ByWater Solutions - Koha Open Source Library System for Support, Installation, Development, Training, Configuration, Data Integrated & Data Migration Services

I Street Press

Melia Meggs — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:29:36 +0000

Over the course of history, human communication has transformed and reinvented itself many times. From Homer’s oral tradition of epic poems, spoken aloud from memory and passed down from generation to generation, we began to use tools like pen and paper to represent the sounds of our spoken language in writing (Ong 57-58, 81). Then the printing press came along and changed everything. Our scribbled manuscripts, with crossed out words and smudged notes in the margins, were transformed into authoritative textbooks that act as sources of facts with finality. (Ong 130-132)

But the story doesn’t end there. Electronic technologies are swinging us right back around to orality again, with telephones, radio and television (Ong 133). Now we can listen to someone reading written books aloud on tape. And then we swing back towards writing once again, with our voicemail messages being transcribed to text and sent by email. These days you can even speak to your smartphone to ask it to look up something on the internet for you to read!

Of course, with communication evolving rapidly, the library is also changing. There was a time when printed manuscripts and documents were so valuable that an ordinary person could not afford them, and the librarian was the keeper and guardian of all sacred knowledge. But these days, in a world where information is now readily available at the touch of a finger on a keyboard, the library can no longer just be a storehouse of knowledge. People are re-evaluating and redefining the role of the library in society.

Some libraries are focusing on embracing new technologies, like e-books, Kindles and smartphone apps. In San Antonio, Bexar County has made the news with plans to launch the first all-digital library, and yes, it will be completely book-less (Gonzalez). Other libraries are exploring their value as a community space, a place for people to meet and interact, even redesigning their architecture to encourage interaction. Still other libraries are focusing on preserving local history and memories while some strive to become a center of creativity, helping library patrons make new ideas come to life.

It now appears that books in the form so beloved by Uncle Alex and me, hinged and unlocked boxes, packed with leaves by speckled ink, are obsolescent. My grandchildren are already doing much of their reading from words projected on the face of a video screen.

Please, please, please wait just a minute!

At the time of their invention, books were devices as crassly practical for storing or transmitting language, albeit fabricated from scarcely modified substances found in forest and field and animals, as the latest Silicon Valley miracles. But by accident, not by cunning calculation, books, because of their weight and texture, and because of their sweetly token resistance to manipulation, involve our hands and eyes, and then our minds and souls, in a spiritual adventure I would be very sorry for my grandchildren not to know about. (Vonnegut 1997)

Last fall I had the pleasure of watching a presentation at The Future of Libraries 8.0 in San Francisco by Rivkah Sass, Director of the Sacramento Public Library. Her presentation described the I Street Press project, in which the library is using an Espresso Book Machine to print real books. One fine day someone thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if the library were involved in helping people tell their stories?” So in this case, the library is acting as a convener, helping people to tell their stories, as well as a publisher, helping turn those stories into printed books, and also as a repository for all of those great stories, a physical place for the books to live on for future generations to discover. This is technology, community, history and creativity all bound together in one neat package!

The act of speaking requires the presence of someone to listen while the act of writing often takes place in isolation. In a quiet room without distraction, you sit and allow the jumble of thoughts in your head to spew forth in spits and incoherent spurts until you have some thoughts worth writing down. Once you’ve taken the time to write down your thoughts, you have a document that you can share via snail mail or email or even by publishing it as a real book, printed on real paper, for posterity. Your written word is an accomplishment that you can hold in your hands and present to another human being, your audience, who will in turn read it and talk about it, discussing it orally with others and passing it on.

The librarians at Sacramento Public Library believe everyone has a story to tell, but getting there can be a process. The library “wants to offer self-publishing services with a local, face-to-face component” (Sass, www.urbanlibraries.org). Not only do they publish books, they offer writing classes and workshops to help people get from a concept or an idea to actually creating the physical object and then deciding what to do with it afterwards. “I Street Press: A Community Writing & Publishing Center is more than just a book printing machine. It is a safe space where both experienced writers and creative souls can express themselves” (Sass, www.urbanlibraries.org).

While most of us haven’t experienced the phrase “hot off the press” in real life, the patrons of Sacramento Public Library now can! The physical books are not disappearing from their library shelves but instead are multiplying. Anyone who publishes at the I Street Press can donate a copy of his or her book to the library, where they are developing a local authors collection. The library also takes donations and helps find sponsors for patrons who want to publish but don’t have the money. The average book costs about $8 to print, and the I Street Press has printed over 600 books on a multitude of topics (Sass “I Street Press & Creative Technology”). Sass says, “It is clear that we have struck a nerve with the community. In this age of ebooks and technology, there is still a strong desire to produce a printed piece of work” (www.urbanlibraries.org). It would appear that the hands, eyes, minds and souls at the Sacramento Public Library are certainly involved in the spiritual book adventure that Vonnegut describes so fondly.

Here’s a cool video if you want to watch the magic in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHwLjoecaKE

Works Cited

Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy. New York: Routledge, 1982.
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. Timequake. New York: Putnam, 1997.
Gonzalez, John. “Bexar County authorizes bookless library system.” San Antonio Express-News. My SA.com, 17 Jan. 2013. Web. <http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Bexar-County-authorizes-bookless-library-system-4196889.php>
Sass, Rivkah. “I Street Press & Creative Technology.” The Future of Libraries 8.0: Creating Our Own Future. San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium. 19 Sept. 2012.
Sass, Rivkah. “I Street: A Community Writing & Publishing Center.” Online posting. 2012. <http://www.urbanlibraries.org/i-street–a-community—writing-publishing-center-innovation-61.php?page_id=48>

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ByWater Solutions At CLA (CT) and FLA

Nathan A. Curulla — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:13:09 +0000

Greetings Librarians and Open Source Enthusiasts!

Jesse at the ByWater Solutions Booth

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending two different state-wide conferences to meet up with some of our current and hopefully future customers. The week started off in Cromwell CT, where we attended the Connecticut Library Association’s annual conference. It was there where I had the pleasure of seeing our Koha partners from Farmington Public Library, and our soon to be live partners from Henry Carter Hull Library. We also had the opportunity to see our friends from Bibliomation and the Donahue Group! Many thanks to David Boudinot from Henry Carter Hull Library for doing a fantastic job as this year’s CLA Conference Chair!

After CLA, Jesse Maseto, ByWater’s Lead Support Specialist, and I caught the early AM flight to Orlando for the annual FLA conference. There we had the chance to see some of our partners from the Hernando County Library System, which was the Florida Library of the Year, Three Rivers Regional Library System, the Wilderness Coast Library District, and recently partnered with Full Sail University. Although we did not go to Disney World this time around, we did have the chance to enjoy a fantastic steak dinner with Adam Brooks, Hernando County Library System’s Library Services Manager, and David Noe, ByWater’s newly-hired Migration Support Specialist.

All in all our trips were a great success and there was a tremendous amount of interest exhibited in Koha and Open Source at both conferences. I am thrilled to find that with every year that passes, confused expressions at the sight of our booth and the Koha logo are replaced with looks of recognition and excitement to speak with us. Next stop, Chicago!

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Lincoln College of Technology Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

Press Releases — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:34:58 +0000

5/14/2013
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

Lincoln College of Technology Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

ByWater Solutions, an open source community contributor and America’s forefront provider of Koha support, announced today that Lincoln College of Technology of Cincinnati, Ohio is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

ByWater Solutions completed the migration for the Lincoln College of Technology at the end of February and will be providing ongoing Koha support and hosting services for their nearly 13,000 items and 5 campuses.

Laurie Henry, Regional Librarian at Lincoln College of Technology, comment on her migration experience with ByWater:

“This is our library’s second record migration in about five years. I did the work with the first one myself, and although I think of myself as a technologically savvy person, the work took me about two months’ full-time effort. It was wonderful, this time, to have someone else do that work, although also humbling, because Joy apparently did it without much trouble or effort, even though our MARC records were not always perfect.”

“I looked at several options and chose ByWater Solutions basically because, having been a member of the Koha listserv for several years and read posts by Nicole Engard in particular, I was confident of their competence and dedication to Open Source. I’m happy to report that everything has gone very smoothly, and we’re up and running again without the users having noticed much of a difference (except that our various pages look better than they used to). I’m confident that if we do run into trouble of some kind in the future, that the staff at ByWater Solutions will be on top of the issue quickly with a solution.”

About Lincoln College of Technology Library:
The purpose of the library is to support and supplement Lincoln College of Technology in its effort to provide quality education that helps students achieve their goals. The library’s mission is to enhance the academic experience of all learners. To accomplish this, the library collects and maintains a balanced and organized collection of high quality materials and provides efficient and effective professional assistance to the library’s users. For more information about the library at the Lincoln College of Technology, please visit: http://linclib.com.

About Koha:
Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha’s OPAC, circulation, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies–XHTML, CSS and Javascript–making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit: http://koha-community.org/

About ByWater Solutions:
ByWater Solutions is a full service, high quality support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their ILS than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in first rate Koha implementation and support with library systems of all sizes. Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions to support Koha not only lowers the cost of implementing and maintaining an ILS, but more importantly empowers libraries by giving them the flexibility and freedom they deserve. For more information please visit: http://bywatersolutions.com/

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Mobile Apps for Doing Inventory in Koha

Nicole C. Engard — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:42:35 +0000

When training on the Koha inventory tool last week I mentioned my “easy way” to do inventory. It’s the way I’ve been training people to do inventory for years now. I recommend plugging your barcode scanner in to a laptop, putting the laptop on a book cart and rolling it up and down the shelves. But it’s about time I got with the program and started looking in to ways to do inventory with our mobile devices! So I did some searching and asking around and came up with the following tools that might replace the scanner, laptop, book cart combo. Let me know if you have other suggestions or if you have have a good/bad experience with one of these and Koha.

Barcode2File (Android)
Stocktaking (Android)
Barcode Scanner (Android)
Inventory Scanner (iPhone)
ZBar (iPhone)

All of the above imply that you can export a list of barcodes to a text or CSV file which is what you need to do inventory in Koha.

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Defining Circ & Fine Rules in Koha 3.10

Nicole C. Engard — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

I have been getting a lot of tickets lately related to circulation and fine rules, so I have put together a tutorial video to help you get your circulation and fine rules set properly.

These rules define how your items are circulated, how/when fines are calculated and how holds are handled.

Get there: More > Administration > Patrons & Circulation > Circulation and fines rules

The rules are applied from most specific to less specific, using the first rule found.

Tip: If you are a single library system choose your branch name before creating rules (sometimes having only rules for the ‘all libraries’ option can cause issues with holds)

Important: At the very least you will need to set a default circulation rule. This rule should be set for all item types, all libraries and all patron categories. That will catch all instances that do not match a specific rule. When checking out if you do not have a rule for all libraries, all item types and all patron types then you may see patrons getting blocked from placing holds. You will also want a rule for your specific library set for all item types and all patron types to avoid this holds issue. Koha needs to know what rule to fall back on.

Using the issuing rules matrix you can define rules that depend on patron/item type combos. To set your rules, choose a library from the pull down (or ‘all libraries’ if you want to apply these rules to all branches):

From the matrix you can choose any combination of patron categories and item types to apply the rules to

First choose which patron category you’d like the rule to be applied to. If you leave this to ‘All’ it will apply to all patron categories
Choose the ‘Item Type’ you would like this rule to apply to. If you leave this to ‘All’ it will apply to all item types
Limit the number of items a patron can have checked out at the same time by entering a number in the ‘Current Checkouts Allowed’ field
Define the period of time an item can be checked out to a patron by entering the number of units (days or hours) in the ‘Loan Period’ box.
Choose which unit of time, Days or Hours, that the loan period and fines will be calculate in
You can also define a hard due date for a specific patron category and item type. A hard due date ignores your usual circulation rules and makes it so that all items of the type defined are due on, before or after the date you specify.
‘Fine Amount’ should have the amount you would like to charge for overdue items
- Important: Enter only numbers and decimal points (no currency symbols).
Enter the ‘Fine Charging Interval’ in the unit you set (ex. charge fines every 1 day, or every 2 hours)
The ‘Fine Grace Period’ is the period of time an item can be overdue before you start charging fines.
- Important: This can only be set for the Day unit, not in Hours
The ‘Overdue Fines Cap’ is the maximum fine for this patron and item combination
- Important: If this field is left blank then Koha will not put a limit on the fines this item will accrue. A maximum fine amount can be set using the MaxFine system preference.
If your library ‘fines’ patrons by suspending their account you can enter the number of days their fine should be suspended in the ‘Suspension in Days’ field
- Important: This can only be set for the Day unit, not in Hours
Next decide if the patron can renew this item type and if so, enter how many times they can renew it in the ‘Renewals Allowed’ box
If the patron can place holds on this item type, enter the total numbers of items (of this type) that can be put on hold in the ‘Holds Allowed’ field
Finally, if you charge a rental fee for the item type and want to give a specific patron type a discount on that fee, enter the percentage discount (without the % symbol) in the ‘Rental Discount’ field

When finished, click ‘Add’ to save your changes. To modify a rule, create a new one with the same patron type and item type. If you would like to delete your rule, simply click the ‘Delete’ link to the right of the rule.

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ByWater Solutions Welcomes Danielle Elder as a Koha Migrations Specialist

Press Releases — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:44:38 +0000

5/9/2013
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

ByWater Solutions Welcomes Danielle Elder as a Koha Migrations Specialist

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha support, is happy to welcome Danielle Elder as Migrations Specialist. Danielle will join our expert Koha migrations team in assisting new partners in the transition to the Koha open source ILS.

Before finishing her undergraduate degree, Danielle served in the United States Military where she worked with the Site Installation/Division Personnel System (SIPDERS) database as a Personnel Information Systems Management Specialist (PISM). Danielle received her Bachelor’s degree in General Studies and her Masters of Information Science from the University of North Texas. Her library experience began as a paraprofessional at the Cedar Park Public Library. She went on to work at Wells Branch Community Library, in Austin, as a Service and Outreach Librarian, and then on to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission as a Reader’s Services Librarian.

Danielle commented on her recent decision to join ByWater Solutions:

“I am very happy to be a part of the ByWater Solution team. For me, working with the Koha ILS, is like working with the heart of the library. I have been a fan of open source software and the communities that develop these programs for many years and am thrilled to get to help libraries migrate their data to a dynamic and robust open source ILS like Koha.”

“I am excited that Danielle is joining us at ByWater. She brings to the table an in-depth knowledge of public libraries, a love of library technology and a strong customer focus – all of which are great assets for us as we continue to serve our library partners.” commented Joy Nelson, Director of Migrations.

About ByWater Solutions:

With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, support options and development of the enterprise class open source library system, Koha. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha community for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha ILS. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: http://www.bywatersolutions.com

About Koha:

Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

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Getting to Know Larry – Moving

Larry Baerveldt — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:56:03 +0000

I love working from home. Working from home has some great benefits and I highly recommend it for anyone who can get away with it. Besides the perk of being able to come to work in whatever state of dress (or undress) you like, one of the best things about it is you can pick up and move to a different place without having to give up your job. That’s why when my wife took a position in Seattle, WA, moving there from Indianapolis, IN, was no problem for me. (Well, at least not as far as work was concerned. Moving 2500 miles across country, with multiple cats, is NO picnic, let me tell you.)

One of the most interesting consequences of moving however is how it has affected my work schedule. I moved from Eastern Time to Pacific Time, and that has had a big impact on when I do things. I’m still working basically the same schedule, but now it’s shifted three hours later in reference to where all our partners are located. That means some things I used to be able to do in the morning, such as a server maintenance for Westcoasters, I now need to do in the late evening. And things I used to have to do in the late evening for Eastcoasters, I can now do after dinner (8 pm for me is now 11 pm for our ET partners). So I guess that means I’m doing more in the evenings. Oh well, there’s a downside to everything.

So, if you’ve noticed that I’m sending out emails and responding to tickets later in the day than I used to, now you know why. Timezone issues aside, I truly love living in Seattle. The food here is awesome, and the scenery . . . well, it’s awesome too. I still haven’t gotten used to driving along, going over a hill, and boom, there’s a mountain in the distance. It’s quite a change from Indiana.

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures of the view from my new “office” window. Enjoy.

The view from Larry’s “office” window

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Free Ebooks for your Koha Catalog

Nicole C. Engard — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:57:01 +0000

I know that I posted this last year, but so many new libraries have joined the Koha community recently, that I wanted to share with you all a way to get free ebook records for your catalogs. Did you know that Project Gutenberg has their own MARC exports (and other formats as well) that you can grab with over 40,000 records!!

If you’re using Koha, and want item records associated with these free MARC records take the file provided by Project Gutenberg and load it in to MarcEdit. Add a 942$c with your ebook type and then add a 952 with your branch and item type info. I did a tutorial video on this a while back that might help you. That’s what I did and now I have these titles in my catalog and searchable!

Learn more about the Koha item record in the 3.10 manual and get your own batch of free ebook MARC records at the Project Gutenberg wiki.

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Subscribing to RSS Feeds in Koha 3.10

Nicole C. Engard — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

I’ve previously posted a video on what RSS is for your patrons, but never showed your patrons how to subscribe to an RSS feed from Koha. This tutorial video will walk through how to subscribe to an RSS feed from the Koha catalog for your patrons.

In the video I show how to search the Koha catalog and subscribe to the results via RSS. The video was recorded in Firefox and so it might look at little different for those using Internet Explorer or Chrome, but the general principle is the same. I also mention that your patrons should talk to you at the library if they have any additional questions.

If you have other ideas for short videos for patrons please let me know.

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Griffin Free Public Library Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

Press Releases — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:30:00 +0000

4/30/2013
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

Griffin Free Public Library Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha support, announced today that Griffin Free Public Library in New Hampshire is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

ByWater Solutions completed the migration for the Griffin Free Public Library at the end of February and will be providing ongoing Koha support and hosting services for their nearly 20,000 items and 2,000 patrons.

Ricky Sirois, Director at the Griffin Free Public Library spoke about the library’s decision to migrate to an open source ILS:

“I was particularly pleased with ByWater Solutions’ responsiveness to our needs throughout the transition. The training was a particular highlight for us, as it met our small library’s particular areas of concern while remaining within our budget. I am excited about joining the Koha community and the open source movement. The community and ByWater will provide our library with constant improvements and support from a worldwide network of users. Along with all of that our patrons have online access to their accounts for the first time in our history.”

“Bringing on new partners is always exciting for us at ByWater,” started CEO, Brendan Gallagher, “but it’s especially pleasing when we can offer services to libraries like Griffin Free who were previously unable to offer cutting edge automation services to their patrons within their budget. We look forward to working with Ricky and Griffin Free Public Library on continuing the services offered by Koha.”

About Griffin Free Public Library:
Griffin Free Public Library in Auburn, New Hampshire, offers a variety of resources and services to library patrons. The library offers access to nearly 20,000 items and serves nearly 2,000 patrons. For more information about Griffin Free Public Library, please visit: http://griffinfree.com

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Texas Library Association Annual Conference

Joy Nelson — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:25:16 +0000

This year I am fortunate that the Texas Library Association annual conference is located in my hometown of Fort Worth, TX. I’ve started off my conference this year with a great presentation by Walter Betts, Systems Librarian at Texas Christian University. His session, “50 Years of Librarianship: Trends from the Texas Library Journal”, documents a portion of each issue of the TLA journal – specifically the president’s letters and editorials. Seeing the frequency of topics and words over the course of 50 years really outlines that many of the issues from 1963 are still the same issues today in 2013! Believe it or not, the TLA president in 1963 was concerned with the “explosion of information” just as many of us feel today with electronic resources. The issues of fair and equitable access to information was a concern then and a concern now. Many of the specifics may be different – access to buildings versus access to online resources, but the concepts are the identical.

Our local (district and state) library associations are valuable organizations. Go find you local association and sign up today. Our library associations are a great way to have our (librarian) voices be heard by our legislatures and elected officials. They are a voice in your area to promote access to information and intellectual freedom. The need for libraries is as strong today as is was in 1963.

And if you are at the TLA conference, send me an email, I’d love to meet you!

-Joy

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Serial Subscriptions in Koha 3.10

Nicole C. Engard — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:00:26 +0000

This tutorial video will walk you through the process of adding a serial subscription to Koha 3.10. Be warned that this video is a bit longer than most of the other ones we have offered in the past.

To summarize, subscriptions can be added by clicking the ‘New’ button on any bibliographic record or by visiting the Serials module and clicking ‘New Subscription’

If you are entering a new subscription from the Serials module you will be presented with a blank form (if creating new from a bibliographic record the form will include the bib info).

‘Vendor’ can be found by either searching vendors entered via the Acquisitions module or entering the vendor ID number
‘Biblio’ is the MARC record you’d like to link this subscription to
Next you can choose whether a new item is created when receiving an issue
‘Location’ is for the shelving location
‘Call Number’ is for your item’s call number prefix
‘Library’ is the branch that owns this subscription.
The ‘Grace Period’ is the number of days before an issue is automatically moved from ‘expected’ status to ‘waiting’ and how many days before an issue is automatically moved from ‘waiting’ status to ‘late’
Use the ‘Public Note’ for any notes you would like to appear in the OPAC for the patrons
‘Nonpublic Note’ should be used for notes that are only visible to the librarians via the staff client
To set up a routing list for serials, choose ‘Routing List’ from the ‘Patron notification’ field.
The Staff and OPAC Display options allow you to control how many issues appear by default on bibliographic records in the Staff Client and the OPAC
In ‘First issue publication date’ you want to enter the date of the issue you have in your hand, the date from which the prediction pattern will start
There are several pre-defined options for the ‘Frequency’ of publication
Checking the ‘Manual history’ box will allow you to enter serials outside the prediction pattern.
‘Numbering pattern’ will help you determine how the numbers are printed for each issue
‘Subscription start date’ is the date at which the subscription begins. This is used for setting up renewal alerts
‘Subscription length’ is the number of issues or months in the subscription. This is also used for setting up renewal alerts
‘Subscription end date’ should only be entered for subscriptions that have ended (if you’re entering in a backlog of serials)
The ‘Numbering formula’ is editable to match the way you’d like your numbering to print on the item record and subscription information pages

Click ‘Save Subscription’ to save the information you have entered. Find sample serial patterns in the Koha 3.10 manual appendix.

If you have an idea for a Koha tutorial video I should do or that you have done yourself (or found on the web) that we should include in this series, just drop me a line and I’ll add it.

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Pelham Public Library Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

Press Releases — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:21:31 +0000

4/23/2013
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

Pelham Public Library Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha support, announced today that Pelham Public Library in New Hampshire is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

ByWater Solutions completed the migration for the Pelham Public Library at the end of January and will be providing ongoing Koha support and hosting services for them.

Corinne Chronopoulos, Library Director at the Pelham Public Library spoke of her decision to migrate to an open source ILS:

“We took a careful look at multiple ILS products and decided an open source solution was the best long-term decision. We know Koha will continue to improve and we will reap the benefits of the communities developments. It’s also given us great teaching opportunities to explain about open source technologies to our patrons and how the library is choosing innovative solutions that will save them money. We are very happy with our decision to partner with ByWater Solutions for Koha support and had a painless and speedy migration process.”

About Pelham Public Library:
The Pelham Public Library offers a variety of resources and services. Patrons may check out print books, audio books, magazines, DVDs and videos. If there is an item that you would like that is not in our collection a librarian can assist you in making an interlibrary loan request. In addition, the library also provides other services, such as our Museum Pass Program, which grants patrons free or reduced admission for several area museums. All members of the public may use our quiet study areas, computers, resource materials, magazines or newspapers. Our librarians are available for reference assistance, computer help and other resources. For more information about Pelham Public Library, please visit: http://pelhampubliclibrary.org/

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OCLC Control Numbers and Koha

Nicole C. Engard — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:12:24 +0000

Many Koha users also use OCLC for cataloging. Recently OCLC has been sending out warnings to all of their subscribers of a major change in their numbering. That message reads:

The OCLC Control Number is anticipated to reach one billion sometime after July 1, 2013. At that point, OCLC will increase the length of the OCLC number to accommodate a variable length number string. If you use and/or store OCLC MARC bibliographic records and the OCLC Control Number, you will notice a change when the one billion number is reached. You will need to check the systems at your institution that use OCLC MARC bibliographic records and the OCLC number. You may need to implement changes to ensure those systems will be able to successfully handle the longer OCLC number. The actual date that number will be reached is unknown; it is anticipated now to be some months after July 2013. For more specific information on the current and future format of the number, please see: http://www.oclc.org/batchload/controlnumber/number-expansion.en.html.

Well, I’m here to officially tell you that this has no impact whatsoever on Koha. Koha does not have a limit on the fields that store the OCLC number in particular and so there will be no need to make changes to your Koha system to accommodate this change.

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Libraries as Publishers

Thatcher Rea — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:51:03 +0000

As reported in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, libraries across Texas are investigating the possibility of following a model similar to the Douglas County Library System in Colorado, where libraries themselves become publishers of ebooks by working directly with independent authors. This would provide Libraries with a much greater degree of control and flexibility concerning ownership of their titles.

This week at the annual Texas Library Association meeting in Fort Worth, Jamie LaRue, director of the DCL, said “I’m kind of wandering around as an evangelist saying we have two choices: Either we can be marginalized by people trying to lock us out of the market or we can say we don’t want to hang out on the fringe of the revolution, we want to be at the heart of it,” said LaRue, whose library is the first in the nation to create its own e-book management system.

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Linking Authorities in Koha 3.10

Nicole C. Engard — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Koha 3.10 has an improved Authority linker plugin for linking See Also statements to other authorities in your system. This video will walk you through using that plugin.

To summarize, when linking authorities to other headings, you can use the authority finder plugin by clicking the ellipsis (…) to the right of the field.

From there you can search your authority file for the authority to link. If you can’t find the authority to link, you can click the ‘Create new’ button and add the necessary authority for the link. This plugin also allows for you to choose the link relationship between the authorities.

If you have an idea for a tutorial video I should do or that you have done yourself (or found on the web) that we should include in this series, just drop me a line and I’ll add it.

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Sterling College Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

Press Releases — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:28:07 +0000

4/17/2013
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

Sterling College Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha support, announced today that Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, Vermont is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

ByWater Solutions completed the migration for Sterling College at the beginning of February and will be providing ongoing Koha support and hosting services for them.

Petra Vogel, Librarian at Sterling College commented on the library’s decision to migrate to Koha:

“I was excited about converting our library system to Koha with ByWater Solutions. However I was also somewhat nervous because, except for a very part-time coworker, our library is pretty much a one-woman operation. On top of that, just as I was working on sending our data, our campus IT person left to pursue another career. The folks at ByWater Solutions provided the training and support needed to make the migration a success. Overall it was a positive learning experience for me. I felt, and still feel, 100% supported by the team at ByWater.”

“I had the pleasure of training Petra and her staff on their new Koha system.” Commented Nicole Engard, Vice President of Education at ByWater Solutions. “I love getting to visit libraries like the one at Sterling College. The team was excited about the change, eager to learn and ready to share their knowledge with others. That’s just the type of community member we love to welcome to Koha.”

About Sterling College:
Founded in 1958 in Craftsbury Common, Vermont, Sterling College is a leading voice in higher education for environmental stewardship and the liberal arts. The College was among the first colleges in the United States to focus on sustainability through academic majors in Ecology, Environmental Humanities, Outdoor Education, and Sustainable Agriculture. Sterling College is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and is one of only seven federally recognized Work Colleges in the nation. For more information about Sterling College, please visit: http://www.sterlingcollege.edu/library.html

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Koha Hackfest in France

Brendan A. Gallagher — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:05:59 +0000

The attendees of the Koha Hackfest (Brendan and Kyle are on the far left)

Thanks to Biblibre for inviting us to the Koha Hackfest in France. Kyle Hall and I traveled there and enjoyed a long week of working with other developers on signing-off, rebasing, testing, testing, testing, and testing Koha code for inclusion in the next release of Koha. The feature freeze for the release was the last day of the hackfest, so we had a busy week or working on final bits of code for inclusion into Koha. Kyle worked very hard and had to rewrite numerous tests for some key pieces of code. One exciting piece of code was his plugin system – that had passed QA by the end of the week and is currently part of the upcoming release.

I spent most of my week working on rebasing and testing EDIfact code and also signing off on many other important enhancements for Koha.

I highly recommend that anyone and everyone that is reading this post – attend a hackfest (Hint Hint there is one coming up in Reno at KohaCon2013! I suggest, no I recommend, that you attend this amazing event!). They are so motivational and inspiring. During this hackfest there were two concentrations of developers and one large concentration of french librarians that were not developers but were successfully using the sandboxes to test and signoff on bugs! There will (hopefully) be a presentation at KohaCon in Reno that will show everyone how to use the sandboxes and also some higher level git work, that you should look forward to attending.

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ByWater Solutions Welcomes David Noe as a Koha Migrations Specialist

Press Releases — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:10:26 +0000

4/10/2013
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

ByWater Solutions Welcomes David Noe as a Koha Migrations Specialist

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha support, is happy to welcome David Noe as Migrations Specialist. David will join our expert Koha migrations team in assisting new partners in the transition to the Koha open source ILS.

David received his BA in American Studies and MLIS from the University of Alabama. After graduate school he moved back to his home town (Huntsville, Alabama) for a position with SirsiDynix. Since then David has served as Technical Services Librarian at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston, Texas and Digital Services Librarian at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

David commented on his recent decision to join the ByWater Solutions team:

“Whether working for a library or a library vendor, I see myself as a librarian. Knowing the challenges with resources and technologies many, if not most, libraries face, I believe ByWater’s model of supporting open source is one that works well for library world. I have been following ByWater’s growth over the last four years, and I am impressed with their record of service. I hope I can contribute to that work. An opportunity to join an organization in ByWater’s stage of growth is rare, indeed. I am genuinely excited to have such an opportunity.”

“David brings years of expertise in academic libraries, systems support, integration, and development to ByWater Solutions. We are thrilled to have him join us on the migration team!” commented Joy Nelson, Director of Migrations.

About ByWater Solutions:

About Koha:

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Receiving Orders in Koha 3.10

Nicole C. Engard — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:00:00 +0000

There have been some improvements to the order receipt process in Koha 3.10 so this tutorial video will walk you through those differences.

To summarize, orders in Koha 3.10 are still received from the vendor information page or the vendor search results page

After clicking ‘Receive shipment’ you will be asked to enter a vendor invoice number, a shipment received date, a shipping cost and a budget to subtract that shipping amount from.

The receive page will list all items still on order with the vendor regardless of the basket the item is from.

To receive a specific item, click the ‘Receive’ link to the right of the item.

From this form you can alter the cost information. You can also choose to mark only part of the order as received if the vendor didn’t send your entire order by checking only the boxes next to the items on the left that you want to receive. The values you enter in the ‘Replacement cost’ and ‘Actual cost’ will automatically populate the item record by filling in subfield v (Cost, replacement price) and subfield g (Cost, normal purchase price) on the item record after saving.

You can also make edits to the item record from this form by clicking the ‘Edit’ link next to each item. This will allow you to enter in accurate call numbers and barcodes if you’d like to do that at the point of receipt. Once you have made any changes necessary (to the order and/or items, click ‘Save’ to mark the item(s) as received.

When you’re finished receiving items you can navigate away from this page or click the ‘Finish receiving’ button at the bottom of the screen.

You will also see that the item is received and/or cancelled if you view the basket.

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Learn how to enrich your Koha catalog with NoveList Select

Nicole C. Engard — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:24:19 +0000

We’re offering a special webinar for libraries to learn how easy it is to enrich your Koha catalog with NoveList Select. Your patrons already use the catalog to search for books – now help them discover even more of your collection by offering expert reading recommendations right inside the catalog. Representatives from ByWater Solutions and NoveList will explain how it all works and show live examples. Bring any questions you have!

Topics we’ll cover:

Options for adding reading recommendations (and more) to your catalog
Examples of what NoveList Select looks like in Koha catalogs
Technical implementation process

Presenters

Nicole Engard, ByWater Solutions
Randy Maxey and Brad Cox, NoveList

Registration

Date: April 22, 2013
Time: 2pm ET
Register: Free – Online

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Texas Library Consortium Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

Press Releases — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:08:46 +0000

4/5/2013
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

Texas Library Consortium Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha support, announced today that the Texas Library Consortium is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

ByWater Solutions completed the migration for the Texas Library Consortium at the beginning of February and will be providing ongoing Koha support and hosting services for their nearly 42 libraries, 1 million items and 120,000 patrons.

Jerry Brock, Owner, e-Libris Technologies discussed the decision of switching to Koha with ByWater Solutions:

“e-Libris Technologies and the Texas Library Consortium chose ByWater Solutions based upon the vendor’s high service rankings, ongoing improvement of the Koha open source software, and their ability to migrate 42 libraries within a single weekend on short notice. The ByWater migration and support teams combined to ensure the transition was successful, and the libraries feel we have taken an important step toward improving service and reliability for their patrons.”

“We ran into a unique situation when we migrated TLC over to the Koha Community and ByWater” Stated Brendan Gallagher, ByWater’s CEO.

He continues: “The consortium was faced with a difficult decision: Either renew with their current vendor, have the plug pulled on their hosted system by their current vendor, or trust that ByWater was up to the challenge of a one-weekend migration of a 42 member library system. We are very grateful that the TLC placed their trust in our abilities and experience and it is a testament to the skill of our migration department that this transition occurred without incident. We are thrilled to provide the Texas Library Consortium with the levels of support they deserve and look forward to a long a productive relationship with this growing library system.”

About Texas Library Consortium:
Texas Library Consortium serves the residents of Texas via their 42 member libraries. Their collection of nearly 1 million items include books, movies and electronic resources.

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Koha is ready for RDA

Nicole C. Engard — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Lately current customers and potential customers alike have been asking us how much it will cost to get Koha ready for RDA. Well, I’m happy to let you all know that Koha is and has been (since Koha 3.8) ready for RDA – and it won’t cost you a penny to start using and displaying RDA fields in your Koha catalog.

Koha’s cataloging frameworks and custom XSLT stylesheets make it super easy to take advantage of the new RDA fields. At ByWater Solutions we’re upgrading the stylesheets and frameworks for all of our partners who want to make the switch (free of cost). You can do the same by following posts by our very own Joy Nelson and Chris Cormack of Catalyst.

RDA and Koha, by Joy Nelson
RDA Support in Koha, by Chris Cormack
RDA Redux, by Chris Cormack

So if your library is ready to start cataloging using RDA just let your support provider know that you’re ready for the updated frameworks and custom XSLT. If you’re going it alone the Koha community is a great place to look for assistance if the posts above don’t help get you started.

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Surprise Visit to San Francisco Maritime Museum Library

Joy Nelson — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:25:58 +0000

On a recent vacation out to San Francisco, I visited the staff at the San Francisco Maritime Museum. If you are ever in San Francisco, don’t pass up the opportunity to visit portions of the SF Maritime Park. The visitor’s center, museum and historic ships are all located in the Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhood. (Not far from the cable car turnaround.)

Gina, Joy, Melia and Ted check out the collection.

The library reading room is spacious, with views of the bay and contains various nautical artifacts (see the stained glass window from a ship in the picture below). My kids ran off to check out the big books of maps while my husband perused the walls of art and artifact and later acted as our de facto photographer. And, of course, I spied the computer terminals where you can access the (ByWater supported) Keys catalog. Hint: if you check out the library OPAC, you can find out who Keys was.

Gina and Ted, at the library that day, were gracious hosts and told us about their collection and a bit more about the Maritime complex. FYI – the library has over 35,000 books and periodicals dating from 1536 to the present! Most of these are in closed stacks but there are a few great old ornate shelves in the reading room that you can see in the photos above and below.

Go find those hidden gem libraries in your neighborhood and city. You’ll never know what you’ll find!!!

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Browser issue upon upgrading to 3.10

Melia Meggs — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 23:25:08 +0000

I wanted to re-post an email that Jesse sent out to our ByWater partner libraries in case anyone else happens to come across this browser issue upon upgrading to 3.10.

Sometimes after upgrading, libraries are seeing this view of the staff client. The image below is NOT the correct view of your staff client.

You should not be seeing the three search bars at the top of the page. This is a browser issue. For the affected computers, you will need to clear the cache in your browser. While in the browser, hit (ctrl-shift-del), and make sure the clear cache option is set and that the time range to clear is everything. Then shutdown and restart Firefox. If you have an older version of Firefox, updating will help as well.

This is the correct view that you should see after following the above instructions.

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