- Koha - lists.katipo.co.nz

REMINDER: next general IRC meeting tomorrow, 5 August 2009
by Galen Charlton 04 Aug '09

04 Aug '09

Hi, The next general IRC meeting of the Koha project will take place on 5 August 2009 at 10:00 UTC+0. The agenda currently includes the following items: 1. Update on Roadmap to 3.2 2. Update on Koha 3.0 Roadmap 3. Follow-up on actions from General IRC Meeting 1 July 2009 4. Management of KohaSocialNetworks 5. Tutorials for new contributors To propose additional agenda items, please go to the wiki page for this meeting located at <http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=meetingnotes09aug05>. As a reminder, the IRC meetings take place on the #koha channel on the IRC server irc.katipo.co.nz. Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton gmcharlt(a)gmail.com

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Re: [Koha] Support for Koha
by Weinheimer Jim 04 Aug '09

04 Aug '09

This has been an enlightening thread concerning the nature of open source. Open source is still a relatively new business model that has a few bumps in the road and certain misunderstandings, including some misunderstandings of my own. I found this article in ComputerWorld very useful to get a better grasp of both sides of the issue that I would like to suggest to others: "Does the open-source development model work for business users? By Todd R. Weiss March 5, 2008" http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&tax… First, I am one of those koha users who has used the open source version for several years. I guess I can be called a developer even though I haven't participated in anything because I have concentrated on improving my own koha catalog to make it do what I want. Since I lack a lot of the "higher" computing abilities, I rely on a colleague who is very interested in Linux and Perl. We also run our own "server" (actually, a spare, very small and weak computer that nobody else on campus wanted). For me, the main point of the open source model is that I can make the system work the way I think it should so as to help my patrons in the ways I think are best. It doesn't mean that I am right, but I can try things out. So far, it has worked pretty well for me. Because it's open source, I can provide certain functions available in no other catalogs. This may mean including javascripts or style sheets or whatever, without having to ask the owners of the software for permission, or having to wait for them to get around to it. I can just try something, see if it works or not, correct any problems, and I can always "tweak" things to make them better. This allows for a freedom that libraries who subscribe to proprietary catalogs do not have, since they have to wait for the company to get around to it and then, take whatever they get. So for me, if I or a student or faculty member has an idea, I can try it out immediately, we can see if it works at all, where the problems lie, and fix them. Intellectually, it can be quite exciting! To me, this is the real promise of open source. It isn't so much saving money (although my institution has saved a lot); open source means *developing* tools that people can use. I emphasize "developing" because the tools will never be finished. I think this is a 180 degree change from the normal idea of instituting a library catalog, which is seen as having to learn yet another fixed machine, where you will hear questions such as: "How do I do ...?" "How do you search ...?" With open source, the discussions are (or should be) more like, "I'd like to ..." "How about ...." or "I hate the way this works, let's try ..." Sometimes we have problems that a host company would solve. For example, we have in the past year been deluged by referrer spam from porn sites that blow out the log files (since the server we use is so small), and my IT colleague and I have had to come up with some innovative ideas to solve the issues. But we did, and it was an interesting exercise. I have been one of those bad open source user/developers since I have not contributed my code to the general community. This isn't because I want to keep it to myself--quite the opposite, but I simply run out of time and energy to do so. Still, there have been a couple of libraries where I have shared privately and I like to think I have helped. Now that I have gained some (rather painful!) experience, I am trying to modularize my additions and in this way perhaps I can participate a bit more. I want to give three cheers for LibLime, who has been so important in the development of Koha and to Joshua himself for such untiring commitment to it. Without that commitment, I am sure that Koha would be much poorer today and therefore, much less used and with far less of a future. James (Jim) Weinheimer Director of Library and Information Services The American University of Rome Rome, Italy

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Re: [Koha] Support for Koha
by BWS Johnson 04 Aug '09

04 Aug '09

Salvete! Nau te rourou, naku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi. See, Chris is civilising me slowly but surely. :) It would be nice to have this as a byline on Koha pages or graphics. >No Cheryl, this is not at all the way the Koha Community operates as a >rule. I feel the same, and I would love to have this in a planning document. I think it is crucial to get to voting on some mission and vision statements so that we can point to guidance and that people feel included in the project. We need to know where we're going. >There are plenty of other vendors who are prepared to honour the >licensing conditions designed to keep Koha the open source project it >was released as and should always be. Choose another vendor if you are >uncomfortable about a vendors choice to hold back code or not >contribute to the good of the community; there are plenty of good >alternatives out there. In diversity, both the project and the ecosystem thrive. This is not something to take as an attack, it is a suggestion to take to heart, at least as I read it. Again, thank you HLT for your initial contribution. This would not exist at all without you. Yes Josh, LibLime has contributed. Thank you for it. I don't believe anyone has suggested otherwise. It is very hard for anyone to provide you with any sort of tip or feedback that is different from what you hold in your head without you taking offence. The minutes reached me as well through the pixelly moccasin trail that is the Librarian's realm. I felt that it wouldn't be quite fair to circulate them myself since I wasn't in the room. I also felt that the very act of putting them on list would make you overreact, and I am unhappy to see that a very neutral comment did the same anyhow. I also feel as though I am not the Guardian and that Rachel should be speaking to this more than I should. I don't think anyone on this list or otherwise wants to see LibLime fail. I do think that almost no one wants to go back to the same situation that they had with a proprietary vendor. This indefinite withholding of code is a step backwards. You have control of your company and you could chose to do something different from others. Solitary control just won't happen, and shouldn't. Creation of closed lists and a second tier of membership are not in the spirit of the project or open source. There are a lot of unanswered questions in that conversation, and I still feel as though there are many mutually beneficial unexplored options out there. This seems like the sort of project that needs an incubator to foster start ups neutrally. My one bead, because I am keeping half for now, Brooke

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MARC record import
by Cab Vinton 04 Aug '09

04 Aug '09

I learned from a colleague at another library today that their system (Winnebago) accepts MARC records in text file format. This would be a big time-saver as it would allow catalogers to simply copy & paste records from other systems into a text file, before importing into Koha. How difficult would this be to implement for Koha? A sample record follows below, from the Minuteman Library Network in Massachusetts. Cab Vinton, Director Sanbornton Public Library Sanbornton, NH LEADER 00000cam 2200397Ia 4500 001 233216064 003 OCoLC 005 20081215093140.0 008 080703s2008 nyu d 000 1 eng d 020 9780739494752 020 0739494759 035 (OCoLC)233216064 040 KKV|cKKV|dWIQ|dIUI|dMLN 043 n-us-nj 049 MLNM 050 04 PS3555.V2126|bF43 2008 082 04 813/.54|222 100 1 Evanovich, Janet. 245 10 Fearless fourteen /|cJanet Evanovich. 250 Doubleday large print home library ed. 260 New York :|bSt. Martin's Press,|cc2008. 300 416 p. (large print) ;|c22 cm. 520 Personal vendettas, hidden treasure, and a monkey named Carl will send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most explosive adventure yet. 650 0 Plum, Stephanie (Fictitious character)|vFiction. 650 0 Women bounty hunters|vFiction. 650 0 Bail bond agents|zNew Jersey|zTrenton|vFiction. 650 0 Bank robberies|vFiction. 650 0 Large type books. 650 0 Detective and mystery stories. 650 0 Humorous stories. 651 0 Trenton (N.J.)|vFiction. 856 42 |3Contributor biographical information|uhttp://www.loc.gov /catdir/enhancements/fy0834/2008017664-b.html 856 42 |3Publisher description|uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/ enhancements/fy0834/2008017664-d.html

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Problem adding book with non ascii characters in title
by Jarosław Prokopowski 04 Aug '09

04 Aug '09

Hello Friends, I want to use Koha for our Dhrama center's library. I have installed Koha version 3.01.00.037 (from git) on Debian Lenny with no problems. Configuration: - MARC21 - Zebra on - Database has UTF8 encoding When i'm adding a book without polish characters everything is fine but when i try to add a book with some polish character (non ascii) following error appears in the web browser: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Koha error The following fatal error has occurred: Wide character in null operation at /usr/share/perl5/MARC/Charset/Table.pm line 96. ApacheServer version: Apache/2.2.9 (Debian) Server built: Jul 14 2009 20:03:28 Koha3.01.00.037 Koha DB3.0100037 MySQLmysql Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.51a, for debian-linux-gnu (i486) using readline 5.2 OSLinux belzebubek 2.6.26-2-686 #1 SMP Sun Jun 21 04:57:38 UTC 2009 i686 Perl5.010000 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Can you please help me to solve the problem? Greetings Jarek

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Get the firstname alone
by celestialcitizen＠gmail.com 04 Aug '09

04 Aug '09

Hi, When a user logs in to Koha system his first name and surrname are retrieved from the sql database and are displayed on the page Now I want to customize it so that only the firstname is displayed. Can anyone tell me which part of the code contains this functionality and how do I change it to suit my needs Regards Anand

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Share your Koha site
by Nicole Engard 03 Aug '09

03 Aug '09

Hi all, I had a librarian ask me today what schools were using Koha, so I went first to koha.org and clicked on Showcase. I came up with 6 Koha school libraries - I then went to lib-web-cats and did a search and found 189. My point? Share information about Koha system with us all - it's a great way to get traffic to your site and a great way to promote open source. So if your site isn't in the showcase - add it: http://koha.org/showcase (remember to include an address so it's on the map and remember to change the status in the top right to submit it to be published). If it's not in lib-web-cats - add it: http://www.librarytechnology.org/libwebcats/index.pl Both of these are worldwide directories so anyone can add. --- Nicole C. Engard Open Source Evangelist, LibLime (888) Koha ILS (564-2457) ext. 714 nce(a)liblime.com AIM/Y!/Skype: nengard http://liblime.com http://blogs.liblime.com/open-sesame/

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How are you using WITHDRAWN toggle?
by Mickey Coalwell 03 Aug '09

03 Aug '09

In re: Bug 3387 <http://bugs.koha.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=3387> "Withdrawn" status currently blocks checkout from occurring. It seems to me that "Withdrawn" status should also block check-in, prompting staff user with a message "ITEM IS WITHDRAWN." The reason this is important: For some libraries, LOST items older than x months cannot be returned, as a matter of policy. The replacement cost is billed to the patron. Items LOST longer than x months will be manually given a WITHDRAWN status by staff, in addition to LOST. This is intended to prevent check-in of LOST items older than x months. But if WITHDRAWN status allows check-in, then the Returned Item functionality in Fines will credit the account with the replacement cost. This should ONLY happen for items that are LOST, but NOT for items that are LOST/WITHDRAWN. I can't think of a situation in which Koha should legitimately allow a WITHDRAWN item to check in, so I'm reporting this as a bug rather than an enhancement; however, I'm open to discussion. :) ------- /Comment #1 <http://bugs.koha.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=3387#c1> From Owen Leonard <mailto:oleonard@myacpl.org> 2009-07-02 22:02:03 / ------- I don't have an opinion either way, but I want to point out that at the moment there is no concrete definition of what "withdrawn" means in Koha. Some libraries may already be using it in a way that conflicts with your description. I hope folks will chime in, but it might be worth taking the issue to the Koha list for wider discussion. -- Mickey Coalwell, Library Development Consultant Northeast Kansas Library System 4317 W. 6th Street Lawrence, KS 66049 Phone: 785-838-4090 Fax: 785-838-3989 Toll Free: 1-888-296-6963

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Re: [Koha] DBD Mysql Error problem solved on Debian Installation
by Marc Nürnberger 03 Aug '09

03 Aug '09

Dear Sunita, Thanks a lot for this nice follow up! Are you now able to successfully reboot your test systems? I immediately ran at test with Debian 5.0.2 and Koha 3.00.03 this morning. Thanks to your hints, I found that there seems to be a be a typo in the debian-lenny.packages file (KOHA 3.00.03), it should probably read: libparams-util-perl instead of: libparam-util-perl ############################################## Further problems I encountered in attempt #1: If you choose to install the described mysql and apache2packages using synaptic, there seems to be a problem with apache2-mpm-worker that will get removed if you choose to install libapache2-mod-php5. Neglected this and removed the following packages from debian-lenny.packages, since they get already installed manually via synaptic when installing apache2, libapache2-mod-perl2, libapache2-mod-php5, libapache2-mod-python, mysql-admin, mysql-client, mysql-server, libdbd-mysql, libdbd-sqlite3-perl, libmysqlclient15-dev: apache2 apache2-mpm-worker gcc libdbd-mysql-perl (2x) libdbd-sqlite3-perl libdbi-perl libmysqlclient15-dev libtimedate-perl mysql-server Had to additionally cpan without force: GD 2.39 GD::Barcode::UPCE JSON PDF::Reuse::Barcode BUT: make test still lead to the DBD driver Error: t/Circulation_barcodedecode....NOK 1/16 # Failed test 'use C4::Circulation;' # at t/Circulation_barcodedecode.t line 10. # Tried to use 'C4::Circulation'. # Error: DBD driver has not implemented the AutoCommit attribute at /usr/lib/perl5/DBI.pm line 690. # Compilation failed in require at /home/koha/koha-3.00.03/blib/PERL_MODULE_DIR/C4/Circulation.pm line 25. ############################################## Attempt #2: Started off installing the same packages as above via synaptic: apache2, libapache2-mod-perl2, libapache2-mod-php5, libapache2-mod-python, mysql-admin, mysql-client, mysql-server, libdbd-mysql, libdbd-sqlite3-perl, libmysqlclient15-dev. Then I choose (for lack of ideas) to install all the other packages from debian-lenny.packages also using synaptic as well - this lead to only one complaint: libgd2-noxpm-dev could not be installed. Ignoring this, I had the first time a good "make test" - no DBD driver error! So I proceeded and ran the web installer with success. BUT on first reboot thereafter, once again I could not access koha anymore: DBD driver has not implemented the AutoCommit attribute at /usr/lib/perl5/DBI.pm line 690.Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/koha/lib/C4/Circulation.pm line 25. Best wishes, Marc

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Slow running biblio entry
by Amaravati Library 03 Aug '09

03 Aug '09

We have entered about 8000 books onto KOHA but when we try to add more has started running very slowly in each field with 5 -10 second delays whilst the field is filled with the data typed for it. The computer is on an ordinary PC and has plenty of memory. No other programmes running on the computer are effected. Any ideas how to fix this? Many thanks, Caroline -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Slow-running-biblio-entry-tp24785686p24785686.html Sent from the Koha - Discuss mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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