  • Biblibre
  • BULAC – http://www.bulac.fr/
  • ByWater Solutions
  • California College of the Arts
  • Carnegie Stout Library
  • Catalyst IT
  • DoverNet
  • FIT
  • Hochschule für Gesundheit (hsg), Germany
  • NEKLS
  • South-East Kansas Library System
  • SWITCH Library Consortium
  • Tulong Aklatan
  • Universidad de El Salvador
  • Universidad Empresarial Siglo 21
  • University of the Arts London
  • VOKAL

Koha 3.22.13 Released

by Julian Maurice
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 3.22.13

It is a maintenance release and it includes 23 bugfixes.

Read the full release notes.

Updated coverflow plugin

by Nick Clemens
I sent this out to ByWater partners, may be of some interest to community as a whole

I wanted to let everyone know I have released an update to the CoverFlow plugin for Koha. If you already have CoverFlow you can download and upload the new release to upgrade:
https://github.com/bywatersolutions/koha-plugin-coverflow/releases/tag/v2.3.2

The newest version offers a few features that have been requested:
* You can now specify whether to use book images as links, or to display the title below the images
* You can now specify a custom ‘No Image’ image via URL in the config page
* By adding a ‘localcover’ column to your report you can instruct the plugin to use a local cover if one is present (example report at bottom of email)

There may be a few other small tweaks, and if you missed the last update you will get the latest version of flipster with the plugin which allows its own extra set of options (more info on flipster here: https://github.com/drien/jquery-flipster)

Community

New Koha Libraries

Community Gossip

Melissa Lefebvre attended the 2016 Koha Northeast Summit and writes about it in, The Magic of the Community: Koha Users.
Jesse Zairo posts links to the 2016 Koha Northeast Summit Presentations.
Danielle Elder reports on the Koha Hackfest in Marseille.
Joann Ransom is the featured guest in Bywater Solutions’ Library is Open Podcast.

Round the World Koha Tour: pt. 4

From Joann Ransom

Joann Ransom is one of the librarians who worked with Chris Cormack to develop the original Koha library management system back in 1999.

Joann, ex CEO of Horowhenua Library Trust, is travelling around the world aiming to meet as many Koha community members as possible.

Joann has three main topics that she is happy to speak on: 1) Origins of Koha, 2) The Koha Community and what that means and 3) Te Takere: transforming a modest public library service into a 21st century community centre.

See the itinerary and follow Joann around the world

Joann writes about the tour on her Library Matters blog. Check out the following posts:

Koha Community Marketing Initiative

by Nathan Curulla

Greetings fellow Koha users!

During the last general IRC meeting it was decided that it is time we got serious about marketing Koha globally as a community. There is still too much misunderstanding and fear based on misconceptions circulated by the larger proprietary ILS systems and it is time we fight back and educate our librarians on the realities of what we do. I will be heading up this initiative and would like to see who else is interested in taking part. For now, we have no budget for this so most of the marketing will be content that is created during volunteer time such as more regular press regarding features, website content, blog posts and social media. If you have experience marketing products or have a desire to be involved by writing content and directing the message we are trying to put out please let me know and we can put together a committee. Thanks much and I am excited to get our message out to a broader global user base!

Posted on Koha Listserv

How To

Vimal Kumar has released a Koha 16.05.05 Live DVD. Perfect for testing, advocacy and training.


Support Provider News

From ByWater Solutions:

Upcoming Events

Kohacon 2017 Update: FREE Registration!

To register:
KohaCon 2017 online registration form: https://goo.gl/forms/BSZz8NT46u4pBqT23.
UPDATE ON REGISTRATION: Registration is FREE!.

December General IRC Meeting

The December general IRC meeting will be held on the 7th at 14:00 UTC.

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

December Development IRC Meeting

The December development IRC meeting will be held on the 14th at 13:00 UTC.

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

Past Events

Two day National Advanced Training Programme on KOHA – India

Submitted by Liny Varghese
Two day National Advanced Training Programme on KOHA from the 18th to the 19th of November 2016.

Organised by Kerala Library Association, Ernakulam Region in association with Center for Information Resource Management (CIRM), cochin university of Science and technology, Kerala, India.

November General IRC Meeting

The November general IRC meeting was held on the 2nd at 10:00 UTC.

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

November Development IRC Meeting

The November development IRC meeting was held on the 9th at 19:00 UTC.

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

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Editor, Koha Community Newsletter