[Koha] Official Koha Newsletter: Volume 2, Issue 1: January 2011

[Nicole Engard]

Please read the newsletter online for live links:
http://koha-community.org/koha-newsletter-volume-2issue-1-january-2011/

Official Koha Newsletter (ISSN 2153-8328)
Volume 2, Issue 1: January 2011

Table of Contents

    * Koha Developments
          o RFC Roundup: Members/Patrons
          o Koha 3.2.3 is now available
    * Koha Libraries
          o 7 Public Libraries in Pampanga Receive Koha Computers
          o National Folk Archive in the UK Launches Online Catalog
    * Koha Events
          o OS Academy a big success for Koha
          o KUDOS Conference in May


Koha Developments


RFC Roundup: Members/Patrons
by MJ Ray

The following Patrons management improvement ideas have Requests For
Comments listed on the Koha Community Wiki. If you have suggestions
you could make about these topics, please add comments to the relevant
page by logging in and clicking the “Edit” tab at the top of the page.
Alternatively, you could start a discussion on the email list or web
forum.

    * Calculate fines in days debarred RFC
          o Koha 3.0 lets the library define fines in money only. Some
libraries needs to be able to set “debarred” fines. When a patron
returns books lately, he is debarred for some days.
    * Enhancements to debarred patron
          o Gonenoaddress, lost or debarred are currently just toggle
choices. Enhancements proposed include adding a comment field to each
choice and adding an expiry date for debarring.
    * Duplicate card button
          o This feature would add a new button to duplicate a patron
card. A new form with the duplicated values will open up and when the
librarian puts the cursor on a field, the value will be erased ready
to write the new value. Then the librarian can save the new card.
    * Enhancements to the display of extended patron attributes in circ
          o This RFC proposes having some extended attributes display
in circ/circulation.pl and jumping straight to the patron details page
if there is only one match for a patron search.
    * Fines Tab
          o Redesign the fines tab to allow partial payment and
record/show more information about fines, such as the librarian taking
the fine, the transaction time and payment method.
    * Patron Reading record management RFC and Patron self-managing privacy RFC
          o The laws in some countries requires that the library
cleans the reading record after some time. These new features would
let the user himself decide what to do with the reading record. The
current behaviour will be the initial default and changed through a
system preference.

** Please Contribute! **

Please, if you have any feedback or encouragement for any of the
above, follow the link and add comments, or start a discussion.


Koha 3.2.3 is now available
by Chris Nighswonger

It is with pleasure that I announce the release of Koha 3.2.3.

The package can be retrieved from:

http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.02.03.tar.gz

You can use the following checksum and signature files to verify the download:

http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.02.03.tar.gz.MD5
http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.02.03.tar.gz.MD5.asc
http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.02.03.tar.gz.sig

Release notes for 3.2.3 are below the fold.

Come and get it! Read more.


Koha Libraries


7 Public Libraries in Pampanga Receive Koha Computers
by Pampanga PIO

City of San Fernando – The National Library of the Philippines (NLP)
turned over seven Koha computer units to seven public libraries in the
province in ceremonies held recently at the Pampanga Provincial
Library. Read More.


National Folk Archive in the UK Launches Online Catalog
by Elaine Bradtke

The first collection of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
catalogue has been launched into cyberspace:
http://catalogue.efdss.org. More on this story can be found on
WorldCentralMusic.org.


Koha Events


OS Academy a big success for Koha
by Chris Cormack

Over the last 2 weeks Catalyst has been running a pilot of an
‘Academy’ for high school age students.  I was very happy to be a part
of what, in my opinion, turned out to be a very well run and most
worthwhile exercise. During the first week the students were treated
to tutorial sessions, including installing ubuntu on their laptops,
using git, perl, php, postgresql, configuring a server, copyright,
licenses, freedom, community, graphics (inkscape & the gimp), html css
and javascript. Quite a list now I see it all written down. Read More.


KUDOS Conference in May
by David Schuster

Put May 2 and 3, 2011 on your calendars for the KUDOS conference to be
held in Madison, Wisconsin we are finalizing the venue.  More
information on transportation and housing to come.  This will be a
conference for and by users of Koha in collaboration with vendors that
support or interact with Koha.  We are hopeful that this conference
will be a low cost/no cost option with the help of sponsorships from
vendors and libraries.

We are looking for volunteers to serve on the planning and program
committees. If you are interested in helping out, please let me know.
We need to get to work on this right away!

This is NOT going to be a KohaCon and at this time no Hackfest is
being organized.




Newsletter edited by Nicole C. Engard, Koha Documentation Manager.
Please send future story ideas to me.