- Koha - lists.katipo.co.nz

From the Kaitiaki
by Pat Eyler 27 Sep '02

27 Sep '02

Sep 27, 2002 To the Koha community Welcome, This bi-week's edition of my newsletter is a bit longer than normal. I think this is an accurate reflection of the increased pace of work being done on Koha. We've got new developers working on Koha, new libraries investigating Koha, new projects within Koha, and more public awareness of Koha. I hope that I can do justice to all of the efforts that are going on. As usual, if I managed to miss something, or if I get something wrong, my apologies. Please don't hesitate to contact me at kaitiaki(a)koha.org if you have any questions, concerns, or large piles of money you'd like to give away ;) 1.2 Work is moving along on 1.2.3, with RC14 having been recently released. Steve has also made several improvements to the Koha Demo CD. It is now capable of running a client to demonstrate Koha on a single box. We're still looking for testers and feedback. If you haven't tried the CD yet, please give it a whirl and let us know what you think. It would be nice to be able to clean up any problems, and to develop some solid documentation for it, but we'll need everyones help. 1.4 1.3.0 has been released! This is a major step in the development of the 1.4 series. For the first time, general developers and testers can start making use of the expanded API available with Koha. At this point, there are no user visible changes but new 1.4 centric tools should start appearing in 1.3 releases soon. Please note, the 1.3 series is *not* intended for production use. It is alpha software and should be treated as such. On the other hand, if you have the hardware and time, we'd love to hear about your experiences testing 1.3.0 or any of the 1.3 series releases. Documentation Andrew Aranson is a new contributor and has been working on developer level documentation (called POD). Ewan Tempero is also working on developer level documentation, his efforts have been targeted at developing use cases describing the expected behavior of various programs. As Andrew and Ewan produce more and more information, it will make it significantly easier for new developers to get started with Koha. Nicholas Rosasco has also stepped up the pace on his documentation efforts. He's getting ready to make another release and has asked for final comments from anyone who's read it. (If you're listed in the credits, he's especially interested in hearing about any mistakes or typos.) Translations We've just had a volunteer from South Africa step up to work on Koha. With the recent move toward Open Source Software by the South African government (see http://www.oss.gov.za/ for more details), we hope to see users, translators, and developers coming on-board. The french Koha list is becoming much more active. There are now over thirty users on the list, and email is flying around at an astounding rate. If you're interested in translations, please get involved. The following groups are currently active: French translation fr.koka.org German translation de.koha.org To subscribe to a mailing list for one of these languages, please send email to koha-subscribe@<language site> (koha-subscribe(a)fr.koha.org for example). Bear in mind, discussion on these lists is in the native language of the list, please respect this. We're hoping to get es.koha.org and za.koha.org running soon. General translation discussions should occur (in english) on the koha-translate mailing list hosted at sourceforge. This list also receives documents to be translated (such as this one). If you want to translate a Koha announcement, please contact the author. If you want to translate one of these newsletters, please do. I ask only that you send me a copy of the translation so that I can post it to an appropriate website. Community Last week we got a mention in the Biblio-tech monthly review (see http://www.biblio-tech.com/ for the story). Rosalie Blake (of HLT) presented a talk on OSS and Koha to her local library association. We seem to be cropping up in the press more and more often. If you're at all interested in helping keep us in the public eye (and getting a bit of press for yourself), please contact me to discuss a press release covering your recent decision to adopt Koha or your implementation of Koha. Thanks to those who responded to me about Linux, OSS, or Library conferences. We're coordinating presentations now for at least four appearances. We'd welcome more though, so please feel free to contact me if you're interested. (Even making a presentation to a Linux or Perl users group would help.) There's also been another investment in Koha development. An anonymous patron has stepped forward to sponsor a core developer's work on extending Koha. With more organizations catching the vision of Koha as a cooperative effort, I think we'll be seeing more of this happen in the days to come. 120 day review Well, I've been serving as the Kaitiaki for about 120 days now, so I thought I might do a quick self evaluation and comparison against my stated goals. When I initially talked about taking on the role, I laid out goals in three areas; Code Cleanliness, Feature Inclusion, and Koha Uptake. I'll address each of these separately. Code Cleanliness: I had (and still have) a vision of a code base that's easy to read, easy to modify, and easy to verify. There have been a couple of improvements in this area, but most of them have occurred in spite of my inaction. I'm encouraged to see efforts at writing tests and programmer documentation, and plan on encouraging this effort as we move forward. Feature Inclusion: Koha has certainly seen a number of new additions; the installer, the upgrade script, templating, etc. I hope that the RFPs from Nelsonville will spur both more development and greater sponsorship from other libraries. With the recent start of the 1.3 release series, I think we'll be seeing a lot more changes soon. Koha Uptake: I think this has been the place where I've really come through on my vision. I had wanted to put Koha in front of a lot of eye balls. With stories in a variety of press outlets, press releases, and planned presence at several conferences in the next six months, I think that we've really begun to establish ourselves as a valid option in the eyes of libraries. Overall, I think I've been successful in my role thus far. I'm honored to have the opportunity to work with so many talented and wonderful people. I'd like to especially thank Chris Cormack (the 1.2 Release Manager), Paul Poulain (the 1.4 Release Manager), and Nicolas Rosasco (the Marketing & Recruiting Manager) -- without their efforts the last 120 days would not have gone nearly as well. I hope that you're as excited about our progress as I am. I really do think that we're looking at a really bright future. happy hacking, Pat Eyler Kaitiaki/manager the Koha project

1 0

Koha 1.3.0 released (with message this time)
by Pat Eyler 25 Sep '02

25 Sep '02

Koha 1.3.0 has been released. This release marks the beginning of public development and testing of the MARC compliant Koha we've been Looking forward to. As the 1.3 releases stabilize and reach feature completion, they will become Koha 1.4. This is an alpha quality release only. *DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE IT IN PRODUCTION SYSTEMS* It may cause data corruption or loss, it may confuse patrons, it may cause books to refile themselves in strange places. *IT SHOULD BE USED FOR TESTING ONLY*. (I hope that's clear enough.) If you are want to use Koha in a production setting, please stick with the stable 1.2 release until the 1.3 series stabilizes enough for us to create Koha 1.4.0. Significant new features in this release include: * Data is stored natively in a MARC based format. * Multiple flavors of MARC are supported. * Enhanced API supports both the new MARC format and the older Koha specific format. Please note though, that from a users perspective, this release should look just like a 1.2 series release. All of the work so far has been in redesigning the data format and extending the API. User visible changes will be included once the infrastructure has stabilized. It is also important to note that the simple acquisition system is currently broken. *DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT USING IT* The full acquisition system works correctly. Paul Poulain Pat Eyler 1.4 Release manager Kaitiaki/manager the Koha project the Koha project ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/koha-devel

1 0

Koha for Larger Libraries
by Wan Phek How 24 Sep '02

24 Sep '02

Hello, I am the systems administrator at Regent College, Vancouver and we are currently investigating Koha as a possibility to replace our existing library system. Are there any live koha sites with 150,000 bibliographic records, with a growth rate of 5000 per year, and 300,000 circ. transactions per year? Regards, Wan How Systems Administrator Regent College 5800 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC V6T 2E4, Canada Tel: 604.221.3362 Fax: 604.224.3097 wphow(a)regent-college.edu

2 1

North American Services and Support
by Paul Nixon 24 Sep '02

24 Sep '02

As directed by the Koha Support page, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Paul Nixon and I've been on the vendor side of library automation for over 20 years, 10 years in software development and 10 in management and sales. I've recently established Neptune8.com to provide software and services to the Canadian and U.S. library and research markets. I am very interested in providing installation and conversion services to libraries migrating to Koha. Through my company, I can also provide software enhancements and maintenance support to Canadian and U.S. libraries. I think the time is right for Open Source library systems in North America. I think many libraries will want the added security of commercial support and services before they decide to switch. Perhaps even the mere existence of a company willing to provide these services will prompt some libraries to switch to Koha! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Nixon Toll Free:(888)369-8889 Neptune8.com www.neptune8.com pnixon(a)neptune8.com (905)474-5285 Fax (905)474-3820 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Re: [Koha] barcode check digits
by Stephen Hedges 24 Sep '02

24 Sep '02

This isn't much help in the short run, but long term, Koha should allow for user selection of barcode length. In the U.S., 13-digit barcodes are quickly becoming the norm. Stephen Hedges Nelsonville Public Library > Hi all! > > I am trying to order barcodes and find the url > (http://developer.koha.org/HLT2.xls) from > koha.org FAQ in-active. I see > that koha uses a 9 digit barcode standard, but am > unsure how to order. Has > anyone else crossed this path before? > > dd > > * * * * * * * * * > Deon Dempsey, MLIS > University of Texas at Austin > Institute for Geophysics > 4412 Spicewood Springs Road > Building 600, Room 209 > Austin, TX 78759-8500 > Phone: (512) 471-0499 > FAX: (512) 471-0999 > http://www.ig.utexas.edu > http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~ddempsey > * * * * * * * * * > > _______________________________________________ > Koha mailing list > Koha(a)lists.katipo.co.nz > http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha >

2 1

barcode check digits
by Deon Dempsey 24 Sep '02

24 Sep '02

Hi all! I am trying to order barcodes and find the url (http://developer.koha.org/HLT2.xls) from koha.org FAQ in-active. I see that koha uses a 9 digit barcode standard, but am unsure how to order. Has anyone else crossed this path before? dd * * * * * * * * * Deon Dempsey, MLIS University of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics 4412 Spicewood Springs Road Building 600, Room 209 Austin, TX 78759-8500 Phone: (512) 471-0499 FAX: (512) 471-0999 http://www.ig.utexas.edu http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~ddempsey * * * * * * * * *

1 0

Re: [Koha] new member
by Deon Dempsey 23 Sep '02

23 Sep '02

At 09:32 AM 9/19/02 -0700, you wrote: >Can you give some more details? > >Did you install using the installer.pl script or manually? > >What distribution of Linux are you using? > >Have you looked in the Apache error logs for hints? You might need to >look in: > >/var/log/apache/koha-error.log >/var/log/apache/opac-error.log >/var/log/apache/error.log > >It's also possible the apache error logs are stored elsewhere on your >computer. > >Steve Tonnesen The koha-error-log is the ticket. It says Died at /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/C4/Output.pm line 106. looking at this, it is trying to open a new file in the includes directory. Since the normal web user has no real access privileges, this is the problem. This is my fault for skimming over the 11th step of the Install. I can probably get this working by using the .htaccess file as they suggest as an alternative, but I think the preferred method is to use AuthenDBI. I can't find any mention on how you actually do this though. That would be useful information to know. dd

1 0

building a community
by Pat Eyler 23 Sep '02

23 Sep '02

Hello, I thought I'd take a moment to share some success that we've had (and some less than successful efforts we've made), and ask what other methods people have used and how they've worked. We started french and german language mailing lists for Koha tranlsation/development effort in August. The french list has taken off (growing to ~30 subscribers with ~25 posts/week); the german list has not (~4 subscribers, ~2 messages/week). We've also had on again/off again interest in a couple of other languages. I think that the keys to the french language success have been: translating publicity -- my bi-weekly newsletter is being translated into french and distributed by members of the mailing list. getting the word out -- some of the french speaking folk are actively talking up Koha within their milieu working together -- I wish I could read french ... I see several threads of discussion running on the list. It certainly looks like they're working together to solve problems. The Koha project has also been growing as well. As with the french group, I think the key has been building a community. My biggest role as Kaitiaki has been trying to get in front of people. So far, we've been fairly successful in parlaying Press Releases and my newsletter into mentions on blogs, bigger articles in on-line magazines (LinuxPlanet, Gnu-Friends, and Biblio-Tech), and interest from people who'd not seen koha before. We're hoping to make a succesful jump into conferences, expos, and users group presentations over the next 3-6 months. Which of these things have you been using? How have they worked for you? What other methods have you been using that I've missed? Is there a way that we can share the fruits of these efforts? I'd certainly be happy to use Koha announcements to shine some light on MARC::Record, or other OSS4Lib efforts. I'd hope that other projects would be willing to cooperate as well. What do you think? -pate Pat Eyler Kaitiaki/manager migrant Linux sys admin the Koha project ruby, shell, and perl geek http://www.koha.org http://pate.eylerfamily.org

3 2

Koha newbie question
by Randy Edwards 22 Sep '02

22 Sep '02

Hi Folks, I've got a question about Koha versus LearningAccess ILS. Exactly what is the difference between the two systems? I've read the Koha FAQ and have browsed through the LearningAccess web site looking for things. However, I can't detect any differences nor reason for the fork; can anyone fill me in? -- Regards, | Need some help with Debian GNU/Linux? . | Randy | Look no further than <http://debianhelp.org> (redwards(a)golgotha.net) |

2 1

new member
by Deon Dempsey 20 Sep '02

20 Sep '02

Hi all, We are one of the newer members to join the Koha family. Koha was recommended to me by one of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science Deans here at the University of Texas. She recommended Koha because those in the department were/are exploring Koha's capabilities and so forth. Our library is quite small and on an even smaller budget, as I suppose are many public and special libraries. And though our faculty and staff are of UT, our Institute and library are housed separate from campus, in fact the buildings are on the other side of the city. But we needed an interface such as Koha offered; a method of controlling circulation while offering members quick online access to the collection. We have been struggling with the package, though. After downloading the software and returning to adjust various spots we are presently stuck at a strange juncture. A number of web page links are blank. Why? dd

3 2