[Koha] Official Koha Newsletter: Volume 1, Issue 5: May 2010

[Nicole Engard]

Official Koha Newsletter (ISSN 2153-8328)
Volume 1, Issue 5: May 2010

Read Online w/ Live Links:
http://koha-community.org/koha-newsletter-volume-1issue-5-may-2010/
Subscribe via RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/KohaNewsletter

Table of Contents

    * KohaCon 2010
          o Call for Presentations
          o Call for Registrations
    * News from the Developers
          o Koha 3.2 Alpha 2 Released
          o Koha Dependencies in Debian
    * Koha Libraries
          o American Numismatic Society Migrated to Koha
          o Koha Open Day in London a Success
    * Koha/Open Source Learning
          o Security Tip: Change the Default Password for the kohaadmin User
          o Open Source Bibliographies


KohaCon 2010


Call for Presentations
by Nicole C. Engard

KohaCon is only 6 months away and we’re still looking for presentation
proposals. The official call for proposals for KohaCon10 has been
made. If you’re joining us in NZ in October, please think about
sharing your Koha knowledge, tips, and ideas with us! Submit as many
proposals (https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGJjUWtHMTE2X0J0Vm5ENXlaSnJnTFE6MA)
as you want. The deadline for submitting proposals is the 15th of
June.


Call for Registrations
by Nicole C. Engard

If you’re planning on joining us in NZ in October make sure you submit
your registration (http://www.kohacon10.org.nz/2010/registration/)
soon. The conference is only six months away and time flies when
you’re having fun preparing Koha 3.2 for its official release.


News from the Developers

Koha 3.2 Alpha 2 Released
by Galen Charlton

I am pleased to announce release of the second and final alpha of Koha
3.2.0. The package can be retrieved from

http://download.koha.org/koha-3.02.00-alpha2.tar.gz

Checksums and signatures are also available:

    * http://download.koha.org/koha-3.02.00-alpha2.tar.gz.MD5
    * http://download.koha.org/koha-3.02.00-alpha2.tar.gz.MD5.asc
    * http://download.koha.org/koha-3.02.00-alpha2.tar.gz.sig

I will be mirroring these on Savannah shortly.

The next two milestones for release are beta and general release. At
this point, I am declaring a soft string freeze; template changes
other than those to fix typos and structural problems will be deferred
to 3.4. Read more…
(http://koha-community.org/koha-3-2-0-alpha-2-released/)


Koha Dependencies in Debian
by Lars Wirzenius

Debian unstable should now have all Koha dependencies included. All
but one of them are in squeeze (the current testing) as well. The one
missing from squeeze is libtext-csv-encoded-perl. You can download it
manually from a Debian package mirror and install it from the command
line. Even that package will hopefully enter squeeze by mid-May.


Koha Libraries


American Numismatic Society Migrated to Koha
by Jared Camins-Esakov

The American Numismatic Society, a museum and research institute in
New York, is pleased to join the ranks of Koha libraries. The new
catalog was officially announced (and named) on Monday, April 19,
2010, following a six month migration process. The library staff
continues to tweak the interface, and an intensive quality assurance
program is underway to bring the database (containing more than 175k
records) in line with modern library standards. Please feel free to
take a look at the new catalog, accessible at
http://donum.numismatics.org/ or the library’s website, accessible at
http://www.numismatics.org/Library/Library.


Koha Open Day in London a Success
by Andrea Chandler

We had a successful open day here in London, UK on 23rd April.
Representatives from Camlis and the King’s Fund spoke to a group of 10
librarians who are close to deciding to adopt Koha, or have newly
implemented it. We kept it small and without representatives from any
support companies so that it would feel informal, and to promote Koha
without promoting any particular support option. Those attending got
to ask plenty of questions and we also gave some live demonstrations
of day-to-day Koha functions. We also showed a sneak preview of a
feature-in-progress: to import book orders and marc records direct
from our suppliers into the acquisitions module. I think we gave some
users more confidence to make the change if they choose to. The open
day/morning felt like a good model and a way of introducing potential
users to each other, instead of us answering inquiries piecemeal. We
hope to repeat the event on a regular basis, so please do register
your interest with us if you’d like to attend in the future.


Koha/Open Source Learning


Security Tip: Change the Default Password for the kohaadmin User
by Chris Nighswonger

The default password for the kohaadmin user is katikoan. When running
Makefile.PL, you will see this prompt:

“Please specify the password of the user that owns the database to be
used by Koha [katikoan]”

Rather than hitting the enter key and moving along, take a moment to
change this password to something different and something strong.
Remember, every person who has ever installed Koha knows the default
username and password. Furthermore, according to one researcher, it
takes about 58 hours to crack an 8 alphabetic character lower-case
password using software and non-dictionary words.
(http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/safetyinnumbers.htm) If you
cannot think of a strong, unique password, you can create a few which
no one will guess using this site: https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm.

Remember to create your database user with the same username/password
combination you selected during the Makefile.PL run. If you need to
change the username and/or password at a later time be sure to change
it in both koha-conf.xml *and* in the database. For more information
on how to change the username/password in MySQL, see any of the
INSTALL files that come with the source of Koha. You may also view one
here: http://tinyurl.com/INSTALL-debian

Good security is always a wise investment, and implementation of this
recommendation will cost you only a few minutes.


Open Source Bibliographies
by Nicole C. Engard

The newest version of Zotero has the ability to create and sync with
public libraries online. Did you know that there was a Koha group
library (http://www.zotero.org/groups/koha/items)? To make it easier
to access some of these great resources, I have put the Koha
bibliography under documentation on the Koha site. In addition to
being a member of the Koha library on Zotero, I keep my own
bibliographies (http://www.zotero.org/nengard/items), a few of which
are centered around open source software. Here are some of the titles
I’ve found recently about Open Source Software.

Blankenhorn, Dana. “Open source communities must protect their
interests.” Blog. Open Source | ZDNet, April 30, 2010.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=6381.

Gentile, Brian. “The Open Source Renaissance.” opensource.com, March
10, 2010. http://opensource.com/business/10/3/open-source-renaissance.

Haigh, Paul. “Moving forward with Open Source, a school leader’s
perspective.” Open Source Schools, April 9, 2010.
http://opensourceschools.org.uk/moving-forward-open-source-school-leaders-perspective.html.

Taylor, Mark. “Moving Forward with Open Source, an industry
perspective.” Open Source Schools, April 8, 2010.
http://opensourceschools.org.uk/moving-forward-open-source-industry-perspective.html.





Newsletter edited by Nicole C. Engard, Koha Documentation Manager.

Please send future story ideas to me.