Hi Quick Introduction, my name is Mark Tearle and I've been working on creating a library system to replace an aging hypercard stack that the University Science Fiction Association [1] at The University of Western Australia uses to keep track of it's library. I got some distance last year in producing a system that had the same basic design as Koha but that project failed due to changing python libraries and lack of time. I'd like to contribute to a Koha as it has firstly shipped and shows a bit more promise than my efforts. Yours Mark [1] http://www.unisfa.gu.uwa.edu.au/ -- Mark Tearle - mark@tearle.com Stone: Let's stick to established procedures. -- The Andromeda Leavitt: Establishment gonna fall down and go boom. Strain (1971)
HI Mark - thank you and welcome - and too everyone else too.
Quick Introduction, my name is Mark Tearle and I've been working on creating a library system to replace an aging hypercard stack that the University Science Fiction Association [1] at The University of Western Australia uses to keep track of it's library.
We've been quite overwhelmed by the positive feedback and enthusiasim for Koha, and are really excited about the possibilities that syncing up with other systems offers. Unfortunatly Chris our mainprogrammer is away on bereavement leave at the moment, so there will be a short halt in proceedings for a week or so - but I'm sure he'll be keen to touch base once he gets back. Cheers Rachel _____________________________________________________________ Rachel Hamilton-Williams Katipo Communications WEBMISTRESS ph 025 300 825 or +64 04 389 1285 mailto:rachel@katipo.co.nz PO Box 7039, Wellington http://www.katipo.co.nz New Zealand
On Mon, 28 Aug 2000, Rachel Hamilton-Williams wrote:
HI Mark - thank you and welcome - and too everyone else too.
Glad to be here.
We've been quite overwhelmed by the positive feedback and enthusiasim for Koha, and are really excited about the possibilities that syncing up with other systems offers.
Koha is quite unique so far : a) it's actually in use b) it's not daunting to developer or the lay user - as Avanti is with it's development in Java or pytheas with it's concentration on metadata. c) built on top of an SQL database (okay, maybe not that unique) but it means the backend can remain relatively stable in relation to the amount of work going on elsewhere in the code.
Unfortunatly Chris our mainprogrammer is away on bereavement leave at the moment, so there will be a short halt in proceedings for a week or so - but I'm sure he'll be keen to touch base once he gets back.
Cheers Rachel
Nod, I'll fire a few questions off anyhow: 1) Is there an anonymous CVS repository setup for Koha? 2) Is there a ROADMAP style document explaining the design so far? Looking at Koha's table layout and my abandoned projects I notice many similarities and a couple of differences. 3) How do you see Koha evolving? 4) Is there a feature/wish list for Koha? There are undoubtedly more, but that's a start. Yours Mark -- Mark Tearle - mark@tearle.com Stone: Let's stick to established procedures. -- The Andromeda Leavitt: Establishment gonna fall down and go boom. Strain (1971)
Just thought I'd add my few cents
3) How do you see Koha evolving?
We're pretty well planning to take over the world :-) We'd be keen also to see Horowhenua Library Trust lauded internationally for being so generous as to pay for a system and then give it away! Delusions of grandeur aside, we'd like to see a community of users develop in New Zealand, so to get some more public and private libraries using it here, and the same in other countries. We'd especially love to have a community of developers/system administrators who are able to help each other and write new code, audit our stuff etc, and that we would provide a repository for updates, releases etc, like most of the big open source systems. We are hoping that Bugzzilla has had enough changes recently that we can get a copy running just for this project so then you can see all the bugs and enhancements already notified/requested etc.
4) Is there a feature/wish list for Koha?
Absoloutely - only about a mile long :-) There are 2 groups of "wishers" at the moment - the ones from the library/s that have it working, and those who would like added stuff before they can consider using it. We are focused on those for our current users, so they include fixing typo's, improvements to the issues and returns/circulation module, tidy ups around acquisisitons and perhaps more wholesale changes now its been used for a bit, adding lots of memeber functionality to the OPAC, and still searching for a great report writer. Getting multi-lingual ability is something we're really keen to see as well although it falls a bit outside of this "core business". The "would use it if only" tend to be wanting MARC records, couple of requests for ports to NT, language changes and similar - which we're hoping for some help with. There were a couple of other things that have slipped my mind - which all seem like great ideas. We have basically finished phase one of about 3 phases as identified by us and Horowhenua library.
There are undoubtedly more, but that's a start.
Always more :-) Cheers Rachel _____________________________________________________________ Rachel Hamilton-Williams Katipo Communications WEBMISTRESS ph 025 300 825 or +64 04 389 1285 mailto:rachel@katipo.co.nz PO Box 7039, Wellington http://www.katipo.co.nz New Zealand
On Wed, 30 Aug 2000, Rachel Hamilton-Williams wrote:
3) How do you see Koha evolving?
We're pretty well planning to take over the world :-)
*inserts mental image of Pinky and The Brain cartoon here*
4) Is there a feature/wish list for Koha?
Absoloutely - only about a mile long :-)
There are 2 groups of "wishers" at the moment - the ones from the library/s that have it working, and those who would like added stuff before they can consider using it.
I'd think UniSFA would sit in between these two at the moment, there's probably enough working functionality in Koha that we could deploy now, it just wouldn't be pretty ....
We are focused on those for our current users, so they include fixing typo's, improvements to the issues and returns/circulation module, tidy ups around acquisisitons and perhaps more wholesale changes now its been used for a bit, adding lots of memeber functionality to the OPAC, and still searching for a great report writer. Getting multi-lingual ability is something we're really keen to see as well although it falls a bit outside of this "core business".
I wrote down a quick list of the functionality that I needed to get working in terms of a library system: acquisitions, borrowing, returns, import of existing system, OPAC featured highly on my list
We have basically finished phase one of about 3 phases as identified by us and Horowhenua library.
Can you elaborate on this more? Yours Mark -- Mark Tearle - mark@tearle.com Stone: Let's stick to established procedures. -- The Andromeda Leavitt: Establishment gonna fall down and go boom. Strain (1971)
Hello Mark and everyone, I'm the librarian whose itch started the koha process. From the standpoint of one who understands bibliobabble, but not a lot of geekspeak, here are some answers to some of your questions.
I wrote down a quick list of the functionality that I needed to get working in terms of a library system: acquisitions, borrowing, returns, import of existing system, OPAC featured highly on my list
(Rachel) We have basically finished phase one of about 3
That's pretty much what we needed to get koha working in Horowhenua's three libraries. Katipo did the conversion from our former DOS system. We use the Telnet interface for the borrowing/returns process, because speed down an ordinary (copper, analog) phone line was critical to our branches. It's not as pretty as the Web browser, but it's fast, which is a pretty compelling argument for a library handling 450,000 issues a year, compressed into a 40 hour week. I'm sure in the near future someone (you?) will write a circulation module using the Web interface for use in libraries where speed is not such a critical factor. Cataloguing and Acquisitions are tied together, because I needed to have an audit trail of where our new stock was coming from - how many purchased, how many donated, how many created in- house (like photocopies that are catalogued for one reason or another). So you can't create a new biblio without leaving a trail in Acquisitions. Anything with no purchase price is entered as a donation. The OPACs are one of the nicest things about Koha. Our patrons, especially the youngsters, love it. We're adding new functionality all the time - page numbers for long hit lists are now in the staff searching section, and Chris (chief programmer) will have it in the OPAC in the next release. Also some developments in Boolean searching working better every week. phases as identified by us
and Horowhenua library.
Can you elaborate on this more?
The remaining bits of stage one are some work on classes of borrowers and accounting trails for budget spending in Acquisitions. Then, apart from bug fixes, we're pretty much done with stage 1. Stage 2 brings in some functionality with borrowers able to do DIY renewals and reserves, and look up their own loan records. We also need to add - means of sending overdue loan reminders automatically by email or fax as alternatives to phoning and mailing out reminders. - some stocktake/valuation/depreciation work to keep our auditors happy. - some other databases that have been developed locally, eg a local history/archives database in Past Perfect (which is a museum/archives programme), and our local cemeteries record (in Access). - keeping track of stock circulating through our branch libraries. Stage 3 is not yet defined, but will probably include translating the OPAC front screens into Maori (NZ's second official language). We're hoping for a bit of language help from the team who developed greenstone (another NZ open source library project, dealing with digital resources). Rosalie Blake Head of Libraries Horowhenua Library Trust
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Hi all On Mon, Aug 28, 2000 at 09:33:01PM +0800, Mark Tearle said:
Nod, I'll fire a few questions off anyhow:
1) Is there an anonymous CVS repository setup for Koha?
We use CVS for all our in house development, so it would be a small step to making an anonymous CVS access available to the bleeding edge folks, and probablynot much further to provide write access to other developers, if there is a need.
2) Is there a ROADMAP style document explaining the design so far? Looking at Koha's table layout and my abandoned projects I notice many similarities and a couple of differences.
Ahh, it's not a bad idea :-).
3) How do you see Koha evolving?
In the immediate future, the usual round of bugfixes and feature enhancements, with a rewrite of the CDK circ module in slang almost ready to go into testing. There is a "phase two" getting underway shortly, which will be focussing on enhancements to the OPAC (reading lists, renewel and reserves via the web, maybe automated phone based IVR and notification), web based cirulations (so that libraries can avoid the text based circulation module if they want), better reporting, and a bunch of stuff I've probably forgotten. Il8n is also pretty urgent, so that we can have a Maori version There's also a need (slightly left field) for an internet access management system, so that we can give Internet access to library patrons, which I suspect will get rolled into Koha, for ease of management. Beyond that, who knows. Likely to be related to whatever scratches our itch, or whatever code is contributed, or whatever somebody convinces us is valuable.
4) Is there a feature/wish list for Koha?
Probably the Librarians currently using it could speak to this better than I - I'm sure it's enormous :-).
There are undoubtedly more, but that's a start.
Keep 'em coming :-). Cheers Si -- Simon Blake simon@katipo.co.nz Katipo Communications +64 25 300 825
On Wed, 30 Aug 2000, Simon Blake wrote:
2) Is there a ROADMAP style document explaining the design so far? Looking at Koha's table layout and my abandoned projects I notice many similarities and a couple of differences.
Ahh, it's not a bad idea :-).
I did like from looking at the code that some initial effort has been made to abstract tasks such as returns into a library. I can see Koha being taken up at many sites, I think it would be worthwhile at this early stage hammering out guidelines for developers as to where and how localisations and extensions should be added to the code. (every library is different)
3) How do you see Koha evolving?
In the immediate future, the usual round of bugfixes and feature enhancements, with a rewrite of the CDK circ module in slang almost ready to go into testing.
What prompted the move from CDK to slang?
Beyond that, who knows. Likely to be related to whatever scratches our itch, or whatever code is contributed, or whatever somebody convinces us is valuable.
This leads me to a design question - in ziggy we split the list of Authors and Publishers out into separate tables, was this considered in the design of Koha? (it enabled a few funky features in the acquisitions code that I wrote for ziggy and also in the web interface in terms of searching the catalog/recommendations) Other than that, a lot of the tables in Koha seem intuitive, but a few of them I'm a bit lost on, is there an explanation of the database design somewhere? Yours Mark -- Mark Tearle - mark@tearle.com Stone: Let's stick to established procedures. -- The Andromeda Leavitt: Establishment gonna fall down and go boom. Strain (1971)
hi
2) Is there a ROADMAP style document explaining the design so far? Looking at Koha's table layout and my abandoned projects I notice many similarities and a couple of differences.
I'm not too sure what you mean by a roadmap - we do have "circuit diagram" type pics from the begining of the project that map how we thought it would all work. They haven't bee updated to reflect how it does actually work though :-) Would be an intersting "rainy day" exercise :-)
Other than that, a lot of the tables in Koha seem intuitive, but a few of them I'm a bit lost on, is there an explanation of the database design somewhere?
There is a comprehensive design spec/rfp document - but again that hasn't been updated to reflect the actual design - so far. This is definitly still a "late beta" type of programme, and i think that the database design is now pretty well set, but there have still been changes being made. If you have particular areas that don't make sense then happy to provide explanation cheers r _____________________________________________________________ Rachel Hamilton-Williams Katipo Communications WEBMISTRESS ph 025 300 825 or +64 04 389 1285 mailto:rachel@katipo.co.nz PO Box 7039, Wellington http://www.katipo.co.nz New Zealand
Hi Mark, I am one of the library staff who helped define what kind of 'things' we would like koha to do, and I use koha everyday. Regarding a wishlist of stuff to do next, I am personally keen to see a user-friendly (for the non-programmer, average, garden variety librarian) report writer facility on koha. Currently we have a perfectly good 'longhand' method. We tell Chris (our programmer) what we want, he writes a report which he emails us, we copy it into urbansql, run the report, export it to excel then manipulate the results using all excels features. Works fine - but would be heaps better if we could write the reports ourselves. We are pretty excited by koha, but being so close to the coal face it is easy to take for granted what we are achieving. This makes it especially neat having feedback from other people. Thanks. reagards - Jo.. Really great you are Mark Tearle wrote:
On Mon, 28 Aug 2000, Rachel Hamilton-Williams wrote:
HI Mark - thank you and welcome - and too everyone else too.
Glad to be here.
We've been quite overwhelmed by the positive feedback and enthusiasim for Koha, and are really excited about the possibilities that syncing up with other systems offers.
Koha is quite unique so far : a) it's actually in use b) it's not daunting to developer or the lay user - as Avanti is with it's development in Java or pytheas with it's concentration on metadata. c) built on top of an SQL database (okay, maybe not that unique) but it means the backend can remain relatively stable in relation to the amount of work going on elsewhere in the code.
Unfortunatly Chris our mainprogrammer is away on bereavement leave at the moment, so there will be a short halt in proceedings for a week or so - but I'm sure he'll be keen to touch base once he gets back.
Cheers Rachel
Nod, I'll fire a few questions off anyhow:
1) Is there an anonymous CVS repository setup for Koha?
2) Is there a ROADMAP style document explaining the design so far? Looking at Koha's table layout and my abandoned projects I notice many similarities and a couple of differences.
3) How do you see Koha evolving?
4) Is there a feature/wish list for Koha?
There are undoubtedly more, but that's a start.
Yours Mark -- Mark Tearle - mark@tearle.com
Stone: Let's stick to established procedures. -- The Andromeda Leavitt: Establishment gonna fall down and go boom. Strain (1971)
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
participants (5)
-
Joann Ransom -
Mark Tearle -
Rachel Hamilton-Williams -
Rosalie Blake -
Simon Blake