[Koha] Raspberry Pi

Wed Aug 26 00:04:42 NZST 2015

I posted this to MEDLIB-L, the medical librarians' listserv, last Friday, and I'm reposting it to the Koha list in hopes that some of you may find it interesting. I thought about taking out some of the medical-library-related material and US references, but that would mean redoing most of the footnotes. Too complicated.

Does anyone here use a Raspberry Pi as a Koha production server? It seems possible for a small library, but it looks so improbable. However, it's as much RAM and hard drive space as you'd get on one of Digital Ocean's lower-priced options. Is my mostly-pulled-out-of-the-air estimate of $75USD for an entire Koha system (just the hardware and software--technical expertise not included) accurate? Does everybody else already know about this and I'm doing the equivalent of exclaiming over the invention of the wheel? Comments invited.

Cheers,

Fred King
Medical Librarian, MedStar Washington Hospital Center
fred.king at medstar.net<mailto:fred.king at medstar.net>
202-877-6221
ORCID 0000-0001-5266-0279

Sometimes research is mostly documenting the obvious.
--Frazz

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Disclaimer: I'm about to mention a few computer-related products, so I should probably say that I have no financial interest in any of them--I just think they're interesting. I do have an interest in seeing more libraries use Koha: the more users, the more people and money available to improve the system. And it should go without saying, though I will anyway, that I'm speaking only for myself, not my employer.

Upon re-reading this, it does sound rather like an infomercial. Sorry--it didn't start out to be. If the idea offends you, please accept my apologies and hit the delete key.

Furthermore: we've had about two weeks' share of off-topic banter in the past few days, and I've contributed more than my share. However, I wanted to write about this before it melts out of my aging brain like an ice cream cone on a hot day. Besides, as the rapper Tupat Zobutta said, "I'm on a roll this week." (1)

On with the show:

Has anyone here heard of/used the Raspberry Pi? I was at the Koha North America Users' Group meeting a couple of weeks ago, and someone passed one around for us to look at. It's a 900MHz quad-core computer with 1GB RAM, 4 usb ports, HDMI port, 100 MBS ethernet port, 3.5mm audio/composite video jack, Micro SD slot, and a few other features.

Cost: $35.00.

Naturally, me being a computer geek and all (2) I ordered one from a Large Online Retailer as soon as the session was over. I splurged and got the computer, a case, and a power supply (micro USB; it won't run off a standard computer USB port--not enough power) for $50.00. I also got a 32GB Micro SD card for a few dollars more. It supports a variety of Linux operating systems; I installed the one designed for the card (Raspbian).  (You can also buy a card with the operating system already installed.)

All of this comes from the Raspberry Pi Foundation (4), a UK-based educational charity. From their web site: "It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch and Python. It's capable of doing everything you'd expect a desktop computer to do, from browsing the internet and playing high-definition video, to making spreadsheets, word-processing, and playing games."

If you want to see a picture of mine, go to http://www.philobiblios.net/pi. I persuaded my cat to pose with it to give an idea of how big it is. (5)

So, how does this fit in with medical libraries? Well, there may be some libraries here who are so flush with money that they don't need an inexpensive computer, but for the rest of us, I have some ideas.

Presentations

Anybody here give presentations, or lend out computers for doctors/nurses/teachers to do them? We have computers and projectors, but sometimes we run out. I installed Libre Office (6) on my Raspberry Pi and tried running my library orientation PowerPoint show on it. Libre Office can read pptx files, and it worked well. My presentation had full-screen photos, which displayed perfectly. The cockroach crawling across the screen didn't work perfectly, but I think that would be easy to fix. I haven't tried more complicated videos such as 4D ultrasound yet, but for simple files, it does the job.

Or, if you want to set up a rotating slide show for an exhibit, a small computer is a lot easier to carry around--you can roll it up in your t-shirt sleeve. And if you drop it or it gets stolen, it's a lot cheaper to replace than a laptop. (Though unlike most laptops, it can't be fitted with a security cable.)

Internet Demos

You can get a wireless USB connector for around $10. Then plug in all the stuff and you're ready to go.

ILS

How about a complete library system--server and software--for under $75? (7) This sounds far-fetched even to me, but I've been assured that Koha will run on a Raspberry Pi. After all, I heard about it at a Koha conference. Koha is a free open-source ILS (8) that has been around since 1999, so it's well-established. We migrated our library to Koha two years ago and we're very happy with it. (8) We also like the price. (9) I'm not sure how an ILS running on a Raspberry Pi would work for a huge library with dozens of transactions every minute; I think it could handle the minimal requirements we put on our system.  Our old system ran on a Pentium II with 256MB RAM, after all.

It's not the best computer for everything, of course. For one thing, I don't think our IT staff would ever allow one on our hospital network, and it couldn't run some of the proprietary software we use. The box itself is minuscule, but you do have to attach a keyboard, HDMI cable (10), mouse, network cable, etc. Also, if you disconnect the power at an inopportune time, you risk the chance of corrupting data. If I were doing anything critical, I'd want LOTS of backups.  (11)

So what do you all think? Does something like this have a place to supplement computers in libraries, or did I have too much barbecued pork for dinner last night?

Happy Friday,

Fred

(1) If you think I'm going to apologize for that, you are sadly mistaken.
(2) You can tell because some of my teeth are chipped. That comes from biting the heads off disk drives. (3)
(3) Speaking of jokes one has to be a certain age to understand, and sometimes not even then.
(4) http://www.raspberrypi.org
(5) Computers and cats. Talk about librarian click-bait! I hope my bandwidth can handle it.
(6) Free open-source office software, including word processor, presentation maker, and spreadsheet. http://www.libreoffice.org
(7) This is assuming you do all the setup and migration yourself. There are also companies that will do that for you.
(8) http://www.koha-community.org
(9) It's optional, but you are expected to give something back to the project if you can. That's why I bring up Koha at any opportunity.
(10) Also works with other video connectors with the right adaptors.
(11) You can download software that will make an exact clone of the SD card, so if one comes back from a field trip and it won't boot, just swap out cards and you're ready to go.

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