Nelsonville Public Library Chooses Open Source Aug 26, 2002 The Nelsonville Public Library will migrate its existing server to the open source Koha library system and will contribute to the further development of the Koha project. Nelsonville, OH, Aug 26, 2002 -- "We're going to move our library services onto Open Source platforms, culminating with the conversion of our existing server system to Koha." says Stephen Hedges of the Nelsonville Public Library (NPL). "We want to use the Internet to offer some cutting edge information services to our library patrons, but we realized that this would require us to have control of our automation and database software. We needed the freedom to change things, to change the code if necessary, because the types of things we want to do are not going to appear in commercial library software for years." Koha, being open source, provided the access that NPL required and the level of stability and functionality that they needed. NPL has committed to help support the development of Koha by funding some of the work on three specific projects. This support is seen as a wise investment, NPL expects to save as much money per year as they initially invest in Koha. More importantly, they will be able to offer what they consider to be "the best online services available anywhere in the world." "NPL's involvement is a real validation of our model." says Pat Eyler, Kaitiaki (manager) of the Koha project. "We've got a solid base system. As people want to add onto it, they can make a small investment to fund the work (far less than they would for a comparable closed source solution) and everyone will benefit. I hope that we'll see other libraries pitching in too." About the Nelsonville Public Library: NPL provides services to approximately 36,000 active borrowers through seven branches. Their collection includes over 250,000 items. For more information about the NPL, please see www.athenscounty.lib.oh.us About Koha: The Koha project started in 1999 in New Zealand when the Horowhenua Library Trust commissioned Katipo Communications to write a new library system for them. The system went live in 2000, and was released as Free Software during that year. Since then it has been installed in numerous libraries and has sprouted an active developer community that encompasses more than nine countries on four continents. For more information about Koha, please see www.koha.org or www.katipo.co.nz Contact: Please contact info@koha.org