[Koha] Very small library, low-end hardware

Rich Churcher rmch at xtra.co.nz
Thu Sep 4 20:50:08 NZST 2003


Hi all.  I'm peripherally involved with a local primary school (I host
their website, manage email, help out with tech support etc.)  I'm told
that they pay something of the order of $400 per year for Catalist to
manage the collection in their one-room library.  This strikes me as
excessive.

I'm investigating the possibility of installing Linux on one of their
rather old Pentium boxen and running Koha.  I'm quite comfortable with
the Linux admin side of things, and with SQL, but know absolutely
nothing of library cataloguing systems.  I have some questions which I
hope developers or experienced users might answer for me:

1. What is the absolute, barest minimum hardware you would consider
installing Koha on, given that the database is not likely to be very
large?

2. Will most older barcode readers work with Linux + Koha?

3. How difficult is the conversion going to be from Catalist to Koha? 
Is there any kind of automated conversion (possibly via MARC), or would
they be stuck re-scanning everything in their library?

4. Are there any other primary schools in New Zealand running Koha who
might be able to comment on the experience?

What I've seen so far is very promising, but I'd like a little more info
before recommending the system to a school which is not exactly
overflowing with disposable income ;o)  Hard to argue with the price
though.

--
Cheers,
Rich.




More information about the Koha mailing list