Koha
"We're going to move our library services onto Open Source platforms, culminating with the conversion of our existing server system to Koha." says Stephen Hedges of the Nelsonville Public Library (NPL). "We want to use the Internet to offer some cutting edge information services to our library patrons, but we realized that this would require us to have control of our automation and database software. We needed the freedom to change things, to change the code if necessary, because the types of things we want to do are not going to appear in commercial library software for years."
Koha, being open source, provided the access that NPL required and the level of stability and functionality that they needed. NPL has committed to help support the development of Koha by funding some of the work on three specific projects. This support is seen as a wise investment, NPL expects to save as much money per year as they initially invest in Koha. More importantly, they will be able to offer what they consider to be "the best online services available anywhere in the world."
"NPL's involvement is a real validation of our model." says Pat Eyler, Kaitiaki (manager) of the Koha project. "We've got a solid base system. As people want to add onto it, they can make a small investment to fund the work (far less than they would for a comparable closed source solution) and everyone will benefit. I hope that we'll see other libraries pitching in too."
More information about Koha
NPL provides services to approximately 36,000 active borrowers through seven branches. Their collection includes over 250,000 items.
- Call To Koha Users
LibLime, the support company for Koha, posted this announcement:The Koha project is working to improve Koha's visibility by adding Koha users to an important automation list. This list is maintained by Marshall Breeding (U.S. researcher), and tracks...
- Koha Zoom
This announcement from LibLime, the support company for the open-source Koha library system.LibLime, the leader in open-source solutions for libraries, announced today that the Nelsonville Public Library System in Athens Ohio has just gone live with Koha...
- Koha News
Koha 2.2.4 is here. Koha 2.2.4 should be the last release of the 2.2 branch with new features. Koha 2.2.5 should contain only bugfixes. However, Koha 3.0 is already on the way and should give libraries a new great experience Koha is the first Open-Source...
- Koha
The new version of Koha (2.2.2) is available.Koha is the 1st Open-Source Integrated Library System. Released first in New Zealand, in January 2000, it is maintained by a team of volunteers from around the globe. The Koha system is a full catalogue, OPAC,...
- Open Source Library System, Koha
The Nelsonville, Ohio, Public Library has recently announced that they will be migrating to Koha, a GPL'd library software system which is written in Perl. They have decided to contribute to the ongoing development of Koha and have released an RFP...