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Salve!<br>
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Rather than take a decision based on your current conditions alone, I think it is wiser to think on future happenings. I must admit wondering about a manual system, too. However, you probably circulate more than my last Library did, at least when I first got there.<br>
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That being said, circulation is only a small part of what is done about the Library. The time savings I enjoyed at the end of the year on inventory taking was probably enough to warrant Koha. Added to a *wonderful* OPAC, it was well worth the plodding along. Patrons remarked with frequency that they found things that they wouldn't have when the OPAC was up and running.<br>
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>I will say, that despite its small size, using an OPAC like Koha would allow us to potentially serve patrons <br>
>who live across a wide geographic area, i.e. across South Africa. Also, we’re thinking a Koha <br>
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I am certain that in past there were Koha users in South Africa. I can remember fielding a query about monks that kept their books in several separate locations. Poke about the brush and see what you might find; it might surprise you!<br>
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installation <br>
>might encourage collaborative activity as multiple organisations learn to share an ILS, and make a wider <br>
>range of library resources available to respective members, and perhaps eventually to non-members or <br>
>other libraries via inter-library loans. Perhaps Koha could help us make a valuable resource more <br>
>accessible to society.<br>
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*nod* This is certainly well worth turning over in your mind, as well as discussing with your colleagues.<br>
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>Finally, as a non-librarian myself, my understanding is that one of the key qualities of an ILS like Koha is <br>
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If you work in a Library, you're a Librarian. I like to draw the line at degreed and non-degreed if one must get one's feathers in a ruffle about pieces of paper.<br>
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I was going to ask for clarification, though. When you had said that you were on a unique method of cataloguing, did you perhaps mean a unique method of classification? It's isn't terribly rare to find the latter, but I'd love to know more about the former. So, do you have a system of putting books on the shelf and then later locating them that is out of the ordinary OR are your methods of describing the material at hand divergent? (It could be both...)<br>
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>its ability to point the user to appropriate books, etc. according to the need – i.e. strong search features <br>
>build into the software (I assume Koha has this). Often our students find books by simply looking on the <br>
>shelf, then choosing ones that look interesting. However, more advanced library users may find first-rate <br>
>materials through a more abstract process of heading to the computer for some leads.<br>
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*nod* You'll find the Browse by Date Added feature to be quite nice, then. I'd leap to the conclusion that some of your users might only want new volumes.<br>
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Cheers,<br>
Brooke
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