[Koha] questions about library program

[Rachel Hamilton-Williams]

Hi Linda

> We are interested in your library program and one of our people, Heath
> Robinson, has already been in contact with you.  He will be returning to the
> States soon, and I have some additional questions.  Would you please tell me
> about the capability of your program to do the following tasks:

I'll preface by saying I'm not a librarian, so my turn of phrase may not be 
quite right, others will jump in hopefully if I say something completly wrong. 
and perhaps translate :-)

There are lots of things that Koha doesn't do but it could do, if an 
organisiation was prepared to be the sponsor of it.

>  1) cross-referencing-i.e., can I type in a direction for someone
> looking for "Cinema" to look under "Motion pictures"

So that would be if some one looks at the Cinema subject, it would suggest 
also looking at the motion pictures subject?

It doesn't have that functionality in the release version right now and I don't 
think it's in development.  

>  2) printing out barcode and spine labels

This is a project being sponsored by Horowhenua Library Trust.  We are 
going to be doing work for them on it in the next 6 weeks, so it should be in 
a public release at the end of July.

 
>  3) doing inventory

Not sure what you mean by this.  Is it depreciation and stock control?  Like 
a list of all the books you have?  Koha certainly knows what books you have, 
but you might need to get a report written specifically for you.

>  4) printing out bibliographies of holdings, such as a list of books
> we have on science experiments

I would say at the moment there isn't a specific report written to do this.  The 
Horowhenua Library use a product called UrbanSQL which they use to run a 
variety of reports - I couldn't say wether this is one that they run.
 
>  5) printing out overdue notices

Koha makes a list of overdues and I think outputs them as both a file that 
can be printed and a file that can be given to a phone system that rings the 
members to tell them they have an overdue item.  

>  6) reserving items that are currently checked out for another user

Yes - has a comprehensive reserves system - at the moment the reserves 
are put on by the librarians, but Horowhenua Library is sponsoring work to 
allow members to put on reserves themselves.

> Thank you for any help you can give me.  

Hope it helps

Cheers
Rachel
_____________________________________________________________

Rachel Hamilton-Williams             Katipo Communications            
WEBMISTRESS                          ph  021 389 128 or +64 04 934 1285 
mailto:rachel at katipo.co.nz           PO Box 12487, Wellington
http://www.katipo.co.nz              New Zealand
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