[Koha] questions from prospective Koha user

[Wojciech Zatorski]

Hello Robinson,

Thursday, December 6, 2007, 8:23:39 PM, you wrote:


RM>  1. I have approval to get a new computer for the library.
RM> For my home and freelance work I usually use a Mac and prefer them
RM> in general, but obviously the budget is tight at the library and
RM> PCs are cheaper. I was told by someone at LibLime that Koha runs
RM> better on a Mac, but a 2006 document by Stephen Hedges says Macs
RM> can't run the full program. Has this been fixed since then?  Is
RM> there good reason to pay more for a Mac to run Koha, or would a PC
RM> be equally good, or perhaps preferable?

whatfor MAC?, you can pay for PC considerably less..
installation of linux with koha takes about 1 hour?


RM>  2. Would it be possible to transfer our current computer
RM> catalog from Sagebrush/Winnebago to Koha without reentering every
RM> record? If so, how? I am quite new to library software in general,
RM> so no answer can be too basic for me. I did manage to export the
RM> catalog as an Excel file, but it looks awfully disorganized and I
RM> don't know whether it can be used to transfer info.

if you can export to excel you can create script for conversion to
MARC XML...

RM>  3. For Koha, would our library computer act as the server
RM> for web-based searches, or is there a remote server available? How
RM> do data backups work in Koha? Would we have an onsite backup
RM> system?

everything is realised by WEB, catalogue search too:)

backup easy with mysqldump and tar:)

RM>  4. Does Koha have any quick way to enter records, either for
RM> books or music scores - for example, I've heard of systems which
RM> allow one to enter only the ISBN #, and all the info gets entered
RM> automatically. Our music scores for the most part do not have
RM> ISBNs, but perhaps there is a similar system for them?

you can search books by ISBN with Z3950 search option.
for example we create new search option for search in NUKAT and KARO (usable for polish
libraries) by ISBN or title:)

bye

-- 
The Main Library of Szczecin University.
Computerization Department.
http://bg.univ.szczecin.pl