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KohaCon12 Schedule

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Conference

Summary blog posts and items

Timings

Scheduled times can be found on the website at http://koha-community.org/kohacon12/program/.

Abstracts - Day 1

Koha 3.8, what's new ? (20 min)

Paul Poulain, BibLibre

This talk will show some of the new features you'll get in Koha 3.8.

Migrating to Koha: A British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) Journey (20 min)

Nason Bimbe, Institute of Development Studies

British Library for Development Studies is the largest collection of economic and social development materials in Europe. BLDS is based at the Institute of Development Studies where it supports teaching and research by providing library services to both ‘local’ and ‘remote’ users – particularly those in the developing world.

BLDS operated a bespoke LMS that was developed in-house and eventually became out of date with requirement of a modern LMS. The main drivers that lead to the replacement of the bespoke LMS were:

  • Bespoke LMS was becoming unstable, needing a lot of staff maintenance, and was leading to a very poor customer service experience for users
  • The role of BLDS had changed substantially since the initial design of the current system, and was now much more global in reach, requiring new functionality
  • LMS technology has advanced exponentially, and with it the demands of library users for a more flexible, user-led search experience
  • Bespoke LMS was not future-proofed in terms of further developments

BLDS needed a modern Integrated Library Management System (ILS) that would support current and future requirements of the library [1]. An ILS is a multifunction, adaptable software application that allows a library to manage, catalogue and circulate materials to patrons and also offers fundamental flexibility to be readily adapted to the future demands and needs of the patrons [2]. In July 2011, BLDS began the search for a new LMS.

Open Source LMS have come of age and are now being deployed in a number of libraries, including higher education and public organisations [1][3]. Of the Open Source LMS identified, Koha was seen as the most functionally complete with worldwide support. Koha is distributed under the free/open source General Public License (GPL). The community behind Koha is considered sustainable meaning it has obtained a critical mass of interested developers, contributors and users.

This presentation will look at:

  • The reasons why we chose a FOSS ILS – Koha
  • The process we used in the selection
  • Our implementation strategy – external hosting and outsourcing as opposed to internal hosting and our own management
  • Lessons learnt and in particular data migration

[1] Veronica Adamson, Paul Bacsich, Ken Chad, David Kay, Jane Plenderleith, (2008) "An Evaluation and horizon scan of the current library management systems and related systems landscape for UK higher education". A JISC & SCONUL LMS Study Report and available at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/resourcediscovery/lmsstudy.pdf [Accessed 24 April, 2012]

[2] Tristan Müller, (2011) "How to choose a free and open source integrated library system", OCLC Systems & Services, Vol. 27 Iss: 1, pp.57 – 78

[3] Alexandria Payne, Vandana Singh, (2010) "Open source software use in libraries", Library Review, Vol. 59 Iss: 9, pp.708 – 717

It's all about the people (45 min)

Chris Cormack, Catalyst IT

Free software is a collaborative effort and Koha is no exception. The mere process of getting a patch into Koha means cooperation between at least 3 individuals. How does the community encourage these relationships? What are some examples of these in action? What happens when they break down? How can we strengthen and create more?

Using sandboxes (15 min)

Paul Poulain, BibLibre

The Koha community has developped a mechanism to easily test patches even if you're not a developer, this quick presentation will show you how to use it.

Migrating to Koha (60 min)

Robin Sheat, Catalyst IT

Migrating to Koha is something that every library should do, unless they're already there. I'm going to cover what both libraries and developers should know about getting from a proprietary ILS to Koha, and some gotchas that always happen along the way.

Handout version of slides | Original version of slides | LaTeX source of slides | File:Migrating to koha handout.pdf

Managing Koha installs in a developing country (40 min)

Olugbenga Adara, Projektlink Konsult Ltd

Unlike in developed countries where infrastructure is advanced, managing a Koha installation where Internet access is epileptic or unavailable, electrical power is unpredictable and qualified technical manpower is scarce can be quite challenging. This paper intends to give advice and tips on managing these challenges from our experience in Nigeria.

"But my patrons need more information!" Analytic records and Koha (20 min)

Jared Camins-Esakov, C & P Bibliography Services

A surprisingly common question on the Koha IRC channel is "how do I catalog articles in Koha?" The answer is "use analytic records," a poorly-known part of the MARC standards (MARC21, NORMARC, and UNIMARC all support analytic records). Unlike most ILSes, Koha actually has a lot to offer to libraries concerned with analytic records, with no fewer than three different workflows for cataloging analytics (the "Easy Analytics" feature implemented as bug 5528, the "enhanced workflow" added by bug 6831, and the traditional workflow using the cataloging module). In my talk I will discuss some of the hows and whys of analytic records, showing attendees how to create them and what they look like, as well as explaining why they might want to use Koha's analytics features. The intended audience is librarians using Koha, particularly in special libraries, as well as developers who want to learn more about one of Koha's more distinctive features.

Abstracts - Day 2

Koha in a multi-national special library (30max min)

Dianna Roberts, Opus International Consultants Limited

As with most special libraries, serials are more important than books, but in 2005 Koha didn’t really manage serial processes so we got involved in developing these. Our first years with Koha were not happy ones but upgrading to a newer and vastly superior version led to a much happier experience. Our OPAC is now being used by staff in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the UK but the future acquisition of other companies may lead to new challenges.

Webservice Mirabel to Koha (20-30 min)

Marc Sabin, SciencesPo Grenoble

Mirabel is a free knowledge database upon online access to french journals, reviews and serials. The project is supported since 2009 by SciencesPo Grenoble, SciencesPo lyon and ENS Lyon.

Mirabel is now realized by a group of 20 french libraries from universities and research center.

A web service has been developped to put directly the data from Mirabel into koha. The solution is based on a service Rest (for Mirabel) and an importation script (for Koha) : Mirabel-to-Koha.pl

In order to present Mirabel's data in koha, you need to :

  • match all the serials and reviews for which you have a subscription (checkbox « Possession » inside Mirabel) and give the local identifier of each serials in Koha
  • connect to the URL (rest.php)
  • install the script Mirabel-to-Koha.pl in your Koha server
  • configure your Marc grids : define the Marc fields where Mirabel's informations are saved.

Here is an example : The French Review of Political Science The original Mirabel site : http://www.reseau-mirabel.info/?action=show&object=revue&id=25

The same review in Koha :

10 Data Migration Heuristics (20 min)

Joy Nelson, ByWater Solutions

Data migrations can be complex endeavors involving a variety of data types and sources, individuals and work processes. A successful data migration relies on consistency of process, communication and a strong relationship with your migration partners. This paper introduces a list of 10 migration heuristics designed to provide readers with a variety of strategies and tools for completing successful data migrations.

This is an interesting metadata source. Can I import it into Koha? (30 min)

Marijana Glavica and Dobrica Pavlinušić, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Zagreb, Croatia

We live in a world of data. However, data doesn’t always come in a format that is as easy to share as we would expect.

We had approximately 6000 scans of book covers coming from the Teachers' library stock of the Gymnasium in Požega, which was proclaimed the movable monument of culture that carries national significance. Our goal was to make the library stock visible to public and we needed to add metadata to those images. Fortunately, some of that data was already available on the web: in National Library’s Aleph system, several Croatian libraries using Koha, Hathi Trust digital library (VuFind), Open Library, Google Books, Europeana etc.

Importing local images is now standard part of Koha, so we decided to import all those images and to create the initial biblio records using the only kind of metadata that we had: structured directories and filenames which represent some kind of identifier number. After that, we started cataloguing our items. There is a convenient method for adding bibliographic data to a catalogue: using Z39.50 search. Unfortunately, not all of our metadata sources provided Z39.50 interface.

Our solution to the problem was to use scrape-cataloguing, which provided us with a way to avoid infinite copy & paste cycles or manual data entry. Instead, the job was done by our script that provides Z39.50 interface for Koha.

Presentation: http://bit.ly/gimpoz OPAC: http://gimpoz.koha.rot13.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl

Portuguese Libraries and KOHA : future trends and cooperation (30 min)

Rafael Antonio

Portuguese Libraries have been using commercial systems for long time but are now beginning to move to KOHA. Some issues related with lack of confidence about technical support still being the major constraint for a full adoption. This presentation introduces a briefing about what has been done with Portuguese pioneer libraries and major projects already running. After that we would approach major constraints felt for a full adoption and a proposal about possible ways to leverage Koha usage mainly through an European Users Network


What to Do When They Say "It Doesn't Work!" (30-45 min)

Jane Wagner, LibLime/PTFS

Library staff and patrons often report problems with the Koha system, but getting from a generic "it doesn't work!" report to all the details needed to identify and fix the problem can be difficult. I'll share some tips and tricks for extracting specific details needed to troubleshoot. I'll also discuss how to train your staff to make better problem reports, some common problems and solutions, and some readily available resources for you and your staff. Many problems fall into the same general categories (circ rules, reports, etc.), and you can build up your own site-specific FAQs in a relatively short time.

Slides: PDF

A Road Map to Improved Koha Governance (30 min)

Bob Birchall, CALYX information essentials

Koha keeps getting better and better. Community processes for identifying improvements, managing software development and sharing information are robust and effective. However risks exist in the governance model.

The time to attend to improved governance is while the project is strong and productive, not when a crisis emerges.

This paper will build on my presentation to KohaCon10 by proposing a road map to improved governance arrangements. It will not recommend specific structures or solutions, but will identify the questions the community must resolve.

This topic had a good airing in Wellington, and its not of interest to everyone. So half an hour should do it here, if you agree.

Training on Koha (30-45 min)

Nicole C. Engard, ByWater Solutions

This talk will cover tips for training new Koha librarians, lessons learned while training and tips for online training materials (manual, videos, etc).

Styling your Koha (30 min)

Adrien Saurat, Biblibre

This talk will show you what you can do and how you can tweak the display of your Koha OPAC and staff interface to fit your own graphic (colors...) preferences


Abstracts - Day 3

Koha in language centres (15-20 min)

Mirko Tietgen, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Language centres offer high-quality foreign language courses to university students and staff. Associated audio-visual libraries provide modern self learning materials as well as foreign language movies, documentaries and audio materials. Mostly independent of university libraries and their library systems, managing the special inventory is often done using spreadsheets or self-built database solutions, because proprietary library systems are too expensive and not as flexible as required. Patrons need to be able to find learning materials by language, level of proficiency, desired certificate or skill, but also to find movies by country, language, subject or available audio streams and subtitles. We are migrating to Koha and work on customizing the search options to address these needs.

Slides (PDF, 488,8KiB)

Zebra example


Linking records in Koha (15-20 min)

Zeno Tajoli, CILEA

With this presentation we explain how to link bibliographic records beetwen them in Koha. We list the related system preferences, we explain their integrations, the use of plugins, same change on template for easier linking. We speak also about bulk import/export and linking problems.


Ebsco's EDS and Koha- discovery tools (30 min)

Lee Miller, Butte-Silver Bow Public Library

Two Montana public Koha libraries will combine our catalogs and open our holdings to the EBSCO EDS discovery tool this spring. This project will hopefully create a shared catalog that has open APIs and merges a Sirsi consortium catalog with a Koha via the EBSCO's EDS discovery tool. FTP is used to upload data and also regular updates. One of the issues yet resolved is a way to place holds in the EDS discovery tool outside of the Koha catalogs. This project is scheduled for the spring and may still be under construction during Kohacon 12 unless we are error free. LOL

Koha Offline Circulation (20 min)

Kyle M Hall, ByWater Solutions

This presentation will survey the both the Koha Offline Circulation desktop application and the alternative Firefox plugin, stepping through installation, configuration, and a demo of each.

Koha and SRU (30 min)

Marcel de Rooy, Rijksmuseum

Koha and SRU probably sounds quite technical, but is not intended to be!

  • What is a SRU server?
  • Using Zebra as SRU server
  • Serving data with SRU; examples
  • The other way around: using SRU targets in Koha?
  • Does your library already use SRU?

Adding browse to Koha using Solr (15-20 min)

Stefano Bargioni, Pontificia Università della Santa Croce Rome

Koha lacks browse of headings. A parallel Solr database can be used to show both authority and bibliographic headings, alphabetically sorted and starting from a chosen value.

Stefano Bargioni is the Assistant Director of the Library at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce

Open Source: Freedom and Community (60 min)

Nicole C. Engard, ByWater Solutions

An intro to what open source is and what it means to libraries. My talk focuses on the history of, definition of and uses of open source. It also talks about how community is essential to the success of open source.

Slides: http://www.web2learning.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/opensource-kohacon12.odp

Koha and Drupal (30 min)

Alex Arnaud, Biblibre

We will present a new Drupal module (with a very original name: OPAC) that let you use Drupal as OPAC. This module is a full replacement for the old SOPAC tool. This module is tied to Drupal v7, we provide a plugin for Koha, but it should work for any ILS.


Making Koha Better (30 min)

MJ Ray, software.coop

Koha is the first full-featured free software library management system, where libraries are not left begging software barons to add features or fix bugs. There's an open marketplace of support companies and a welcoming user community. This talk summarises the various processes that have been suggested for co-ordinating work, suggests ways that librarians and developers can harness them and some of the benefits of doing so.

Kohacon12Hackfest

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