Matthew, Many libraries have gone before you and done it on their own. If you take a look at the install docs that come packaged with the code you'll get some ideas on how to install it. You can also look through the wiki and the manual for info on installation and usage. Nicole C. Engard ByWater Solutions 2010/6/18 Keogh, Matthew <Matthew.Keogh@eht.nhs.uk>:

Dear all

I work in a small healthcare library, based in a general hospital in west London with an expanding user-base and a diminishing budget.

We need a replacement for our aging DOS based library management system, but can’t afford a commercial solution.

Koha seems to fit our purposes, but I would appreciate some idea of how feasible it would be to implement on our own - without using vendors such as PTFS?

Two of us staff the library and we both have a reasonable level of IT literacy. We also have a supportive hospital IT department.

I would be grateful if anyone could share their experience of setting up and using Koha unsupported.

Many thanks for your help.

Matthew

Ealing Hospital Library

_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha

Keogh, Matthew wrote:

Koha seems to fit our purposes, but I would appreciate some idea of how feasible it would be to implement on our own - without using vendors [...] I would be grateful if anyone could share their experience of setting up and using Koha unsupported.

I can't share an experience of that, but I'd like to point out that Koha's pretty good in that you can give it a go and call in a reasonably-priced Koha support cooperative in if/when you need more assistance. I feel it's not quite as good as if you get it set up by us (but then I would say that, even if we have been doing setups for 7 or so years now) but we've done that sort of thing before (including a big takeover earlier this year, which is why I've been quiet lately - hopefully we'll all see the benefits soon) and we'll probably do it again. Hope that informs, -- MJ Ray (slef) Webmaster and LMS developer at | software www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk | .... co IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html | .... op

Hi Matthew Apologies for that late reply, I've been away from the list for some time. I'm in a similar position to you right now, except I am running a non-DOS LMS, which I fear I will have to replace as it is giving no end of trouble. I am currently in the early stages of investigating going-it-alone with Koha for a college, and we now have an embryo Koha install with some test data in it which appears to work fine. I haven't yet seen a need to buy in support (famous last words?) as the community has so much information to offer, and people are so willing to share help, but I *have* needed my internal techie team, who've been really cooperative and helpful with the server side of things, and the support of my line and senior managers - going it alone may be free in terms of fees to external vendors, but it's a big drain on your time and you will need the full buy-in of your seniors to allow you the quality headroom to work things out. I would be happy as another UK newbie to help with any questions you may have, especially if you think they may be a bit basic for the list! I must admit in the initial stages I spent quite a bit of time looking for answers to questions I thought were silly ones, rather than bother people on the open list, but since then I've noticed a lot of those questions have since been asked by other newbies and answered with good grace by the old hands. So come on in, the water's lovely, and there's loads of friendly people with life rings :-) Kindest regards Jos On 18 Jun 2010 15:36, "Keogh, Matthew" <Matthew.Keogh@eht.nhs.uk> wrote:

Dear all

I work in a small healthcare library, based in a general hospital in west London with an expanding user-base and a diminishing budget.

We need a replacement for our aging DOS based library management system, but can't afford a commercial solution.

Koha seems to fit our purposes, but I would appreciate some idea of how feasible it would be to implement on our own - without using vendors such as PTFS?

Two of us staff the library and we both have a reasonable level of IT literacy. We also have a supportive hospital IT department.

I would be grateful if anyone could share their experience of setting up and using Koha unsupported.

Many thanks for your help.

Matthew Ealing Hospital Library