<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>Lora,
<BR>Sounds great! Please send the Link!
<BR>
<BR>Thanks Ed!
<BR>
<BR><BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Subj: <B>RE: [Koha] Re: marc and stuff!</B>
<BR>Date: 5/24/01 1:49:16 PM US Mountain Standard Time
<BR><I>From: Lora@wfftrc.org (Lora Morgaine)
<BR>Sender: koha-admin@lists.katipo.co.nz
<BR>To: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz ('koha@lists.katipo.co.nz ')
<BR>CC: Deirdre@wfftrc.org (Deirdre McDonough)
<BR></I>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>Hi everyone,
<BR>
<BR>I've been lurking on this list for a while but would like to put in my two
<BR>cents.
<BR>
<BR>I work for a non-profit organization called the Technology Resource Center,
<BR>based in Seattle, Washington. We try to find ways to help alleviate the
<BR>digital divide, and are very involved in libraries in the USA and in Latin
<BR>America.
<BR>
<BR>A small group of us have been working on making KOHA compatible with MARC
<BR>records and in general with libraries in North and South America. We are at
<BR>the point where we successfully import MARC records in full, and allow
<BR>editing on over 200 most-utilized fields and subfields. One can also create
<BR>a new MARC record, but cannot export records yet.
<BR>
<BR>We also altered the database structure significantly to import successfully
<BR>all fields, subfields, and indicators, and also changed the OPAC interface.
<BR>It was rewritten in PHP for more flexibility, as well. Because we have
<BR>changed so much of the system, we renamed ours to "OpenBook" - but it's
<BR>still an open-source system with code available to everyone. Our ultimate
<BR>goal is to help small libraries who wish to automate or move to less
<BR>expensive automation options.
<BR>
<BR>Now, that said, it's not quite ready yet for public input and
<BR>troubleshooting. We will be ready for beta testing as of the US ALA
<BR>convention, on June 15 2001. I can send the link to the OPAC to anyone who
<BR>wants to try that out though. It does have problems still, we know, and
<BR>we're working on them.
<BR>
<BR>If you have questions or etc, please let me know. We give full credit to the
<BR>folks in New Zealand - without their structure this never would have come to
<BR>completion! We just hoped to change it for the N. American MARC standards in
<BR>cataloging, and change the OPAC to be more like US-based OPACs.
<BR>
<BR>Right now, we only have OPAC and cataloging modules done. Circulation will
<BR>be forthcoming around September, possibly a bit later.
<BR>
<BR>I hope that the members of this list will be interested in trying out the
<BR>OPAC and doing testing on cataloging for us...
<BR>
<BR>Sincerely,
<BR>
<BR>Lora Morgaine
<BR>TRC
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
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