[Koha] Koha on Mac OS X? Seeking more info

[Ann Sawusch]

Thanks Stephen for your quick reply.

If the bulkmarc inport utility works well we may be in good shape already. We don't need to import records from other libraries at this point.  This group is building an archive of their MARC cataloging data at MARCIVE for export when we have a system up / stable. This means with very limited staffing uncataloged materials can get nice labels & smart barcodes and even (yikes) catalog cards. The manual checkout process has worked well for me as a transition phase in small (n=200) of patrons environments.

Let me add my voice to any who are requesting that the 650 subject fields be a priority to fix so all the _x & _z , etc. subfields work properly.  In collections that are very dense in one subject area, the ability to scan/search both the whole 650 as a phrase, as well as the individual components is important for accessing the intellectual content of the collection. Browsing a phrase index of 650's has become a digital form of physical shelf browsing to learn what a collection holds. (Some of us also browse LC Classification / call numbers...)

Ann Sawusch
Librarian
Research Institute on Addictions
University at Buffalo, Buffalo NY
 
On Thursday, March 23, 2006, at 01:11PM, Stephen Hedges <shedges at skemotah.com> wrote:

>Ann -
>
>What you'll be missing is the ability to search for bibliographic records
>from other libraries, because you won't have a Z39.50 client. One of the
>modules that makes the client work (Event) has not been ported to OS X.
>Last I knew, Koha 3.0 was not going to have this problem -- at least
>that's the hope. (I notice, however, from Joshua's latest Debian doc that
>Event is still be used in Koha 2.2.6.)
>
>For now, though, I think Koha on Mac OS X makes for a nice demo and/or
>training tool, but I'm not sure I'd want to use it in a production
>environment.  If you start playing with Koha now, and Koha 3.0 truly does
>work better with Mac OS X, then you should be ready to jump right in when
>3.0 is released.
>
>Stephen
>
>Ann Sawusch wrote:
>> Hello. I am a newbie to this list. Could you point me to more information
>> on using Koha in a Mac OS X environment? I found and read Stephen Hedges
>> doc Installing Koha on Mac OS X.(2006)
>>
>> I am working with a group with no budget and a donated Mac (nice, running
>> 10.3.?). Is it possible to establish a stable production Koha on OS X?
>> What doesn't work or breaks with the absence of the Net::Z3950 module "and
>> some other limitations"?
>>
>> I would be very interested in learning details of cons of Mac OS X. It
>> will be a hardsell to strip out the OS X and rebuild in Linux. Folks have
>> a comfort level with OS X (security, updating, network
>> configuration...)and want to understand 'why not'.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any assistance.
>>
>> Ann Sawusch
>> asawusch at mac dot com
>
>-- 
>Stephen Hedges
>Skemotah Solutions, USA
>www.skemotah.com  --  shedges at skemotah.com
>
>
>



Ann Sawusch
asawusch at mac.com