I hear the next release (3.14) will have more features for specifying parameters for individual branches this may or may not suit your needs. It's due out soon, and might be worth looking into. I know we're considering a very small consortia with very different requirements for each library (not even located in the same county, and with separate loan policies, types of borrowers, and shelving locations). Still trying to decide the best way to move forward, but as both libraries are run on a shoestring we're taking our time. On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 2:06 PM, Kivilahti Olli-Antti <olli-antti.kivilahti@jns.fi> wrote:

Hello Mr. Maileseni and Mr. Sasse.

A very interesting question. Firstly you should tell us what kind of features you need for a consortium?

I know you can run a succesful consortium with zero consortial features and probably this will be the best way for your staff and your patrons, since it is really simple to have unified settings. It is also the most clear solution to your users if you allow transportation of items between libraries.

If you are not transferring material between libraries and want to limit the availability of your items to a specific library, you can do that with UseIndependentBranches-feature. If you want libraries A, B, and C to form a sub-consortium and libraries D, E and F to form their own; and limit permissions and holds and acquisitions between consortias, while sharing the same user and bibliographic database, Koha wil limit your barrier building, but you should aim to resolve those issues politically by making compromises.

Tho if you have only 6 libraries I recommend you unify practices, let everyone edit each others item and patron records and work more closely together. It is proven that libraries deliver more success by working together than building or maintaining artificial walls. Especially since everyone is cutting our budgets.

Olli-Antti Kivilahti Project Manager Open Library 2014 Joensuu Regional Library

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On 04.11.2013 15:15, koha-request@lists.katipo.co.nz wrote:

...

From: Richard Maileseni [mailto:rmaileseni@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2013 7:53 PM To: Joel Sasse Subject: Re: [Koha] koha - consortia

Our consortia has only six libraries, is there any way for me to test the setup of a library consortia on koha?

On Sat, Oct 26, 2013 at 6:49 PM, Joel Sasse<jsasse@plumcreeklibrary.net> wrote:

Could you be a bit more specific? I administer Koha for a 32 member library consortium and each library has different loan periods and fine structures as well as patron categories unique to some members. Koha handles this quite well.

Koha also allows for different overdue messaging preferences and checkout slip configurations for member libraries.

Joel Sasse

Network Systems Administrator

Plum Creek Library System

507-376-5803

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