[Koha] he panui koha 17 July 2003

[Pat Eyler]

Hello everyone, it seems like it's about time for another of my
infrequent newsletters.  Quite a few things have taken place recently,
and I want to make sure everyone is 'in the loop'.

Most importantly, we're coming very close to a 2.0.0 release.  The
bug counts are down:
  'must fix'     6
  'should fix'  27
  'might fix'    3
While a couple of new bugs get reported a week, the developers are
still making progress.  Part of our approach to 2.0.0 includes a beta
testing cycle.  That's already begun, and we're currently on release
2.0.0pre2.   Paul is away for a couple of weeks, but I'm anticipating
that he'll make another 2.0.0pre release shortly after his return.

In other development news, we have two new features that are being
held out of the main distribution while 2.0.0 stabilizes, rssKoha and
ldapKoha.  These are being distributed as separate packages so that
people can see them and start working with them.  At some point after
the official 2.0.0 release, they will be merged into the main
distribution.

rssKoha is a system that allows a Koha system to syndicate RSS feeds
based on data from the system.  This will allow a library to begin
publishing data to users through a different path than the OPAC.  Good
examples might be a list of the most recently acquired DVDs, or a list
of the most requested/reserved mystery novels.

ldapKoha allows a Koha system to authenticate users from an existing
LDAP server.  This feature should be particularly interesting to
corporate or academic libraries.  This feature was developed by the
students at ESIEE (http://www.esiee.fr)

More information about these (and other news about Koha), please take
a look at http://www.kohalabs.com/news/ -- translations of stories are
currently being provided in English, French, and German (Spanish
should follow soon).  If you're interested in helping translate or
write stories about Koha, please email news at kohalabs.com with your
contact information and interests.

The final bits of news involves two more libraries picking up Koha!

The Ecole des mines de Paris (I've been told that they're comparable
to MIT in the US) has decided to begin working with Koha.  The
doxulting company (a Library systems consulting firm) and Paul Poulain
will be working with them during this process.

The University of Buffalo is going to start using Koha in some of its
Library Information Systems courses.  The students will be installing,
testing, and reviewing Koha at first.  Hopefully we'll see more
involvement as the process moves forward.


thanks,
-pate

Pat Eyler
Kaitiaki/manager               migrant Linux sys admin
the Koha project               ruby, shell, and perl geek
http://www.koha.org            http://pate.eylerfamily.org