[Koha] Modularised Borrower Information (Another Database)

[Luke Ottrey]

Hi All,

Hope you're all well - and Paul, if you're still on holidays - hope that
you're enjoying your break.
I was wanting to hopefully create some discussion on the list about the
concept of a modularised borrower records system.

Currently, I volunteer my time and resources to a school here in Melbuorne -
and we've deployed Koha.  I am partially responsible for the creation of the
student reporting system also.  In doing this, the last batch of student
reports we noticed some anomolies in the data - because we keep so many
databases at the school, and centralising would give us many benefits and
interoperability with portals etc etc.

Whilst it is the responsibility of the librarian to maintain the student
records - it's my responsibility to ensure this doesn't happen again - and
so, centralisation of borrower information (and modularility so those who
don't want it don't have to have it) is coming to mind.

Talking with Chris the other day over IRC, he seemed to agree that it is
going to be a good idea - but extensive modification needed to many modules.

I may be able to secure funding from the school for such a feature if it is
to be included in the next release version, but I haven't discussed this
with them as yet.  So if there are developers that may be willing to put in
the hard work for the benefit of the community at large, a small monetary
reward may be available.  

There's a few more ideas which I'm planning for deployments of Koha on a
much larger scale, but for commercial reasons can't mention here - but more
details on that later on through the year.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Thanks for your time.

Luke Ottrey, Purple Lion
Ph: 0408 675 648
Fax: +61 3 9886 7349
Email: luke at purplelion.com.au
Web: www.purplelion.com.au