[Koha] Cost Analysis Information

[Marty]

Seems nobody has answered your question yet, so I'll give it a shot.
 
Our library has about 6000 items (mainly books, but also DVD's, VHS, audiocassette and CD's)
We are running Koha 3 with Zebra on an older Pentium 4 computer, I would like it to be a little bit faster, Koha 2.2.9 seemed quite a bit faster on some tasks. On the other hand, I absolutely love the very powerful search on the Koha with Zebra.
 
We use barcodes, we found a cheap barcode reader, (I can give you the supplier once I get home, don't remember the name now) and we print barcodes and spine labels on an older Brother HL-1230 laser printer. The software we use for the barcodes and spinelabels is kbarcode (see kbarcode.net) which is Open Source and very powerful. You can also design & print patron cards with it. I prefer kbarcode over Koha's barcode system, because it's easier to bulk print and can do way more than just barcodes (we added an extra table in the database for kbarcode to use, and kbarcode can also put information on your label that it queries from anywhere in the koha mysql database)
 
As for installation time; depends a bit on your Linux OS experience. (I did not know anything about Linux when I installed my first Koha, I have learned a lot ;-)  )
But, if you have a high speed internet connection you could install everything needed in a few hours, max. 
Koha 3 does not run on Windows I believe, but believe me, almost anything Windows can do, Linux can do as well or better. (Koha 2.2.9 will run on Windows I think, correct me if I'm wrong guys!)
 
Where things are going to get slow is if you have to enter data manually. It all depends on how many items you have of course, but it helps to have it in some electronic format.
I managed at the time to create a .csv file from a very old custom made library program and enter this into Koha.
 
My costs;
IBM certified used computer (comes with mouse & keyboard): $ 165,- (Canadian $, you probably can find cheaper, don't know where you guys are located)
Monitor: Find a free CRT monitor or buy a cheap LCD
Barcode scanner: I think ours cost about $ 50,- at the time
Printer: Almost anything black & white will do. Our Brother Laser is on it's last legs, but it came free. I have to start hunting for another one.
 
Of course, a faster computer is always nice, and a 40 GB hard drive is rather small nowadays, but if you are on a budget you have to take what you can get.
There are not really any specific library items needed, unless you want to use a label printer. 
 
Can't help you with personnel, our library runs on volunteers. But I can tell you there are always things to do, never knew a library was so much work when I started.
Of course, since I am the first person with some library knowledge I constantly run into things that apparently never bother other people, like non-fiction being shelved alphabetically by author! Try to find something... what a nightmare. So, I have to find Dewey numbers etc.
 
Anyway, I hope this gives you some idea, you can always go faster and better than we did.
 
Marty

--- On Thu, 4/1/10, Jim and Laurie Barnes <czechbarnes at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Jim and Laurie Barnes <czechbarnes at gmail.com>
Subject: [Koha] Cost Analysis Information
To: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
Received: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 3:31 PM







Dear Koha Listserve,
 
We are in the process of doing a cost analysis for installation and self-hosting of Koha and would be interested in detailed budget information including equipment, personnel, and maintenance costs for a small private library. If you have this sort of information and would be willing to share we would be most grateful. We would be interested especially in specific equipment needs and the amount of time needed for installation. Thanks 
 
With Best Regards, 
 
Laurie Barnes





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