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1.4:
The 1.3.0 has been released a few weeks ago. The 1.3.1 will come
very soon. bugfixes, and it will add management tools for MARC
parameters, and a first draft of MARCdetail. Then, we will
continue toward 1.3.2 which will add MARC add and modify of
biblios.
The french UNIMARC parameters tables should be avaible a few days
after the 1.3.1 release, but won't be integrated during
installation process (maybe in 1.3.2).
Docs:
The developer level documentation (POD) written by Andrew
Arensburger and others (Thanks guys!), is now being auto posted to
http://www.kohalabs.com/resources/pod/ -- the documentation is
rebuit from source every night to ensure the most up-to-date
information is available.
Koha in the news:
Koha made the news again this week. Marshall Breeding wrote a
somewhat negative piece about Open Source in libraries for
Information Today (http://www.infotoday.com/it/oct02/breeding.htm)
which was also picked up by LinuxToday
(http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-10-09-014-26-RV-SW-PB).
The feedback at LinuxToday was mixed. It seems we have a long road
ahead of us to convince people that open source can make as big a
dent in the ILS market as it has in the webserver and operating
systems markets.
Community:
As more libraries have begun looking into Koha, we've started
testing it with bigger data sets. One library is testing Koha
themselves with over 450,000 items in their database. A developer
is also testing Koha against a collection of just over 2,000,000
items.
Another development aimed at overcoming the obstacles to wider koha
adoption is the Koha2010 project, which gets its name from the
Oregon Library Association's 'Vision 2010' strategic plan. This
project is aimed at building a dialog between koha developers,
librarians, and library associations to guide the development of
Koha. My intent is to ensure that Koha can fulfill all the
requirements of these groups strategic plans for the next 5-10
years. If you'd like to join the conversation, please send an
email to address@hidden and follow the directions
you get in return mail. You can also see
http://www.kohalabs.com/projects/koha2010/ for more information.
From the Kaitiaki:
Wow! Thigs are continuing to move quickly. More libraries seem to
be looking at Koha, and a couple of vendors are starting to show it
to libraries as well. This week's edition of the news came together
pretty easily, and I think it covers the scope of the project and
community much better than I could on my own. Thanks to all those
who ptiched in.
1.4:
The 1.3.x team is proud to announce the birth of the breeding farm.
The breeding farm is a place where you can place (lot of) MARC
records in 2 clicks. they stay in the breeding farm as long as you
have no items for this record.
When you want to add an item in koha, you enter ISBN/ISSN of the
book. If the book is in the breeding farm, it's immedialty called,
and entering a biblio is very quick (you just have to modify what you
want).
This functionnality is avaible only in CVS currently, but will be
ready for 1.3.2 in around 2 weeks.
Note: This functionnality is not intended for migrating a library to
Koha - to do this (migrating biblios AND items, you need to use
bulkmarcimport, avaible in 1.2 and that will be completed/rewritten
in 1.3)
Docs:
Thanks to some thoughts and work from Steve and Finlay, in short
order The SGML version(s) of the full manual will be uploaded via a
nifty form to Sourceforge, where the files will live in their own CVS
tree (to keep them a little away from the code). Steve has thrown
together something already:
http://www.haz.cmsd.bc.ca/cgi-bin/kohadoc/upload
This will let us run the SGML->HTML and HTMLtidy routine as part of
the buildrelease scipt, since the "most recent" manual will be in
CVS.
ThemeHowTo/ThemeNotes will be marked up into SGML format, and will
join the manual (developer section) soon. Ditto info on the POD
stuff (http://www.kohalabs.com/resources/pod/). Transitions will most
likely be getting a contribution re: how to move out of the
"Winnebago" package. How to do a language template is not as far
along, but as there is existing stuff from Katipo on how to use Kea,
I don't anticipate huge problems doing the same for that material.
I'm hoping to have the above done/proofed/final for the next stable
release (1.3.something I guess).
Developers: Especially NEW developers, please check the *current
"released" manual* if you haven't do so already. We *want* to credit
you, and spell your names correctly. Thanks. That goes especially
for our new language contributors.
Community:
There were three big items from the community this week.
One of the Win32 developers has not only gotten Koha running on
several versions of windows, but he has put together a Win32
installer. If you're interested in helping work on this, please join
the koha-win32 mailing list at:
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/koha/
Please take some time and fill out the survey that was posted to the
mailing list recently. Getting the word out about Koha is one of the
most important steps in keeping the development and user community
flourishing. It's also a very easy way to contribute.
Marshall Breeding's request earlier this week was another, similar,
way to contribute to the long term success of Koha. In some ways it
might be more visible. Marshall's site gets a lot of eyes. If Koha
looks good there, it will be a big plus.
French Koha:
Thanks to several worthy librarians, we now have a CSV file of the
whole UNIMARC tables : UNIMARC compliance will really help to make
Koha a viable alternative to commercial ILS in France. UNIMARC is
the standard used in libraries, from the Fench National Library to
the smallest public libraries. This is a major step forward for the
project in France.
Another, smaller step forward that occured this week is the
translation of the koha web site in French : it will soon go live at
http://fr.koha.org. It will help us publicize all Koha related
business in France, and provide a resource center for French
libraries interested in Koha.
All in all, it's been another great week.
thanks,
the Koha team
From the Kaitiaki:
Sorry that it's been so long since I've put one of these out. It
always seems like something else gets in the way, doesn't it?
Hopefully the breadth and importance of the news below is engaging
enought for you to forgive my lapse in sending things out lately.
Development:
Paul is closing in on the next 1.3 release and Steve is plugging
away at the next 1.2 release, but the biggest development news this
time around is administrative. We've decided that the 1.3 series is
such a radical departure from the existing 1.2 stuff, that it will
become Koha 2.0 instead of 1.4. This release marks a watershed for
us, and deserves the recognition that 2.0 will give it.
Congratulations to Paul and everyone else who has been involved in
the 1.3 work.
Community:
Chris Cormack (the release manager for the 1.2 series) recently
attended two conferences in Ohio, here's what he had to say:
Well I think the trip went really well, Stephen and the rest of the
NPL are feeling even more positive now. The OLC conference was good
lots of interesting topics and tho we were the last session on the
last day. We still had about 20-30 people stay to listen about koha.
Got to the think linux show the next day and got my pass and
stuff. Listened to the Linux terminal server project and other thin
clients. Interesting stuff for libraries, specially coupled with
the cool serial over ip hubs they were showing off as well.
Then came the presentation, I didnt end up using my slides because
they were aimed at a more libraryish audience. So I talked about
koha, explaining what a library system is to start :-) Then did the
history of koha, were we are at now, how they can help, how to get
it etc. About 25 people listening.
People drove in from Michigan and from Grandview Heights (near
Columbus, Ohio), three to four hour drives for both groups, just to
talk about Koha and how it might fit into their libraries. (One of
the libraies is a consortium that has a circulation of about 1.5
million a year! They'll both be in touch with NPL and Koha.
All in all a very positive trip it was heartening how many people
had heard of the project. And the guy from debian was keen to get
koha into the distro.
Koha also had a stall (manned by Katipo and HLT) at the 2002 Lianza
conference http://www.confer.co.nz/lianza2002/ -- way to go!
On a different tack, I'd like to welcome The Linux Box
(http://www.linuxbox.nu/) of Ann Arbor, Michigan as the newest
vendor offering commercial support for Koha. If you are interested
in supporting Koha, please let me know. We'd be happy to add you to
our support vendors page at http://koha.org/installation/support.html
French Koha:
Paul Poulain has announced that demo.koha-fr.org and fr.koha.org are
now live. The first is a demo site where you can play with the
emerging 1.3 series (it's especially nice to see that Koha is
becoming bilingual). The second site is the french language home
for Koha. These efforts are both huge wins for Koha in terms of
visibility.
Nicolas Morin wrote:
And the other day I went to a formation session on library web
sites: it turned out every single librarian attending (a group of
about 20 people from different libraries) knew that Koha existed :
"isn't it that open source library system that's talked about?"
So I think librarians awareness about Koha is good here in France :
but to really take off we would need one first library to use it.
I think what worked well in France so far is that, so to speak, we
played a duet : one programmer who can answer questions about the
software, the install, etc; and one librarian that can publicize Koha
and get colleagues interested. Couldn't we try to set up such "duets"
elsewhere?
This does look like a good model to follow within our other language
translation groups. The french community Koha mailing list is up to
51 subscribers, and there seems to be a great deal of work and
excitement on it.
Two last bits of news from the french koha community:
* the templating of the OPAC now being over, translation of the OPAC
will begin very soon : to start working on the translation of the
software itself is obviously a major step towards implementing Koha in
France.
* This week also, Koha-France contributed a list of report features we
would love to see implemented in Koha : see
http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/wiki/index.php?page=ReportFeatures for this
list. Any contribution to this list is welcome. If you want to get
involved, the Koha wiki is a good place to look at :
http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/wiki/index.php?page=KohaProject
thanks,
the Koha team
From the Kaitiaki
It's almost the end of November, and the holidays are nearly upon us.
It looks like we're going to be able to ring in the New Year with a
better, faster, more capable Koha -- and with many more libraries
using it. More and more people recognize Koha, and we're getting
more press than ever before. It looks like we'll be featured in the
Linux Journal early in 2003, and may have a few more articles after
that. (If you're at all interested in writing an article about Koha,
please feel free to contact me at address@hidden -- I'd be happy to
talk with you.)
Development
There have been several big events on the development side of
Koha this week. Paul has just released Koha 1.3.2, the next alpha
version of the forthcoming 2.0 series. This release features:
* Many improvments in MARC management from 1.3.1.
* acquisition.simple now works : you can upload marc files in a
breeding farm. When you search for an ISBN/ISSN in the acquisition
screen, if you choose the "New biblio" option and the biblio is in
the breeding farm, it's automatically retrieved and can be modified.
* installer now install marc21 in english or unimarc in french datas.
* marc parameters complete documentation : see
http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/wiki/index.php?page=UserDoc
If the 2.0 release sounds exciting to you and you've got some MARC,
Perl, or HTML background, please consider jumping in and helping with
2.0 development. There are opportunities for people of all skill
levels.
Just because we're getting ready to roll 2.0 out the door doesn't
mean we plan on slowing down. We've already got our eyes on the
horizon. Steve Tonnesen has agreed to take on the role of 2.1/2.2
release manager, this will be a big task as we start to build new
functionality onto the MARC base which Paul is building with 2.0.
We've also released two Releases For Comment (RFCs): the first is
for a serials module, the second is for a 'foraging OPAC'. A serials
module is one of the big features missing from Koha at this point.
Once we've gotten a good idea of what we need to have in this module,
we'll be able to start developing it.
The 'foraging OPAC' is an interesting interface into the catalog,
imagine browsing through the collection as though you were walking
through the library. Another analog would be a Yahoo-like
hierarchical view of the collection where the patron would be able to
navigate through categorizations to find a set of books related to
what she wanted to find.
Community
A big event in the world of Koha this week has been the dual
face lifts at HLT. Not only did they complete the renovation of their
main library, but they've moved to a new set of templates for their
Koha OPAC. You can see their beautiful new interface at
http://opac.library.org.nz -- congratulations are due to Rosalie and
all her gang!
There have been some new additions to the wiki that you might want to
take a moment to look at (and maybe even update) them. Wikis are a
great tool for collecting and distributing information within a
community. They're very easy to use, and (especially in this case)
worth spending some time on.
The first new page is a listing of libraries using or migrating to
Koha. If you fit into this category, please add yourself to
http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/wiki/index.php?page=KohaUsers -- having an
idea of how many users we have will help us recruit developers,
recommend Koha to other libraries, and seek grants (or other funding)
to add new features.
The second new page is a listing of Koha Interest Groups (or KIGs).
This page (at
http://http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/wiki/index.php?page=KohaInterestGroups
-- and sub-pages) contains a list of KIGs that are starting to form
and some hints for starting a KIG. These kinds of groups will be key
to getting Koha to the next level of acceptance. Hopefully, they'll
also end up being a useful and fun group for the members -- providing
a chance to get together and talk about Koha, find help for problems,
and lobby for new development. Please think about getting
involved with your local KIG.
French
Nicolas Morin has taken on a more formal role as the manager of the
translation of Koha into French. Please join with me in
congratulating him on this new position. Nicolas has been working
hard on Koha for quite a while. He's helped to translate the
fr.koha.org web site, translated these newsletters, worked with the
French library and library education communities, and generally been
a great help to the whole community.
Spanish
Fransisco M. Marzoa Alonso has recently begun the effort of
translating the Koha templates into Spanish. His efforts are being
coordinated with other translators and proof-readers on the new
Spanish mailing list (see above). If you're interested in helping
Fransisco, please join the mailing list and get involved.
e iti noa ana na te aroha
-pate
Pat Eyler
Kaitiaki/manager
the Koha project
From the Kaitiaki:
Another week, and another bunch of work getting done. Two items
that've come up a bit recently are a need for more and better
administration tools and a reorganization of the Koha source code.
The first should help make Koha much easier for a library to
manage, allowing changes to be made without having to dive into the
database itself. The second should help the developers by cleaning
up the structure they have to work with every time they fix a bug
or add a feature. I'm anxious to see the fruits of both efforts.
Community:
Paul has started a french language complement to the koha-translate
mailing list. His comments are pertinent:
when a developper modifies a template (which happends yesterday
from me), i think translators should be informed. As translators
are not necessary following the koha-cvs ml, i think we should
create a koha-translate ml, for translators.
note : i'm happy to announce creation of address@hidden
for french translators and address@hidden for french
developpers.
The main translation list can be subscribed to from:
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/koha-translate
France:
Nicolas Morin has talked to two libraries in New Caladonia who are
starting to work with Koha. He'll be releasing a longer article
about it shortly, but here are some of the highlights:
* the first library has two branches 12 kms apart, amounting
to 600 meters square (1800 meters square in 2005), 35000
documents, with a yearly increase of 5000 ocuments. It's run by
a team of 10 people. A small library, but growing steadily.
* the second library is run by a 38 people strong team, has 74000
documents, did 260.000 transactions in 2001.
Both libraries are jointly considering the switch to Koha. Among
their motives, they listed:
* the GPL license that would allow them to install Koha in rural
and often poor areas that could not pay for a proprietary system,
and thus increasing the value of their network
* the openness of the source code, that would allow local
businesses or the university computer people to support the system
Both libraries will evaluate Koha and test it in the coming
months. Meanwhile Christophe Augias, head of the second library,
couldn't wait and got involved in the french translation team...
Documentation:
I need technical proofing volunteers (particularly people who have
just done installs) for comment on the next version of the manual.
Another attempt to make sure I've got every contributor in the
CREDITS will occur after the tech proofread.
The next edition of the manual is going to try to sit a little on
the fence so as to cover the versions out there (the 1.3/devel-test
and 1.2/stable).
thanks to everyone involved in the project,
-pate
Pat Eyler
Kaitiaki/manager migrant Linux sys admin
the Koha project ruby, shell, and perl geek
http://www.koha.org http://pate.eylerfamily.org
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