[Koha] KENYAN KOHA USERS: ARE YOU THERE?

[Unni Knutsen]

On 14.02.2008 16:53, kenneth rotich wrote:
> Hi
> It seems Koha as an integrated library system is penetrating kenyan 
> libraries  and i had  a crazy idea that we should come  and put heads 
> together and form the kenyan chapter community. we can organize 
> workshops, training, etc
> Can somebody say something about this idea
>  
> ken rotich
> 
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According to the Wiki there are two installations in Kenya: Sidarec (a 
youth project) http://sidarecyouth.freeflux.net/ and Strathmore 
University Library http://www.strathmore.edu/.

I have been involved in setting up the installation at the Sidarec 
community library. For the time being Koha is still running on a server 
in Oslo University College where I work. We would like to transfer all 
responsibility of running the installation to Kenya, and in this 
connection we have visited Strathmore and had talks with Bernard 
Shiundu, the Systems Librarian. I know that Strathmore has been 
considering creating a business model round Koha and that Bernard 
Shiundu has been contacted by many Kenyan librarians who would like to 
change their systems.

We have also discussed with Bernhard Shiundu and Jacinta Were 
(University of Nairobi, former chair of IFLA Professional Committee) the 
need for awareness campaigns, training and discussions about open source 
library systems (read Koha) in Kenya. I therefore suggest you contact 
these two. I think also Lucy Mathai (project co-ordinator of Sidarec) 
would be interested in these discussions.

As you can see I do not think your idea is cracy at all....


Unni Knutsen
Oslo University College
-- 

Unni Knutsen
Høgskolen i Oslo
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