[Koha] Koha and the Open Archives Initiative Protocol

[Joshua Ferraro]

Benjamin,

I think this question is a good one for the whole Koha community.
Personally, I would love to see an interface between Koha and the
Open Archives Initiative Protocol but I've not heard any discussion
along those lines thusfar.  What do folks think?

> Thanks for your message, which my colleague Peter Pissierssens passed to
> me and which I found very interesting.
> Sorry to pester you with questions, but I was also wondering if there was
> any interface between Koha and the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for
> Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). (and consequently Dublin Core). Several of
> our colleagues and partner organisations have expressed interest in this
> initiative as a way of getting the benefits of a distributed database
> without the communication headaches of a fully distributed search.
>
> I have now subscribed to the mailing lists mentioned, so if you feel that
> this question would be better answered by the community please feel free
> to forward it on.
>
> Regards,
> Benjamin Sims
> Information Services
> IOC/UNESCO
> http://ioc.unesco.org
> 1 rue Miollis
> 75732 Paris Cedex 15
> FRANCE
> Tel: [33] (1) 45 68 39 92
> Fax: [33] (1) 45 68 58 12
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua Ferraro [mailto:jmf at kados.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 2:31 PM
> To: Pissierssens, Peter
> Subject: RE: KOHA
>
>
> Peter,
>
> Greetings.  The Z3950 Server for Koha works fine on a MARC21 system (NPL
> has been using it for statewide resource sharing for several months now)
> and can be found either as an add-on to Koha 2.0 (on my website at
> http://kados.org/LibraryScience/zed-koha-server.pl) or in CVS in the
> 2.2 tree.  In both cases it is necessary to install the SimpleServer
> Perl module from Indexdata (http://www.indexdata.dk/simpleserver/).
>
> The server can be started by running the zed-koha-server.pl script
> in a terminal.  Eventually it would be nice to build the server
> into a daemon process but for now it is necessary to leave the
> terminal open--it also logs all activity to the screen.
>
> There has been some talk about adding UNIMARC support and I would be
> willing to develop that but would need shell access to a Koha system
> using a UNIMARC database.  If you require customizations for your
> holdings data that could be arranged as well.
>
> If you want to see a Koha catalog in action you can check out Nelsonville
> Public Library's at
>
> http://koha.athenscounty.lib.oh.us
>
> If you have any further questions don't hesitate to ask.  You may also
> be interested in checking out the Koha lists.  You can subscribe at
>
> http://www.koha.org/mailing/
>
> Regards,
>
> Joshua Ferraro
>
>
>
>> Hello MJ,
>>
>> Thanks for your quick reply. The reason I mailed you is that I am more
>> comfortable writing in English than in French for technical subjects. As
>> Z39/50 compliance is a pre-requisite for our use I will contact Joshua
>> Ferraro to find out how far he has reached with that task.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Peter
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: MJ Ray [mailto:mjr at ttllp.co.uk]
>> Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 6:25 PM
>> To: Pissierssens, Peter
>> Subject: Re: KOHA
>>
>>
>> Hello Peter,
>>
>> I'm curious to know why you chose to contact me instead of the French
>> developer? I studied in a university department which is active in
>> oceanography, so I'm quite happy to help you, but I rarely get
>> contacts from France.
>>
>> On 2004-03-01 13:30:48 +0000 "Pissierssens, Peter"
>> <p.pissierssens at unesco.org> wrote:
>>
>>> I found your name on the KPHA web site. We are looking for an open
>>> source
>>> library management software application and Koha seems to fit that
>>> description. However, one important feature I could not find on the
>>> KOHA
>>> site is Z3950 compliance. Can a KOHA library database be queried by a
>>> z3950
>>> server?
>>
>> In 2.0, koha can query Z39.50 targets but cannot be queried. Joshua
>> Ferraro, jmf at kados.org, is developing the Z39.50 interface for koha
>> 2.2.
>>
>> By the way, should UNESCO people say "free software"? We are blessed
>> with the UNESCO free software portal and directory, after all.
>> http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoftware/
>>
>>> Also, can you lead me to a few KOHA based online catalogues?
>>
>> I suggest looking at the "Test Drive" koha servers on the www.koha.org
>> site for now. I can't publish details of many servers. If you are
>> looking for a demonstration of a particular feature, I can try to find
>> someone using it for you.
>>
>>> Thanks in advance for your reply
>>
>> I hope you find this useful.
>>
>> --
>> MJR    mjr at ttllp.co.uk  www.ttllp.co.uk  +44 (0)870 4321 9 10
>>   Creative copyleft computing consultancy, code and articles.
>>   Latest news: Working on ISP control panels and koha.org 2.0
>>
>