Open Source ILS project meeting minutes (most recent at top)
Minutes for 25 September 2009
In attendance: Kip Roberson, Pierson; Lisa Milchman, Norwich; Donna Malinowski and Bob Gillhooke, Jericho Town; Debber Roderer and Kim Peine, Dorothy Alling Memorial; Chris Kirby, Ilsley Public; Bob Troester and Carol Minkiewicz, Kellogg-Hubbard; Rubi Simon, Burnham Memorial; Rebecca Mueller, Richmond; Sue Barden and Richard Pritsky, Carpenter Carse; Lynne Gately, Kimball Public; Fran Ferro, Milton; Wendy Hysko and Alison Pierce, Brownell; Nancy Wilson, Lawrence Memorial; Helen Linda, Goddard; Jessica Joyal, Waitsfield; Stephanie Chase, Stowe; Stan Brinkerhoff, Tunbridge (Skype); Sheila Kearns, DOL (Skype); Lisa von Kann, St Johnsbury (Skype); Brendan Gallagher, ByWater Solutions (Skype).
I took particularly poor notes for this meeting, which was actually very interesting -- we discussed quite a lot.
Each of the libraries running vokal Koha installs as part of Phase I reported on their status. Stowe had just migrated, with quite a number of issues relating to bad MARC data; we had a long discussion about libraries getting ready to migrate and cleaning up their MARC records and item holdings. Sheila offered to hold MARCEdit trainings, in addition to those listed on the continuing education schedule.
Kim reported on the discussions of the Consortium Committtee; Carol Minkiewicz from Montpelier was added as the final member and Brendan from ByWater offered to sit in on meetings to offer his advice. Issues the group has in mind are:
- authority records
- questions about when libraries combine their data
- disaster recovery and backup
Brendan reported on the status of the 3.2 release. The call for new features is frozen, with any additional new features being saved for 3.3/3.4. There is a new acquisitions module with improved availabilty statuses, improved holds capabilities, improved transfer rules, and a new system preferences editor (with a paragraph about what the preference does), a rewritten section for printing labels, among other changes. He estimated a stable branch being ready mid-October [which, judging from the last chat transcript, might be a little later?]
We discussed how Koha continues to move towards having more powerful system preferences to address the look and feel of the OPAC. We agreed as a group to have Joe Chellman, our designer, work on moving out what he can from his template changes into these new preferences, into css files, etc.
We discussed the DOL's thoughts on statewide catalogs, and Sheila stated she right now is focusing more on tiny libraries looking to automate "with the least number of barriers to entry and the lowest cost." We also discussed advanced MARC training.
Finally, we discussed our ideas for development projects. We wanted ByWater to look into individualized reading histories; we have since discovered that is in development (hurrah!). We were concerned with what happens to the data when a patron has it on turns it off; not having "database bloat"; and what happens if you delete the record for the item -- will it stay on the patron's record?
We agreed to have Scott work on a package of pre-made reports to plunk in. Stephanie will send him a list drawn from the wiki.
Next meeting: November 13, 9:30am.
VOKAL Minutes
26 June 2009
Warren, Marlboro and Hinesburg now have Koha running at their libraries. Randolph, Richmond, Stowe and Norwich will most likely be running sometime in the fall. Thirty libraries are now involved in VOKAL. We may have about sixty libraries when the VOKAL consortia catalog model is available (date unknown). When the consortia catalog is ready we have three choices for hosting: 1.) host it ourselves at one of the libraries, 2.) host by a support company or 3.) host by a separate commercial server which does regular back-ups.
So many libraries are too much for Richard Pritsky to support alone so support companies are being considered. We would probably use our local wiki first for questions then go to the support company if it couldn’t be resolved easily. We need to find a support company that is friendly, inexpensive, quick to respond and would do more troubleshooting than development support.
Bywater was interviewed via Skype at this meeting, Bywater is a commercial and open-source support company that started in February and has only a few customers currently, including the Bibliomation project in Connecticut. One of the two partners holds an MLIS. Bywater offers service within 24 hours for non-emergencies and almost immediate service for emergencies. They could host catalog sites and help libraries with updates at a rate of $200 per library or a (to be determined) number of support calls per $1,000. Calls would be counted by resolution of the problem, instead of contacts --which could be multiple for a single problem. Libraries could divide the VOKAL support calls in the kitty or pay extra individually for additional services (i.e. data import). They can also support training (online, through a database or in person), provide documentation, assist with hardware or software failures and recommend software changes to our local developer. They can do data transfer at 7-10 cents per MARC record and patron imports in bulk. They would not charge for withdrawal of our records from their system if we leave Bywater. Bywater can host 100,000-200,00 records for $1,200 per year in a 2 GB cloud core with nightly back-up kept on and off-site with a snapshot of the system. For an additional cost they can provide a mirror copy. They work with a hosting company that also does their own backups with disaster recovery and guaranteed bandwidth of 3MB per second. They can allow individual libraries to make changes (with consortia permission) and track the changes. If they host wait time for initial response could be up to 5-6 seconds with follow-up at 2 seconds on average.
Stephanie Chase is creating a user guide so that consortium members can have better documentation during the conversion process. Z39.50 will allow VALS to read the Koha catalog(s) directly, so ILLs should be smooth. Everyone is now running version 3.01, Beta 3.1 is due in July and 3.2 is due in the fall.
Having a duplicate local Koha server would make response time faster and allows us to continue working if the larger network goes down. Response time also depends on the network and bandwidth quality so it will vary from library to library. It runs quite slowly on wi-fi. Having a pipeline set up (which allows more packets of info through before a response is required) will also speed up response time.
Those present decided to create a tech committee to make small decisions and make recommendations to the larger VOKAL group. It will consist of 3-5 people with a variety of technology knowledge and library sizes. Richard Pritsky, Kim Peine and Pam Burke volunteered at the meeting, others will be recruited via email/wiki. The tech group will ask the larger group to consider the level of control they want to pass to the group (i.e. deciding which authority record to use),
Membership to VOKAL will open to the next group of libraries when version 3.2 comes out in the fall. Phase 1 libraries will be re-invoiced at that time too. Cost could be 3-4 cents per record or less depending on the number of new members. Koha will hopefully be “plug and play” ready by Spring 2010 for libraries who want to make an easy as possible transition.
The newest changes to Koha are available on the test system and Hinesburg’s live catalog.
notes courtesy Marti Fiske
Meeting Minutes from 27 February 2009
Carpenter-Carse Library, Hinesburg
In attendance: Rebecca from Richmond; Donna from Jericho Town; Marty Reid, State Librarian; Lisa and Shara from St Johnsbury Athenaeum; Deb, Marti, and Kim from Williston; Steve Campbell from the Converse Free Library in Lyme, NH; Deb and Judah from Rutland; Mary White and Pamela Smith from the Howe Library in Hanover, NH; Hilari from Kellogg-Hubbard; Lucinda and Lisa from Norwich; Fran from Milton; Kip from Pierson; Deborah from Warren; Jessica from Waitsfield; Robert Coleburn from Fletcher Free; Stephanie from Stowe; Richard from Hinesburg. By Skype: Bryant Patten, Pam Burke, Jessica Eakin.
We welcomed new Friends and visitors from NH, as well as State Librarian Marty Reid, who spoke briefly about her interest in a statewide unionized catalog, and the need for a new ILL module for VALS.
Warren and the Marlboro School are the next libraries up on the test catalog; Stowe, Randolph, and Norwich to follow.
Richard spoke about the offline content module, which he will put on the wiki; Marti from Williston emphasized her need for handheld scanners to work, and it was agreed Kim would contact Scott to work out any bugs.
The group agreed that the staff side should be simpler, and it was agreed to hand the project over to the designer, Joe Chellman from Shoofly Design, to tweak. He will get back to us with his ideas. It was also agreed that between Joe and Richard, we will implement Jessamyn's changes to the OPAC view (discussed at previous meeting).
The group agreed the reports module needs to be more user friendly and that we should be working toward a manual -- beta testing libraries coming up soon should pay particular attention to this and take good notes!
It was agreed to create a committee for the acquitisitions and serials modules; we are looking for volunteers. Richard suggested looking into biblios.net to replace the cataloging module?
We spoke about VAGUE and agreed to ask them to act as secondary support. Stephanie will email the group to see who would be willing to be contacted by libraries.
Quick note: participants wanted patrons to have patron barcodes be the password.
Our next meeting date was not set; we decided to wait for more libraries to beta test.
Meeting Minutes from December 19, 2008
Carpenter Carse Library, Hinesburg
In attendance: by Skype, David Greenberg from a consortium of MA school libraries, Pam Burke from Marlboro School, Sheila Kearns from DOL, Bonnie and Lisa from St Johnsbury, Chris Kirby from Ilsley, Jessica from Hanover High; in person, Richard and Rose from Hinesburg, Donna from Jericho, Lynne from Randolph, Lisa from Norwich, Marti and Debbie from Williston, Kip from Shelburne, Rebecca from Richmond, Stephanie from Stowe
We welcomed new Friends and interested parties.
Stephanie filled in the group on her discussion with Marty Reid, and Marty's interest in a statewide unionized catalog, which could be open source. The group as a whole agreed that, while they love Koha, the bigger priority for us was supporting a statewide access project. We'll wait to hear what the DOL might like us as a group to do.
Stephanie also spoke to the Vermont Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts about our project, and VAGUE was really excited about our Koha project, and offered their support. Richard, Rose, Lynne and Stephanie will brainstorm a list of ideas for these tech guys.
The Koha install in Hinesburg is going swimmingly. The only issues they have had is with the sounds not being quick enough (ie, the beep when a book gets checked in). Scott's new module for the SLIP printer works great. The other issue has been with overdues -- Richard set his up as a chron job, and it was mistakenly sending out an overdue email notice every day. That's fixed. Jessica reported having trouble with her overdues and she'll be in touch with Richard to fix it.
The staff and patron response to the switch has been good; OPAC searching has been refined (fuzzy still off).
Richard and Rose are investigating the offline circ module. Perhaps this could replace handheld scanners?
We discussed who might be ready to migrate when. Several libraries said they would be ready perhaps in March, and a few others after that. Richard asked for libraries to let him know their "showstoppers" -- what would stop them from migrating? Marti mentioned compatibility with handheld scanners, a "no fuss format," and being able to plug and play" and Lynne mentioned being able to add a record on the fly (a la Follett's temp records).
We looked at the design and usability of the current catalog. Jessamyn West gave some suggestions on info to remove from the basic search and result screens, which would allow us to significantly increase the size of the font. Having more of a difference on the staff side between checking out and patron search was mentioned -- having more of a visual cue -- maybe a different colored background? Stephanie mentioned making the staff view more pretty and asked about the possibility of having a one-search-box staff side, like we have with the OPAC, for circ staff and volunteers, and then a more advanced staff page.
We also discussed extracting our circ data from Follett and weeding current collections.
Homework: look at language changes. Showstoppers for moving over. Anything else? The next meeting date is February 20 at 9:30 am in Hinesburg.
Meeting Minutes from September 26, 2008
Carpenter Carse Library, Hinesburg
In attendance: I forgot to write it down. Whoops!
Important: for homework for our next meeting, everyone needs to look at the test catalog and make suggestions for language changes!
The programmer has completed the check in/check out by title module
Rose will put up the server specs as well as the info to ask for if you want remote hosting -- if you will be purchasing your own server, be sure to follow these specs and have your server shipped directly to Richard for set up
There was an issue with the covers showing up -- Richard was going to make sure they were on
We reviewed the modules:
- Cataloging. Good module; libraries will be able to drop BookWhere (has a built in MARC utility). Easy to add temp records (for example, ILL). Questions arose regarding: authority records, inventory process, PHD remote scanner compatibility, and the serials module
- Circulation. Will report back at December meeting. Working on figuring out the overdues process. A self-checkout module comes with Koha -- set up is in the parameters.
- Reports. Overall, people seem pleased with the reports options. Richard suggested we decide on some specific customized reports (3 or 4) to create as a default.
- OPAC. Marti wants to see the subject results sifted -- ie, not just lumped by "dogs," but with the ability to refine to "dogs--training " -- plus, apparently, the hyperlinks were not working. It was felt that the search is still too fuzzy. Is there a way to order the results by relevance? A "Did you mean...?" feature is still needed. The Browse Shelf feature was not working, and it was decided that, while it is cool, it should be turned off because it is so resource-heavy.
It was felt that the most important things to work on were:
- subject search
- patron-friendly RSS documentation
- Icon -- they are .ico files. Big items from item types are wanted:
- book
- large print
- magazines and newspapers
- kits
- cassette
- CD
- music
- DVD
- VHS
- Playaway
- downloadable audio
- Spiffy up the front page -- very easy, nice template for news; remove the WorldCat/Google/online bookstore info
- Patron account should time out (ie, 2 minutes with no activity)
- Print/email function from LISTS -- you can from a cart
- Other patron issues: we wanted the items that were lost to remain on a patron's record until resolved, but not to show up in catalog (I think). We also wanted to tie fines and lost fees to a patron record, even if the item is gone.
It was suggested that the programmer could work on the list issue.
People felt that the vokal stylesheet should feature icons and text in a larger size.
It was agreed that someone from each committee could lead a training session in the spring -- a train the trainers type setup.
For the next meeting, we agreed to think about the time frame of the project as well as the language issue.
Meeting Minutes from June 20, 2008
Carpenter Carse Library, Hinesburg
In attendance: Rose and Richard from Hinesburg; Jessica from Waitsfield; Deb, Kim, & Marti from Williston; Lisa from Norwich; Kip from Shelburne; Lynne from Randolph; Stephanie from Stowe; Deb from Warren; Sheila from the Department of Libraries; Susan Glickman from NECI; Robert from Burlington; Gail Weymouth from Killington (by Skype)
Participants discussed:
- The project timeline -- participants should have a version for beta testing in the fall
- Hiring the programmer -- we may use a programmer we have already been in touch with; Richard will be having a conference call on Monday, June 23. It was decided that we would hire the programmer on a project-by-project basis with a pool of hours, essentially acting as a "back up" for Richard and Rose
- Server specs (Richard will post) -- Richard will look into bulk purchase pricing
- We discussed back up options -- Richard suggests backing up onto a thumb drive; Richard will create an automatic backup job and strongly suggests all the servers have a UPS hooked up to them to naturally shut down the server when there is a power outage
- Richard did offer to have libraries remotely host their catalogs on his server
- What tech support is included as part of the fee:
- documentation
- if you purchase or provide a server that meets Richard's specs, he and Rose will pre-load Koha onto it and also some of your data (Richard -- can you be specific about what you want to tackle?)
- 5 hours of additional support
- group meetings and group level support
- Design work -- participants looked over a variety of redesigned web sites and shiny new integrated catalogs. The consensus from those discussions were:
- no pull down-menus for patrons; radio buttons only
- sleek, simple, and yet not spare design
- menus to left or right for further browsing or to limit results
- choose more than one limit
- For search results:
- we like all the info on our default search, but more clear
- like place a hold option right in returned results
- checked in/out info with availability
- call number
- each copy in and individual line (like detailed data on the copy hit list)
- info about the number of holds
- book covers
Committees are responsible for getting together and meeting (remotely or not) over the summer. We will meet again in September.
Meeting Minutes from May 29, 2008
Brown Public Library, Northfield
In attendance: Rose and Richard from Hinesburg; Jessica from Waitsfield; Deb, Kim, & Marti from Williston; Lucinda and Lisa from Norwich; Kip from Shelburne; Lynne from Randolph; Stephanie and Megan from Stowe; Helen from Goddard College; Amanda from Winooski; Deb from Warren; Sheila from the Department of Libraries; Jessamyn West from Orange County/Tunbridge
Some notes:
- the consortium has their tax ID#; please contact Stephanie if your finance department needs a W9.
- Richard will put up basic server specs, as well as what he is buying for Hinesburg
- the group agreed to pay for Richard's registration at Koha Camp in South Berwick, Maine on July 2 & 3, and Marti will contact the gentleman organizing it to see if he will host a camp up in VT
- the group agreed to allow libraries and individuals who are interested in the project but not ready to transition or not wanting to beta test to be a "Friend of Koha." No agreement was made on the cost of being a "Friend" -- $100 or more? -- but all agreed participants could have access to the listserv, Richard's test server, and come to meetings.
- the group agreed the minimum participation fee would be $250.
- we agreed on the name vokal -- Vermont Organization of Koha Automated Libraries
We welcomed Winooski, Killington, and the Marlboro School to the group, and Helen Linda from Goddard, who attended.
Today we:
looked closely at the reports people gave for their "homework" assigned at the last meeting. Lucinda commented on a steep learning curve, and Kip reported some issues with the searching capabilities of the OPAC. Kip and Marti pointed out patron access issues in terms of language and formatting.
We agreed that usability testing and patron focus groups would be essential elements of the beta testing.
Several committees were formed -- see the vokal committees page for a list and to sign up
Next meeting: Friday, June 20 at 9:30 at Carpenter-Carse in Hinesburg. For homework -- visit library catalogs and web sites you like and post the URL to the design suggestions page.
Meeting Minutes from April 18, 2008
Stowe Free Library
In attendance: Rose and Sue from Hinesburg; Donna from Jericho Town; Jessica from Waitsfield; Deb & Marti from Williston; Lucinda and Lisa from Norwich; Kip from Shelburne; Amy and Lynne from Randolph; Stephanie from Stowe
Today we:
Left our computers at home and looked in depth at what we wanted for features in the Vermont version of Koha. These wishes are reflected in the updated Wish List and with the addition of the Koha Questions page, where people can post questions or issues particular to Koha.
We also discussed the increased work for Richard and Rose since we have added more libraries -- all of us participating at this point are asked to look at their budgets and see where we can all find some funds ($50? $100? $200?) to contribute to Carpenter-Carse's personnel budget prior to July 1. Let Stephanie know what you can contribute and she'll make up a GMLC invoice for you.
We all took on assignments to look very closely at specific areas of Koha:
- Deb will look at the cataloging module
- Norwich will review the areas and questions under the Patron Maintenance section of the Wish List
- Randolph will look at the reports
- Lynne will look at the ILL module
- Marti will look at the patron side of account
- Stephanie will look into the issue of Amazon book covers
- Kip will look at the OPAC, with a focus on the language and making suggestions for changes
- Richard and Rose will look at the wish list and highlight the things they can easily do or that they know are already included
The next meeting will be Thursday, May 29 at 9:30, location TBA. Everyone's homework is to play with Richard's version 3 (is there anything we can do about the speed?) and come with concrete suggestions for additions, things to change, words to change...
Meeting Minutes from February 15, 2008
Carpenter-Carse Library, Hinesburg
In attendance: Rose and Richard from Hinesburg; Donna from Jericho Town; Jessica Eakin, Hanover High School (NH); Jessica from Waitsfield; Deborah from Warren; Carla, Deb & Marti from Williston; Lucinda and Lisa from Norwich; Sheila Kearns, DOL; Lynne from Randolph; Stephanie from Stowe
Today we:
Used MARCEdit
Modified the bulkmarcimport.pl script
Imported a portion of our collection records to Koha using bulkmarcimport
*the need to modify the script will not be necessary with the new version of Koha, set to be released in beta in March
*this new version (Zebra) will have a faster search, better MARC support, and more options for reviews and covers
Richard and Rose prepared a handout on these steps. Look for this to get posted to the wiki, http://openilsvt.pbwiki.org/
Discussed next steps and define goals – the collected group discussed formalizing the group according to a timeline and what to charge for fees.
This Koha project will most likely end up under the umbrella of the Green Mountain Library Consortium, with the following timeline:
1. Development and beta testing – a fee, based on the number of items in your collection (and most likely between 2 and 3 cents per record), will ensure participation in the features, look, and development of the Vermont-based version of Koha as well as access to the catalog in beta form in late summer or early fall 2008. This also includes the expertise and support of Richard and Rose through the group process. The fee will cover an 18 month period, from January 2008 to June/July 2009.
2. Beta-tested catalog will be available for free in Summer 2009 to any Vermont library that is interested. This will most likely be in the form of support documentation and a cd. Actual IT support will most likely need to come from an individual library’s current tech support.
3. Summer 2009, the project will move to a consortium-based format, remotely hosted, and provide support, most likely through Richard and/or Rose, as well as “bells and whistles” – think LibraryThing for Libraries, ChiliFresh, etc. The consortium fee will be set at that time and include support and access to these add-ons. This fee should be significantly less than the original, 18 month development fee.
Some questions came up around barcodes for Koha. The barcode should be a Code 39, mod 43 barcode with 14 digits. The final digit should be a check digit.
Next time (March 28, 2009 in Hinesburg):
Patron fields and CSV Edit
Development priorities
Upgrade to newest version?
Homework:
Play with your Koha system and the installed records
Add to the Wish List – features you want to see, quirks in the basic Koha you want to change
January 11, 2008
In attendance: Rose and Richard from Carpenter-Carse; Debbie, Marti, and Carla from Williston; Fran from Milton; Sheila from DOL; Lynne from Randolph; Deborah from Warren; Donna from Jericho Town; Stephanie from Stowe; and joining us for the first time – Chris from Middlebury; Lisa and Lucinda from Norwich; Rebecca from Richmond, and Jessica from Waitsfield.
Our mission for the meeting was as follows:
- To see what Carpenter-Carse has done so far with Koha
- To explain how to change parameters specific to your library
- To explain how to import MARC records
- Q&A
An exciting (for some) addition to the Koha offerings was the ability to include reviews and book covers through Amazon's Associate program. As with LibraryThing, when a patron searches inside the pages of a book, they will be taken out of your site and into the Amazon store. If patrons did purchase a book, your library would receive a small donation. This Amazon Associate program is the only free program to provide covers independent of your catalog.
We spent time going through the different parameters. Some of these will be discussed at a later time – for example, the acquistions module and the impact this catalog may have on ILL services. Richard and Rose created an excellent handout discussing the important parameters in depth.
Richard pointed out that you do not need to have a MARC record to use Koha – it is all based on databases.
Also discussed – inexpensive barcode scanners abound, and Richard found his for less than $100 on buy.com; you will want to hang on to your Follett server for a little while, as all your historic circ data will be there and will be necessary for weeding purposes, etc.
Richard will put together a list of minimum standards for our “real servers” -- some of us using very old machines might need to upgrade our boxes. Sheila will post this info on the wiki and tell people how to find out.
For February's meeting, scheduled for the 15th at 9am, please be sure to do the following:
-
Bring your Koha box (ie, the CPU only with Debian Linux and Koha installed, and your parameters set up)
-
An exported file of your patron records
-
An exported file of a portion of your material records (be sure to export by material type and remember that it is not necessary to bring all your records)
-
Sheila will bring exported data for the non-automated libraries; those libraries should bring a small number of patron records to input by hand for training purposes
-
Something for our potluck luncheon – although not sweets (that's Hinesburg), and not drinks (that's Lynne), and not paper products (that's Sheila). Remember we have folks who do not eat meat!
We will be importing these records into our systems at our next meeting, and updating some of our MARC records to change which field some of the data is stored in.
Don't forget to keep track of the items we want in this catalog – our Wish List!
30 November 2007
Attending: Lynne Gately, Randolph; Fran Ferro, Milton; Marty Reid, Colchester; Deborah Kahn, Warren; Carla, Debbie Roderer, and Marty Fiske from Williston; Stephanie Chase, Stowe; Donna Malinowski, Jericho; Bryan Patten, Orange East Supervisory Union; Sheila Kearns, Department of Libraries; Richard Pritsky and Rosalie Carlson, Hinesburg
Visit the wiki for this project at http://openilsvt.pbwiki.com for more information. We will all be able to contribute to the wiki once we have the password from Sheila.
Of particular importance would be the resources currently listed under “sidebar,” such as the worksheets of information you need to know about your current ILS in order to migrate.
At today’s meeting at the Carpenter-Carse Library in Hinesburg, Richard and Rose led us through a workshop to:
Rose has created a series of detailed help sheets for the installation process, which she will forward on to Sheila to put up on the wiki.
Things to remember:
-
You don’t need a new server or a new computer to run this Linux server – an old computer will do (see October 31 minutes)
-
This server will run concurrently with your current ILS server for the test period next summer and fall, and you can set it up now to play with – there will be no impact on your current catalog
-
This install will wipe your computer’s hard drive clean. Be sure to use an old computer that does not have anything on it you need, or be very sure to partition your drive at the very beginning of the install process.
We again discussed the timeline for the project, and emphasized that participating libraries should find some funds to contribute to the programming pot for next July. Several libraries from Chittenden County were in attendance, reflecting the interest the Homecard-participating libraries have in being able to see each other’s collections and circulation status with ease. While the project as a whole is moving towards running as a consortia catalog (FY10), for this first year (FY08-09), libraries will be individually hosting their Koha-based catalog. The Chittenden County libraries may very well be an exception.
We also discussed how Koha can do some cool things – tying a child’s record to a parent’s, for example, and that the new version pulls information in (such as book covers and reviews) from Amazon.
Our next workshop meeting is scheduled for Friday, January 11 from 9am to 2pm at the Carpenter-Carse Library in Hinesburg. Bring your Linux box from workshop one with you. You will also need to:
-
- Bring information on your system policies, such as your patron types, loan periods, item types, etc – look at the worksheets on the wiki for more guidelines, and look for a set of worksheets specific to this project available around Christmas
- Ask your IT person if they can program in Perl or MySQL and if they have experience with Linux
The following meeting (February?), we will probably be loading test patron and collection data. If you’re not currently automated, you may want to look into purchasing or printing barcodes and barcoding a small section of your collection in order to better participate in this workshop.
Oct 31 meeting
Goals
Switch to an open source ILS to gain control over catalog functions
Members serve as the knowledge base – we are our own tech support
Create a wiki for step-by-step start up instructions/user manual
Time frame
November 07 – June 08
development & testing of library back end
participating libraries pool whatever money possible to help pay for Richard & Rose's time
install workshops to keep member libraries on the same page
create a memorandum of understanding for payment, etc
July 08 – October 09
Participating libraries pool together $1500 each to pay for design, overall programming, etc
Design patron and staff interfaces
Pick “go live” dates
End of 2008
Discontinue use of current catalog and switch to fully using Koha, with each member library
running their own catalog
2009
Possible move to catalog functioning as a consortium
Add in “Web 2.0” type features – Library Thing for Libraries?
Workshops
Workshop One: Creating your Linux server (Date TBD)
Bring:
- an old CPU – not brand new! Look for 20GB or so hard drive, at least 256MB RAM – a good box would be one that ran Windows 2000 or XP
- a monitor
- a keyboard
- a mouse
- info from your current catalog --
- item types
- patron types
- loan periods
- fines and late fees
- how many renewals allowed
- type of barcode
- Library of Congress code (three characters, ie H58)
- other information from the system setup on Follett – see Sheila's migration worksheets and spreadsheets
- list of problems to solve with your current ILS and/or services to add lunch
We'll complete:
- Install of Debian Linux (will clean off old hard drive), which will run the server
- Apache, the web server
- MySQL, the database server
- Perl modules – Perl is the language that Koha is written in, and interprets the pieces of information queried from MySQL
- installation of other utilities
- Koha, the actual ILS
- discussion of wants & needs; next workshop day and topic
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.