[Koha] Special purpose KOHA...Manage ILL?

[Kathryn Tyree]

Kia ora/Hello John,

Sorry to hear about this situation!

I'd like to address your concern about open source software support 
specifically. You probably know this stuff, but I think it's important, 
so I'll say it anyway :) The company I work for is based in New Zealand, 
so hopefully I offer a relatively neutral voice.

Most Koha vendors provide services by running supported, open source 
versions of Koha, that can be downloaded here: 
https://koha-community.org/download-koha/ Many libraries choose to be 
hosted by a vendor, and the servers where the Koha instances are housed 
are usually cloud-based. Some vendors also provide managed 
services/remote support where the vendor team has remote access to your 
servers - aka supporting your organisation with running Koha in-house, 
to reduce the workload on your IT team.

You can find Koha vendors near you by looking here: 
https://koha-community.org/support/paid-support/ To qualify for a 
listing here, vendors must express their affiliation with the open 
source project by including a link back to the Koha Community website on 
their own website.

To your ILL question, I know there are Koha libraries using ShareIT, and 
also using Koha workflows, and other 3rd party products for ILL. I'll 
leave sharing experiences with these to others.

Best wishes/ngā manaakitanga,

Kathryn


-- 
Kathryn Tyree
Services Manager - Rōpū kohinga

Catalyst.Net Limited
www.catalyst.net.nz


On 4/04/25 7:06 am, John Ronald wrote:
> So just wondering if there are any libraries who have used KOHA in limited/emergency circumstances to only manage Interlibrary Loans?
>
> The reason I ask is because our Network and POLARIS Integrated Library System (ILS) are down/offline and POLARIS is therefore not able to interface with our statewide ILL management platform, ShareIt, a product of Auto-Graphics, Inc.
>
>
>
> Our IT staff is working on the outage (possibly due to some kind of cyberattack, still under investigation); regular circ is eeking by using the Offline Circ functions in POLARIS for check out and check in.  But this is not an option for ILL.
>
>
>
> My thought was, ILL borrowing could be restored if we set up a version of KOHA on one of our county government servers, for the sole purpose of managing and circulating ILL items.  It would need to be able to interface with ShareIt to validate (ILL) patrons, create temporary bib records, generate patron holds, etc.
>
>
>
> Are there any KOHA users out there who also use ShareIt to manage their ILLs?  How has it worked out for you and was the setup easy or hard?
>
>
>
> The downside to Open Source like KOHA is while it is free to download it would require the commitment of some IT Staff who are already overworked as it is.
> We are also considering cloud based alternatives like LibLime (despite the extra vendor costs) as a viable stopgap measure to keep ILL services operational during the crisis, to be discontinued once POLARIS is restored.
>
>
> Right now we are keeping things running as best we can with hotspots & laptops.
>
>
>
> --John J. Ronald, MA, MLS
> ILL Paraprofessional
> Fort Bend County Libraries
>
>
> Sent using https://www.zoho.com/mail/
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