[Koha] Going completely on-line with Koha

Wed Dec 3 05:35:54 NZDT 2003

On Tue, 2 Dec 2003, David M. Bucknell wrote:

> Dear Pat,
>
> Thank you for answering re. acquisition repots. Apparently, our library would
> like to have reports the last 24 hours, the last week, the month and perhaps the
> year. Possible?

It would be fairly easy to do.  I think you've got a couple of options at
this point:  you can wait for them to show up (sometime after 2.0.0 is
released), you could have someone on your staff write them, or you could
try to entice someone to write them for you.  I'd like to take a minute to
talk about the last idea, because I think it's some low hanging fruit that
we often overlook.

Most of the time when we think about enticing someone to write code for
us, we think of spending big $$$s and hiring a programmer.  The free
software community opens your options up though.  Here are some
alternatives:

 - Contact a local high school/community college/university and see if
   you can't work out a project with an instructor and student (or team of
   students).  In fact, this doesn't just need to be a local school.
   There are at least three Universities hanging out on this mailing list,
   perhaps one of them has a student or three who'd be interested in a
   task like this.

 - See if there's a local Linux/Unix/Perl users group.  Maybe you can work
   out a deal for meeting space/pizza (or the local equivalent)/publicity
   in return for some light programming work.

 - Talk to city, county, provincial, state, etc. governemnt or NGOs about
   what you're doing and why.  They may have some resources to help.  The
   city of Amparo in Brazil translated Koha into Portuguese for use in
   their local library, Finland is putting money into an effort to
   localize Koha for use there.

 - Look to other libraries to team up with. It may be that the very things
   you want are things another library wants as well.  What may be an
   unsurmountable list for a single library could be quite doable by a
   group of three or five or ten.

I'm sure that someone will pop up with a couple of more low cost/no cost
means of 'hiring' out the work.  (Hmmm, how about naming rights for PAC
terminals -- naah, that's just a bit too silly.)

Anyway, I think your request is valid.  I know other libraries are looking
for similar stuff.  I don't think we'll see it until after 2.0.0 unless
someone decides to put a quick package together outside the normal
distribution.  If anybody does do this *please* share it with the wider
community so that it can be incorporated into 2.0.1.

thanks,
-pate

>
> David
>
> Quoting Pat Eyler <pate at eylerfamily.org>:
>
> > Adding an aquisition report will be trivial.  The basic code for doing it
> > is already in the rssKoha package, and would only need a template put
> > together and date checking added (the current code lists the 15 most
> > recent acquisitions.
> >
> > -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
> > On Sun, 30 Nov 2003, Anne Zarinnia wrote:
> >
> > > Steve and David,
> > > This is a very important feature to add to Koha. It is something that
> > > librarians look for when comparing products.
> > > I missed Paul's message on this, but I'll go back and check.
> > > Anne Zarinnia
> > >
> > > On Saturday, November 29, 2003, at 05:28 PM, baljkas at mb.sympatico.ca
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Saturday, November 29, 2003    17:22 CST
> > > >
> > > > Hi, David,
> > > >
> > > > Good luck with going online.
> > > >
> > > > Just from what other library folk have experienced in the past, it may
> > > > be
> > > > wise to keep at least one set of your card catalogue (I assumed that
> > > > was
> > > > what you meant by "on-paper", although if it is a book catalogue, that
> > > > is
> > > > even easier) for the first year or so as staff transition to relying
> > > > on the
> > > > Koha ILS.
> > > >
> > > > Don't know about generating new acq reports, but as for your other
> > > > question
> > > >
> > > >> [...]is there a way to add jacket cover photos or Web-based links
> > > >> relevant to a book or its author?
> > > > I had asked this question earlier this year. The answer at the time was
> > > > "no, not yet"
> > > >
> > > > In responding, Paul indicated what would be needed to be added to do
> > > > it,
> > > > which was well beyond me. I can dig his answer up if you want.
> > > > Otherwise, as Paul stated at the time, it was *not* a high priority
> > > > for the
> > > > developers, although I still think it would be a great little bell &
> > > > whistle for Koha to consider adding soon.
> > > >
> > > > Cheers,
> > > > Steven F. Baljkas
> > > > library tech at large
> > > > Koha neophyte
> > > > Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANADA
> > > >
> > > >
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> > > >
> > >
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> >
>
>
> Assistant Academic Director and
> Technology Department Head
> Rose Marie Academy
> http://www.rose-marie.ac.th
>
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