LINKcat News

Report from ALA: the Koha and Open Source ILS communities

The Open Source ILS Community

ALA was a week ago and I realized I haven't blogged about it yet!  This is a summary of a few events that I attended having to do with Koha or Open Source.  These events range from a general meeting of open source ILS users (OSS4PL), to a Koha users group meeting (KUDOS), to a demonstration of new Koha development.  Perhaps one of the most difficult things to keep straight about open source ILS software is that there are different software products (Koha, Evergreen and more) and for each of these, libraries have the option to have a vendor provide support (we are using LibLime) or to go it on their own. As the number of libraries using an Open Source ILS increases, the community of users, developers and vendors is figuring out how to organize themselves and ultimately work together.

OSS4PL

OSS4PL stands for Open Source Software for Public Libraries.  The goal of this group is to foster communication between the different open source ILS software users.  At the OSS4PL "unconference" at ALA, libraries using both Evergreen and Koha gathered at the beautiful Harold Washington Library Center (Chicago PL).  In one exercise we organized ourselves into groups to discuss a particular topic.  Naturally, we organized ourselves into Koha and Evergreen groups! This was beneficial to those of us in attendance from SCLS because we made some new Koha contacts.  The second session was a more general discussion of issues facing the open source ILS community.  From this session we learned a bit more about Evergreen and its development path.  This event was organized by the King County Library System and the Galecia Group.

KUDOS Meeting

KUDOS is a U.S. users group for libraries using Koha.  Present at the KUDOS meeting were representatives from Koha libraries of all types and sizes; some use a vendor and some support Koha on their own.  The primary focus of this group is to develop ways that Koha users can share information with each other.  Goals include creating an easy-to-use list of U.S. libraries that use Koha, sharing information on development projects and holding an annual user conference.  John Brice of Crawford County Federated Library System has been doing the arduous work of ratifying KUDOS as a non-profit organization.  KUDOS will need to work within the international Koha community, regional communites (such as Wisconsin) and any vendor communities that may  develop.

LibLime Demonstrations

LibLime, our Koha support vendor, was doing Koha demonstrations throughout ALA.  I attended a demonstration of features being developed by LibLime that will be available in a future release of Koha.  Ian Walls of NYU Health Sciences Library tweeted the presentation as it was happening. (How cool is that?) Here is a summary of that Twitter feed as posted by Nicole Engard on her Open Sesame blog.

LibLime Gives Back to the Community

Some of you were fortunate to attend ALA and perhaps attended a LibLime presentation on how they give back to the community.  But if you weren't there, or did not attend the presentation, LibLime summarizes their projects on their web site.  Take a look; it's quite impressive.

LibLime/Koha Demonstrations at ALA

If you are going to ALA this weekend, you might be interested in the following Koha demos at the LibLime booth.

In the Booth (#1134): Presentations

Saturday, July 11th

10:00 a.m. – We Give Back: LibLime's Contributions to the Library Community 

Learn more about LibLime's open-source business model and what the impact is on the library community. LibLime's CEO, Joshua Ferraro, will review three ways that LibLime 'gives back': ‡biblios.net, Koha with Class and LibLime's Koha Community Contributions.

 

1:00 p.m. – Mission Possible: the LibLime Data Migration Process

Extraction, field mapping, normalization, oh my! LibLime's Senior Vice-President Operations, Debra Denault, presents an overview of the process of migrating to Koha through LibLime.

 

3:30 p.m. – Koha Demo: OPAC

An introduction to Koha's next-generation OPAC. LibLime's Application Support Librarian, Maria Laude, presents Koha's OPAC, including some of the new customer-sponsored enhancements and third-party integration.

 

Sunday, July 12th

9:30 a.m. – 4,000 Users and Growing! ‡biblios.net

‡biblios.net is a FREE browser-based cataloging service with a data store containing over thirty-five million records. Records are licensed under the Open Data Commons, making the service the world's largest repository of freely-licensed library records!

 

2:00 p.m. – Coming Soon! 

A sneak peek at the new functionality that will soon be available to LibLime's customers. LibLime's Senior Business Analyst, Daniel Sweeney, gives an overview of customer-sponsored projects including a new acquisitions solution, improved consortial support, and academic functionality.

 

3:30 p.m. – Koha Demo: OPAC

An introduction to Koha's next-generation OPAC. LibLime's Application Support Librarian, Maria Laude, presents Koha's OPAC, including some of the new customer-sponsored enhancements and third-party integration.

 

Monday, July 13th

9:30 a.m. – We Give Back: LibLime's Contributions to the Library Community

Learn more about LibLime's open-source business model and what the impact is on the library community. LibLime's CEO, Joshua Ferraro, will review three ways that LibLime 'gives back': ‡biblios.net, Koha with Class and LibLime's Koha Community Contributions.

 

1:00 p.m. –  Koha Demo: Staff Side

An introduction to Koha's staff modules. LibLime's Senior Vice-President Operations, Debra Denault, presents on Koha's Circulation, Technical Services and Administrative functionality.

 

3:00 p.m. – Coming Soon!

A sneak peek at the new functionality that will soon be available to LibLime's customers. LibLime's Senior Business Analyst, Daniel Sweeney, gives an overview of customer-sponsored projects including a new acquisitions solution, improved consortial support, and academic functionality.

 

Tuesday, July 14th

9:30 a.m. – Koha Demo: Staff Side

An introduction to Koha's staff modules. LibLime's Senior Vice-President Operations, Debra Denault, presents on Koha's Circulation, Technical Services and Administrative functionality.

 

11:00 a.m. –  4,000 Users and Growing! ‡biblios.net

‡biblios.net is a FREE browser-based cataloging service with a data store containing over thirty-five million records. Records are licensed under the Open Data Commons, making the service the world's largest repository of freely-licensed library records!

 

Two Koha User Group Opportunities

Wisconsin Koha Enthusiasts Inaugural Meeting

Several libraries in Wisconsin are using Koha already and others are in the process of migrating to Koha.  Many others are interested in Koha (and other open source options).  Koha enthusiasts of all kinds will benefit from a meeting to keep up to date on what is happening with Koha and Koha related events.  There is also a need for Koha users to pool resources, knowledge and troubleshooting information.  We have an opportunity to have a greater influence on Koha development and features than we could individually.  Organizers are proposing that we call this  group the Wisconsin Koha Enthusiasts (WisKE)--think "Wisconsin Key."

The first meeting of the Wisconsin Koha Enthusiasts (WisKE) will be held from 2 to 4 PM on July 29, following WiLS World.  WiLS is graciously allowing us to use a meeting room at the Pyle Center.  This will be an informal meeting for anyone who is using Koha, anyone who is interested in migrating to Koha or anyone who is interested in Open Source to get together and talk about Koha.
If you have any questions, please contact Cory Jaeger ([email protected]) or Vicki Teal Lovely ([email protected]).

If you are interested in attending the Wisconsin Koha Enthusiasts meeting on July 29, please fill out the following brief survey:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=enformkey=cmpNNERfaXVnSGlVTFNydkdnT0dqZFE6MA..

KUDOS Meeting at ALA in Chicago

KUDOS is a US-Based Koha Users & Developers Group

Meeting:  KUDOS (Koha Users and Developers of Open Source) Meeting
Date: Sunday, 7/12/2009
Time: 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: Hyatt Regency Chicago (not the Hyatt that’s close to the convention center)
Room: Grand Suite 3