Hello all... It's... I suppose I want to say traditional or maybe customary to include a Frequently Asked Questions file on an open source product. The various Koha websites at Katipo and the HLT websites are excellent, but aren't arranged in the usual question/answer format. Based on what I've seen on the list the common questions that seem to come up (or make sense based on the available Koha information sites we've got now), the following questions come to mind: ------------- What is Koha? What can Koha do? Where can I get Koha? Where did Koha Come From? Who or what is Katipo? Where is Horowhenua? Who maintains Koha? What is needed to run Koha? How do I install Koha? Where can I get help with databases? Where can I get help with Koha? Can I get Koha in my own language? How can I contribute to Koha? ------------- Thoughts? New items? Commentary? send to: nsr_koha@hotmail.com Apologies for the second email address, but I get sufficient quantities of email here to aggravate my sysadmins as it is :) NSR
On Tue, 6 Nov 2001, Nicholas Stephen Rosasco wrote:
What is Koha? What can Koha do? Where can I get Koha? Where did Koha Come From? Who or what is Katipo? Where is Horowhenua? Who maintains Koha? What is needed to run Koha? How do I install Koha? Where can I get help with databases? Where can I get help with Koha? Can I get Koha in my own language? How can I contribute to Koha?
Are you offering to mantain this FAQ, Nicholas? How about: What record formats does Koha support? Currently, Koha has a custom backend database for storing bibliographic information. Can I import/export MARC? It is currently possible to import MARC records, one at a time. Full MARC support is coming. How scalable is Koha (How big of a library system can it support?) Good question. I imagine that this would be a MySql issue, primarily. Big server, lots of ram. Comes down to what is an acceptable number of seconds for any given lookup to complete. Most important for circulation, I would think. Librarians probably don't want to wait for more than a second to complete a return, for example. This would require some benchmarking with real data. The next question would provide a rough guideline, although I'm confident that Koha could be scaled to libraries larger than mine and HDL. Who is using Koha? HDL x branches, y books, z patrons CMSD 6 branches, 8,000 books, 1,000 patrons What is the license? (Do I have to pay to use Koha?) Koha is distributed under the General Public License (GPL). More information on the GPL can be found at: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#GPL The gist of the license is that you are free to use, modify and distribute the program at no cost to yourself, provided that your modifications are also released under the GPL. Under help with Koha... Can I pay for support? (If so, who?) I imagine you could. Katipo would probably accept new clients. I (Steve Tonnesen) could probably be talked into it. In the long run, it should be possible for people with less coding knowledge to supply Koha support as far as installation and use goes.. Can I pay for feature additions? (If so, who?) Katipo, Steve Tonnesen, others? It should be pointed out that Katipo and myself are primarily concerned with adding features that scratch our clients' particular itches. If you want a feature that doesn't appear to be on our radar, offering to pay for it will obviously speed up the process. Alternatively, you can hire somebody local to your organization with Perl programming skills to implement your changes. Steve.
More FAQs... What language are the words Koha, Horowhenua and Katipo in? They are in the Maori language, the language of the people native to New Zealand. I see people are working on feature X. Can you tell me when a release with feature X will ship? Most of the people working on bug fixes and new features are working on them in their own time. They are generally released if and when the bug fix or feature is ready. If you want to speed to the release of a bug fix or feature, see under ``How can I contribute to Koha?'' Why is Koha given away? Koha is open source software. In open source software, software developers give away the fruits of their labour in the hopes that others will help them develop the software. -- stuart yeates <s.yeates@cs.waikato.ac.nz> aka `loam' "To err is human--but it feels divine." -- Mae West X-no-archive:yes
What language are the words Koha, Horowhenua and Katipo in? They are in the Maori language, the language of the people native to New Zealand.
Not a FAQ, but perhaps worth adding: If you are serving a community where Spanish is spoken, you may want to use a different name to refer to the software. The reason for this is that the Maori word "Koha" (gift) sounds like the Spanish word "coja" (cripple). And perhaps this would be a good starting point for another Q: Q: What other software do I need to run Koha? A: The recommended configuration includes Apache (http://httpd.apache.org/), Perl (http://www.perl.com/), MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/), and the following Perl modules: Date::Manip, DBI, and DBD::mysql. [FIXME: I seem to recall some case-sensitive module names. Check ] [FIXME: to be sure these are spelled correctly. ] Upcoming releases of Koha will probably use the Net::Z39.50 Perl module and YAZ (http://www.indexdata.dk/yaz/) to allow Z39.50 searching in Acquisitions. [FIXME: when Z39.50 is in the latest release, change the above wording.] You may also want to use the AuthenDBI Perl module for database-based authentication, and/or the CDK Perl module for an optional telnet interface. The CDK Perl module depends on the C CDK libraries (http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html). Koha would probably work with other web servers and databases, with the appropriate Perl module(s). If you test this, please send a note to the koha-devel list [FIXME: pointer to the list] and let us know what's needed to make koha work under your configuration.
Hello Nicholas, good work. Here are a couple of answers for you. Rosalie Blake Head of Libraries Horowhenua Library Trust On 6 Nov 2001, at 13:40, Nicholas Stephen Rosasco wrote:
It's... I suppose I want to say traditional or maybe customary to include a Frequently Asked Questions file on an open source product. The various Koha websites at Katipo and the HLT websites are excellent, but aren't arranged in the usual question/answer format.
What is Koha? What can Koha do? Where can I get Koha? Where did Koha Come From? The name comes from the Maori word for a gift or donation. The programme was written by Katipo Communicaitons for the Horowhenua Library Trust, in response to a need for a library programme that would run at branch libraries connected to the central library by ordinary phone lines. See http://www.library.org.nz/koha.htm for the full story. Who or what is Katipo? See http://www.katipo.co.nz Where is Horowhenua? It's a small district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, wedged between the Tararua mountains and the Tasman sea. It's about an hour's drive north of Wellington city, and has population of 30,000. Who maintains Koha? What is needed to run Koha? How do I install Koha? Where can I get help with databases? Where can I get help with Koha? Can I get Koha in my own language? How can I contribute to Koha?
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Thoughts? New items? Commentary? send to: nsr_koha@hotmail.com Apologies for the second email address, but I get sufficient quantities of email here to aggravate my sysadmins as it is :)
NSR
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participants (5)
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<s.yeates＠cs.waikato.ac.nz> -
Ben Ostrowsky -
Nicholas Stephen Rosasco -
Rosalie Blake -
Tonnesen Steve