[Koha] Phone notification system & Koha

[Reed Wade]

Hi,

Yes, this is very doable using an open source PBX called Asterisk
(http://www.asterisk.org/).

I'm fairly new to Koha but I don't see any obstacles to it.

I have built a simple Amazon lookup service using it that would read
off the product description if you key in an ISBN via touch tone. It
would also send and email to the user if they'd previously registered
using their caller id info.

Things to know are that touch tone input is easy to handle. Voice
input is not. Generating spoken word output works great when you
already know the words you'll use (and so can provide recordings you
already know sound nice). Computer generated speech is often good
enough but there can be some rough edges.

See http://cepstral.com/
this is a very low cost and good quality text to speech generator
($30USD) that integrates with Asterisk and is the one I used for the
Amazon service. There's some demos there which will give you an idea
of what you can expect for free text reading.

One nice option with an Asterisk based system is it can all be voice
over IP and so you need not purchase any physical phone lines if you
don't want to.

-reed



2009/6/2 Susan O'Neal <soneal at mplmain.mtpl.org>:
> We are stumped!  Migrating from Classic Dynix to Koha is scheduled for 9/09
> and we need a system to replace the old Telecirc system sold to us by
> Dynix.  Actually, the software is an older version of Edify.  Is there an
> open source system that anyone can recommend?  Or an off-the-shelf system
> that is robust enough that we can modify/customize?
>
>
>
> The functionality must include ability to phone customers with a
> computerized voice message to let them know of items on hold ready to be
> picked up, and of items overdue.  It also has the capacity to receive calls
> and renew items according to our policies.  This is more than the average
> drs office that calls with appointment reminders- must be able to link
> approx 250,000 item and 40,000 borrower records.
>
>
>
> Suggestions welcome!
>
>
>
> Susan O'Neal
>
> Director
>
> Middletown Township Public Library
>
> 55 New Monmouth Road
>
> Middletown, NJ 07748
>
> 732. 671.3703 (Phone)
>
> 732.671.5839 (Fax)
>
>
>
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>