[Koha] KENYAN KOHA USERS: ARE YOU THERE?
Elizabeth Sadler
eos8d at eservices.virginia.edu
Fri Feb 15 09:46:29 NZDT 2008
Dear Ken,
I'm not in Kenya, but I wanted to make sure you knew about eIFL-FOSS (http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-foss
) and our ILS program. Kenya is one of the countries represented by
eIFL, and you may find that in addition to connecting with other
Kenyan Koha users through the Koha mailing list you might also want to
participate in the eIFL-FOSS ILS community.
You might also be interested in this call for participation that went
out recently. If you do go forward with organizing a Kenyan Koha
users' group, participation in a larger program like the eIFL-FOSS ILS
program might make it easier to get support for organizing training
and workshops, as you mentioned. For what it's worth, I think it's a
wonderful idea and I hope it comes together.
Best wishes,
Bess Sadler
http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-foss/ils/call-for-participation
----
The Project:
eIFL-FOSS ILS is a project supporting evaluation of and migration to
free and open source (FOSS) integrated library systems (ILS). It is an
opportunity for librarians in eIFL member countries to engage directly
with the Koha http://www.koha.org/ or Evergreen
http://www.open-ils.org/ development communities and to contribute to
that ongoing development. In particular it is an opportunity for pilot
institutions, in conjunction with the active participation of the
eIFL-FOSS country coordinators, to identify and draft support
documentation to aid themselves and other libraries that may wish to
pursue this FOSS ILS path.
Call for Participation:
At this time we invite any eIFL.net library that is interested in
participating in a pilot of either Koha or Evergreen to make
themselves known to the eIFL-FOSS Program Manager, Randy Metcalfe
randy.metcalfe[@]eifl.net , by no later than 28 February 2008. An
initial meeting of pilot institutions will take place as soon after
that date as is feasible. Please be sure to identify which ILS you are
most interested in piloting. The full application details along with
further details of what is involved in piloting are available below as
well as here.
http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-foss/ils/call-for-participation
Pilots:
A pilot in this project is a library that is undertaking evaluation,
testing, and/or migration to either Koha or Evergreen. Becoming a
pilot does not entail that your library will in fact migrate to Koha
or Evergreen. But it does demand full participation in the project's
activities, especially in the effort to develop needed support
documentation. Pilot institutions can expect the full support of the
project team including the country coordinators and Advisory Board. In
addition they must agree to host a 2 to 3 day visit by two members of
the project team whose task will be to write a case-study of what has
taken place during this pilot and to gather learning points for the
project. Pilots must agree for the case-study to be published for
wider distribution. Note: we appreciate that some libraries will
already be engaged in ongoing investigations of Koha or Evergreen;
this is not a barrier to participation as a pilot institution in this
project.
We intend to conduct a total of 6 pilots (3 Koha pilots and 3
Evergreen pilots) over the life of the project, ideally in 3 separate
phases. Please express your interest in participating as a pilot even
if you will not be ready to pilot either ILS for up to 6 months. There
will still be an opportunity for you to benefit from the project.
Note: if the overwhelming majority of those expressing interest in
piloting prefer one ILS, the project plan will adjust to accommodate
demand.
Because we anticipate that interest in Koha and Evergreen will
outstrip the scale of the project, we have established a set of
selection criteria to guide us in selecting suitable pilot
institutions.
Pilot Selection criteria
Pilot sites must act in their country or region as a Centre of
Excellence for implementing, piloting and disseminating information
about the FOSS ILS option(s) to libraries, archives, and museums.
The piloting site must be a library or group of libraries, with a
medium to large size collection (ideally greater than 200,00 volumes
per library), and:
* must be willing to install, localize and test at least cataloguing
and circulation modules of a FOSS ILS (either Koha or Evergreen);
* must have at least Pentium3 or Pentium4 computers, medium to high
Internet bandwidth, and medium to high IT experience;
* should already have at least an online catalogue, and be interested
in migrating to a FOSS ILS;
* should be able to write draft support documentation in one of the
suggested languages: Arabic, English, French, or Russian;
* should be willing to help develop documentation on the software and
migration scenarios, including translation of documentation and
selected ILS localization where appropriate;
* should be willing to assist in developing appropriate training
courses in the usage of a FOSS ILS for different groups of users,
including but not limited to:
o System librarians;
o Cataloguers;
o Circulation staff;
o Library patrons.
In addition to the requirements for the pilot site, there are specific
requirements for IT staff from the pilot site. The main IT contact
from the pilot institution must be:
* fluent in English;
* able to install, test, and troubleshoot various FOSS products, or be
willing to learn how to do so;
* willing to report to the eIFL-FOSS Project Coordinator on progress
and operational status of the pilot on a regular basis;
* willing to serve as a focal point for promoting the vision, mission,
values, strategic goals and outputs of eIFL-FOSS in the piloting
country;
* able to network with the Project Coordinator, Program Manager,
Advisory Board and the larger support community to ensure that
organizational, functional and technical issues are solved in a
unified and co-ordinated manner;
* willing to participate and contribute to the various activities
offered by the Advisory Board;
* willing and able to respond promptly to all calls for information by
stated deadlines.
Countries eligible to participate (i.e. eIFL.net member countries)
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Croatian, Egypt,
Estonia, Georgia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Kosova, Kyrgyzstan, Laos,
Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova,
Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Palestine Territories (Gaza and
West Bank), Poland, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa,
Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Zambia,
Zimbabwe.
Application procedure
At this time we invite any eIFL.net library that is interested in
participating in a pilot of either Koha or Evergreen to make
themselves known to the eIFL-FOSS Program Manager, Randy Metcalfe
randy.metcalfe[@]eifl.net , by no later than 28 February 2008. An
initial meeting of pilot insitutions will take place as soon after
that date as is feasible. Please be sure to identify which ILS you are
most interested in piloting. You will then be requested to complete
the detailed application below:
1.Organization/library name
2.Country or region name
3.Full address
4.Phone and fax contact
5.Email contact
6.Institution URL
7.Collection size
8.Language(s) supported
9.ILS currently deployed
10.Migration goals: why do you wish to migrate to a FOSS ILS?
11.Current cataloguing format
12.Library technical infrastructure – please describe in detail: kinds
of hardware and specifications; library automation products apart from
the ILS (e.g., link resolver, federated searching, OpenURL,
institutional repository), etc.
13.Type of Internet connection and bandwidth
14.Skill level of library IT staff, especially systems administrators
and system librarians
15.Language skills of library IT staff. Do you have anyone who could
help localize the interface and/or write support documentation?
16.Level of institutional commitment. Will you be able to commit staff
time, hardware budget, and other resources to this migration? Does
this pilot fit with any other institutional goals?
On 14-Feb-08, at 10:53 AM, kenneth rotich wrote:
> Hi
> It seems Koha as an integrated library system is penetrating kenyan
> libraries and i had a crazy idea that we should come and put
> heads together and form the kenyan chapter community. we can
> organize workshops, training, etc
> Can somebody say something about this idea
>
> ken rotich
>
> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.
> Try it now.<ATT00001.txt>
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