Koha - The worlds first open source library systems ?
Hello Everyone On the Koha homepage (http://www.koha.org/) I notice the claim that it is ``the worlds first Free Open Source Library System,'' which is apparently true if `Library System' is defined to be `a computer system to run a _physical_ library.' There is, however, an earlier system, Greenstone, from the New Zealand Digital Library (www.nzdl.org) which solves (or attempts to solve) the problem of running a _digital_ library. Greenstone, under active development at the Waikato University Computer Science Department. We have translated our interface into Maori (thanks to Te Taka Keegan for our Maori interface) and several other languages including Arabic (thanks to Malika Mahoui) (Arabic is challenging as it's reading order is right->left not left->right), so when you come to localise Koha into Maori you may wish to use our stuff as a stepping stone. It's all GPL, so you're free to take what you need (download greenstone from our web site at www.nzdl.org). It's good to see other kiwis doing innovative library stuff. stuart [grad student]
hi FWIW we checked out greenstone (and all the other open source library related projects we could find) before starting to write our own. There are lots of "library" projects - but we couldn't find any that addressed old fashioned "Libraries" ie collections of books/items that people could borrow, in a comprehensive fasion. We were very impressed with the greenstone project - and would love to use anything we can - particularly your experience I suspect when it comes to translations.
It's good to see other kiwis doing innovative library stuff.
Ditto :-) 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
participants (2)
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Rachel Hamilton-Williams -
Stuart A Yeates