[Koha] he panui koha (18 Oct 2002)

[Pat Eyler]

			    he panui koha
			   18 October 2002

# # From the Kaitiaki:
 Wow!  Thigs are continuing to move quickly.  More libraries seem to
 be looking at Koha, and a couple of vendors are starting to show it
 to libraries as well.  This week's edition of the news came together
 pretty easily, and I think it covers the scope of the project and
 community much better than I could on my own.  Thanks to all those
 who ptiched in.

1.4:
 The 1.3.x team is proud to announce the birth of the breeding farm.
 The breeding farm is a place where you can place (lot of) MARC
 records in 2 clicks. they stay in the breeding farm as long as you
 have no items for this record.

 When you want to add an item in koha, you enter ISBN/ISSN of the
 book.  If the book is in the breeding farm, it's immedialty called,
 and entering a biblio is very quick (you just have to modify what you
 want).

 This functionnality is avaible only in CVS currently, but will be
 ready for 1.3.2 in around 2 weeks.

 Note: This functionnality is not intended for migrating a library to
 Koha - to do this (migrating biblios AND items, you need to use
 bulkmarcimport, avaible in 1.2 and that will be completed/rewritten
 in 1.3)

Docs:
 Thanks to some thoughts and work from Steve and Finlay, in short
 order The SGML version(s) of the full manual will be uploaded via a
 nifty form to Sourceforge, where the files will live in their own CVS
 tree (to keep them a little away from the code).  Steve has thrown
 together something already:
    http://www.haz.cmsd.bc.ca/cgi-bin/kohadoc/upload

 This will let us run the SGML->HTML and HTMLtidy routine as part of
 the buildrelease scipt, since the "most recent" manual will be in
 CVS.

 ThemeHowTo/ThemeNotes will be marked up into SGML format, and will
 join the manual (developer section) soon.   Ditto info on the POD
 stuff (http://www.kohalabs.com/resources/pod/).  Transitions will most
 likely be getting a contribution re: how to move out of the
 "Winnebago" package. How to do a language template is not as far
 along, but as there is existing stuff from Katipo on how to use Kea,
 I don't anticipate huge problems doing the same for that material.

 I'm hoping to have the above done/proofed/final for the next stable
 release (1.3.something I guess).

 Developers:  Especially NEW developers, please check the *current
 "released" manual* if you haven't do so already.  We *want* to credit
 you, and spell your names correctly.  Thanks.  That goes especially
 for our new language contributors.

Community:
 There were three big items from the community this week.

 One of the Win32 developers has not only gotten Koha running on
 several versions of windows, but he has put together a Win32
 installer.  If you're interested in helping work on this, please join
 the koha-win32 mailing list at:
    http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/koha/

 Please take some time and fill out the survey that was posted to the
 mailing list recently.  Getting the word out about Koha is one of the
 most important steps in keeping the development and user community
 flourishing.  It's also a very easy way to contribute.

 Marshall Breeding's request earlier this week was another, similar,
 way to contribute to the long term success of Koha.  In some ways it
 might be more visible.  Marshall's site gets a lot of eyes.  If Koha
 looks good there, it will be a big plus.

French Koha:
 Thanks to several worthy librarians, we now have a CSV file of the
 whole UNIMARC tables : UNIMARC compliance will really help to make
 Koha a viable alternative to commercial ILS in France.  UNIMARC is
 the standard used in libraries, from the Fench National Library to
 the smallest public libraries. This is a major step forward for the
 project in France.

 Another, smaller step forward that occured this week is the
 translation of the koha web site in French : it will soon go live at
 http://fr.koha.org.  It will help us publicize all Koha related
 business in France, and provide a resource center for French
 libraries interested in Koha.

All in all, it's been another great week.

thanks,
the Koha team