- Koha - lists.katipo.co.nz

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 * * * * * * * * *

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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

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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

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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) |

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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

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Database Structure and Full Features
by Domingo Genaro P. Tamayo 20 Sep '02

20 Sep '02

Good day folks! We're currently evaluating KOHA as a solution for the Union Catalog project of the SciNET (Science Network) here in the Philippines. I'm interested with the database structure and the detailed features of KOHA. I tried searching koha's site but I can't find those information. I believe KOHA is an excellent system. I just hope anyone can help me find the data that I need. Regards, Domingo Genaro P. Tamayo STII-DOST

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Re: Library Management Software
by Rosalie Blake 16 Sep '02

16 Sep '02

Hello Erol, I am glad you have found Koha (the word means "gift" in Maori). It is very suitable for using in a school. It is absolutely free to download and to use, and all the software you need to run it is also free to download and use. But there is a down side. While it is very easy and intuitive to use, it is not simple for a non-technical person to set up and install. If there is a parent, or someone you know, who has a knowledge of Linux and Perl, that would be a big help. There are two things you should do right now: 1. join the koha list, (http://koha.org/mailing/) and 2. ask everyone you know if they know anything about open source software, especially Linux and Perl, and if they are willing to help you install it. I am sending a copy of my reply to the koha list. If you manage to find someone to help you install, you (or the person who is helping you) should also join the koha developers list. Good Luck Rosalie Blake Horowhenua Library Trust On 16 Sep 2002, at 22:26, Erol Uygur HOTMAIL wrote: > Dear Sirs and Madams, > > We need a simple library management software in my daughter's high > school library in Istanbul, namely Istanbul High School. Due to the > economical crisis in Turkey it is unfortunate that the ministery of > Education cannot allocate sufficient funds to schools. So we as the > parents of the students are helping out the school ( as with most > serious and responsible parents in all over the world ) for different > needs of the school. Of course we do this in coordination with the > school admnistration and schools' parent committee. As I was searching > for such a system, I discovered your software, but I have no idea as > to how I can obtain it, and what the conditions are, besides the > technical requirements to operate it. If you can inform me I will be > very glad, and share this information with my daughter's school. > Thanks in advance. > > Best regards, > > Erol Uygur >

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From the Kaitiaki
by Pat Eyler 13 Sep '02

13 Sep '02

Sep 13, 2002 To the Koha community Welcome, Koha seems to be showing up in a lot more places these days. I've heard from people in the US, Ireland, Germany, India, and Panama about their desire to start using it. We've recently shown up on the South African Government's Open Source Software website. I've even seen a Koha installation in Japan. This is really cool! What's even better is that we're poised to do even more. If you've got a question, comment, or a success story, please feel free to drop me a line. 1.2 More work has gone into 1.2.3, and RC13 has just been released. We're seeing a lot of testing help from the community, and this will be key to making 1.2.3 work extremely well for everybody. 1.4 We're getting closer to a 1.3.0 release. Paul Poulain, the 1.4 release manager expects it in the next 2 weeks. What makes this 1.3/1.4 release so special? Well, on the surface, nothing seems to change... Koha should work exactly as in the 1.2 versions, but the underlying database API has been completely rewritten. Data is stored in the old, custom format and in MARC format too (MARC21 English by default, but other flavours of MARC will be supported as well. The 1.3.0 release has to be heavily tested to ensure that everything works as it did under 1.2.X. The next steps in the 1.3 series include MARC tools for librarians, MARC export and import, and many other nice features. REMEMBER : the 1.3.0 IS alpha-software Use it only for TESTING PURPOSES. You've been warned ! Documentation If you've converted from a proprietary ILS to Koha, please contact <nsr_koha(a)hotmail.com>. He's working on a migration guide to add to our existing manual. Translations Work is currently being done on some of our documentation translation tools. We're hoping to have tools and documentation ready for translators soon. Community Philanthropy Australia is this weeks news maker, see <http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/5107.html >. We've also made it onto a few more radar screens, systems from Follet.com and Epixtech.com have both been spotted checking out Koha. In breaking news, Steve Tonnesen has worked a bit more Koha magic. This week he's released a demo CD for Koha. This CD will allow a user to run a sample Koha installation on any Win32 systems that will boot from a CD. What a great way to spread the word. An ISO image (suitable for burning CDs) is available at: <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=16466>. Koha has been invited to participate in the Think-Linux show in Columbus, Ohio (in the US). We're not sure yet whether this is logisticly possible for us. If you're interested in making our appearance at this show a reality, or in seeing Koha at a local conference, User Group meeting, or similar event, please let me know. While the pace of Koha acceptance and development seem to be picking up, we're still a very friendly place for newcomers. If you're new to Koha, please stop by the mailing list and introduce yourself. happy hacking, Pat Eyler Kaitiaki/manager the Koha project

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Re: Woes and tribulations...
by Pat Eyler 13 Sep '02

13 Sep '02

On Thu, 12 Sep 2002, Pierrick wrote: > Hi Pate Hello Pierrick, I'm forwarding this to the koha list because you'll get far better answers from the list than you would from Rachel and I. > > I have reached a bit of an impasses with the install of Koha. I have already > sent a message to Rachel but I haven't received anything back yet. > > I am trying an installation of Koha on a RedHat 7.2 box. > I am doing the manual install so I can monitor (and possibly even > understand) what's going on and I've reached a point of impasse: > Please understand that the manual installation is *much* more difficult/error prone than the install script. In the future, we will be deprecating the manual method. > In item 6 - Update your database tables > When I issue the command: perl updatedatabase -I /mypathtoC4 > I constantly get the following message: > "Can't locate C4/Database.pm in @INC (@INC contains: > /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.0/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.0 > /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/i386-linux /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0 > /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl .) at updatedatabase line 22. > BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at updatadatabase line 22" > This error means that your include path doesn't include the C4 directory and the modules that it contains. The best way to deal with this is to add the path to your C4 directory to your include path. > Now > Database.pm is located in: /home/downloads/koha-1.2.2/modules/C4 > so I issue: perl updatedatabase -I /home/downloads/koha-1.2.2/modules > or: perl updatedatabase -I /home/downloads/koha-1.2.2/modules/C4 > (both give the same error.) > My guess is that I am missing a perl module, but I have loaded: > mysql-3.23.41-1 (came with my RedHat disto) > perl-DBI-1.18-1 > perl-DateManip-5.40 > perl-DBD-MySQL-1.2216-4 > perl-Set-Scalar-1.17 > > I actually tried to manually perform the tasks in the script > "updatedatabase" (create tables, etc) but I'm not sure about some of the > things it actually does... > > Any idea? > > Then in Item 7, I am not sure which files to copy and where and what the > directory structure should be. I assume I should follow the directory > structure listed in "Installation without Virtual Hosts"? > That would be the easiest way to do it. -pate > Regards from New Zealand > > Pierre > > > WISYWYG Data > pierre(a)wysiwyg-data.co.nz > 64-7-868-9806 >

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How many records?
by Christensen, David A. (CHT) 11 Sep '02

11 Sep '02

Hi all, I'm just wondering if Koha can support fairly large databases... like, say, 1.5 million records. Actually, that's a bit of a lie. We (as the provincial library) run a union catalogue for the province - about 700,000 recs for about 1.5 million holdings througout Manitoba (and growing steadily :-) I'd like to be able to make a case for replacing our (aging, proprietary) existing system. I've taken an admittedly quick scan through the archives, to no avail. Anyone using Koha for large databases? David Christensen Technical Consultant Manitoba Public Library Services Unit 200 - 1525 First Street South Brandon, Manitoba, Canada R7A 7A1 DChristens(a)gov.mb.ca Voice: (204) 726-6870 Fax : (204) 726-6868 http://maplin.gov.mb.ca/

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