[Koha] Frequently Asked Questions

[Tonnesen Steve]

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.