Koha Newsletter – Official Website of Koha Library Software https://koha-community.org Thu, 22 Jan 2026 15:58:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Koha Community Newsletter: December 2020 https://koha-community.org/koha-community-newsletter-december-2020/ Thu, 31 Dec 2020 10:59:55 +0000 https://koha-community.org/?p=8620 Koha Community Newsletter: December 2020 Read More »

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Volume 11, Issue 12
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Michael Kuhn

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Table of contents

Development

Current Koha versions and revisions

Date Revision Notes
27 November 2020 Koha 20.11.00 stable
24 November 2020 Koha 20.05.06 oldstable
24 November 2020 Koha 19.11.12 oldoldstable

In December 2020 no new Koha version or revision was released.

KohaAdvent

Don’t miss KohaAdvent – Your daily dose of Koha over the Christmas period – in this years blog series a Koha plugin system is built step by step.

Community

Notes, gossip & announcements

New Koha libraries

Germany
Malaysia
United Kingdom
USA

Koha tips & tricks

Support provider news

Bywater Solutions

Surveys

2020 Library Automation Perceptions Survey

Every year Marshall Breeding performs a survey to gauge libraries’ overall satisfaction with their respective integrated library solutions. This survey is instrumental in letting support providers know how they are doing, and does wonders for small companies when their satisfied partners share their experiences. Responses from this survey also help the open source community improve visibility, lead enhancements, and promote global acceptance of the products.

As open source software is supported both by the general community and by a variety of different service organizations, some special considerations apply to Koha. In the libraries.org directory, Koha is represented by a combination of the name Koha and the primary support organization involved (for example “Koha — Catalyst IT”). Libraries relying entirely on community support or internal resources are represented as “Koha — Independent”.

If you have responded in previous years, please respond again this year to help identify any trends regarding improvement or worsening of the products or support services.

Take survey

Read the original posting by Marshall Breeding to the mailing list “Koha”.

Upcoming events

KohaCon 2021

On 2 December Caroline Cyr-La-Rose wrote (see original posting):

“In 2020, Catalyst IT and their partners successfully delivered a hybrid KohaCon, enabling in-person attendance in COVID-free New Zealand while offering global participation through streaming, including from platforms like an international online casino non UK. It was proposed that this inclusive format continue in a post-COVID world to ensure everyone can engage and learn, regardless of travel constraints, availability, or budget.

If you or your organization would like to organize KohaCon21, please enter all relevant information on this wiki page: https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/KohaCon21_Proposals (if you do not already have an account to edit the wiki, you can request one, it is usually pretty fast to get your access). Know that the community stands behind anyone who volunteers to organize and that help is always available if you’re unsure how to proceed.

Call for proposals will end on January 15, 2021 at 23:50 UTC. If there is more than one proposal, we will organize a vote, which will be announced on this mailing list.”

For 2021, the following continents are eligible: Africa, Americas (north, central and south), Asia

IRC meetings

Date and time Meeting
6 January 2021 20:00 UTC General IRC Meeting
7 January 2021 15:00 UTC Documentation IRC Meeting

For all upcoming IRC meetings see Next IRC meetings.

Past events

Date and time Meeting
16 November 2020 koha-US User Services Special Interest Group
19 November 2020 koha-US Web Development
3 December 2020 koha-US Cataloging Special Interest Group
8 December 2020 koha-US System Administration Special Interest Group
15 December 2020 koha-US Acquisitions Special Interest Group

IRC meetings

]]> Koha Community Newsletter: November 2020 https://koha-community.org/koha-community-newsletter-november-2020/ Mon, 30 Nov 2020 02:28:28 +0000 https://koha-community.org/?p=8581 Koha Community Newsletter: November 2020 Read More »

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November 2020

Volume 11, Issue 11
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

Please submit news items to Submit

Table of Contents

Development

Koha 20.11.00 Released

by Jonathan Druart
It is with great pleasure that the Koha community announces the
release of Koha 20.11, a major release of the Koha open source
integrated library system.

Koha 20.11.00 is a major release, that comes with many new features.

It includes 9 new features, 354 enhancements, 412 bugfixes.

Read the full release notes here:

Koha 20.11 released

The Debian packages for this new version will be available soon. Stay tuned!

Koha 20.05.06 Released

by Lucas Gass
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of 20.05.06.

Koha 20.05.06 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 3 enhancements, 73 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be viewed here:

Koha 20.05.06 release

Debian packages should be available in a few days!

Koha 19.11.12 Released

by Aleisha Amohia
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.11.12.

Koha 19.11.12 is a security and bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 1 security fixes, 1 enhancements, 22 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available here:

Koha 19.11.12 released

Koha 19.05.17 Released

by Victor Grousset
The Koha Community is happy to announce the release of Koha 19.05.17.

Koha 19.05.17 is a bugfix/maintenance release with security fixes.

It includes 1 security fixes, 15 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be found at:

Koha 19.05.17 released

Debian packages will be available shortly.

Thanks to everyone involved 🙂

Italian Translation

by Romana Franziska Wallner
Koha Gruppo Italiano would like to inform the International Koha Community that the translation of the software instructions to Italian has been completed at 100%. A big thank you to Stefano Bargioni and Zeno Tajoli for this excellent work.

Community

Notes, Gossip & Announcements

New Koha Libraries

Koha Tips and Tricks

Take a look at these new tutorials from PTFS Europe:

Using Google Chrome tools for CSS in Koha
On Andrew Isherwood’s mind this week are the Google Chrome CSS tools and how you can use them to help make tweaks to the Koha CSS (style sheets) to customise the OPAC and staff side of your Koha installation.

The team at ByWater Solutions has some great new tutorials for you:

Support Provider News

From ByWater Solutions

Upcoming Events

December General IRC Meeting

The December General IRC meeting will be held the 2nd at 15:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

December Development IRC Meeting

The December Development IRC meeting will be held the 2nd at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

December Documentation IRC Meeting

The December Documentation IRC meeting will be held the 10th at 18:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

Past Events

Linked Open (wiki)Data: Add Your Catalog to the Semantic Web

by Romana Franziska Wallner
On November 9th, the Koha Gruppo Italiano organized a webinar entitled “Linked Open (wiki)Data: Add Your Catalog to the Semantic Web.”

The meeting consisted of two parts:

  • Camillo Pellizzari di San Girolamo (Scuola Normale di Pisa / Wikimedian): Origins and purpose of Wikidata; structure of Wikidata; Wikidata’s authority control function; visualizing Wikidata elements through SPARQL queries.
  • Stefano Bargioni (Deputy Director of the Library of the P. Università della Santa Croce, Rome): Integrating Wikidata & Koha.

The recording of the webinar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VInfp9MwUb4 (the video is in Italian)

100 people joined the meeting.

November General IRC Meeting

The November General IRC meeting was held the 4th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

November Documentation IRC Meeting

The November Documentation IRC meeting was held the 12th at 18:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

]]> Koha Community Newsletter: October 2020 https://koha-community.org/koha-community-newsletter-october-2020/ Sun, 01 Nov 2020 04:21:56 +0000 https://koha-community.org/?p=8543 Koha Community Newsletter: October 2020 Read More »

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Koha Community Newsletter Subscribe
October 2020

Volume 11, Issue 10
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

Please submit news items to Submit

Table of Contents

Development

Koha 20.05.05 Released

by Lucas Gass
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of 20.05.05.

Koha 20.05.05 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 30 enhancements, 31 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be viewed here:

Koha 20.05.05 Release

Debian packages are ready and can be downloaded here:
https://download.koha-community.org/

Koha 19.11.11 Released

by Aleisha Amohia
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.11.11.

Koha 19.11.11 is a security and bugfix/maintenance release including 2
security fixes, 15 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available here:

Koha 19.11.11 released

Koha 19.05.16 Released

by Victor Grousset
The Koha Community is happy to announce the release of Koha 19.05.16.

Koha 19.05.16 is a bugfix/maintenance release with security fixes.

It includes 2 security fixes, 9 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be found at:

Koha 19.05.16 released

Debian packages will be available shortly.

Thanks to everyone involved 🙂

Community

Notes, Gossip & Announcements

New Koha Libraries

Koha Tips and Tricks

Take a look at these new tutorials from PTFS Europe:

Sending email notifications from Koha
Tutorial – Using Patron emailer and the Bywater emailer plugin. Janet McGowan describes two different approaches s to sending out custom letters to your patrons:

  • Using the delivered patron emailer functionality that came in with Koha version 19.05
  • Working with the Bywater patron emailer plugin
Getting involved in the Koha Community
Watch here.
Martin Renvoize, Development Manager, talks us through the different ways you can get involved in the Koha Community. From online chat to bug wrangling, Release Team roles to Hackfests.

The team at ByWater Solutions has some great new tutorials for you:

Support Provider News

From Equinox
#ChatOpenS: November 11, 2020 from 12-1pm EDT with Mike Rylander moderating. #ChatOpenS is a monthly Twitter Chat to bring together the open-source library community.

Upcoming Events

Open discussion on Koha Coding

On Wednesday 4 November our Development Manager, Martin Renvoize is going to be running an open discussion for our customers as a kind of bug testing/fixing workshop. If you have ever raised a support ticket with us having spotted a problem with your Koha system and it has resulted in a patch (fix) needing to be done in the system, chances are it will have been through the process which Martin will be demonstrating. He is aiming to go through the following:

  • A very quick guide to Bugzilla (the system used for managing bugs in Koha) and picking bugs to sign off
  • Picking a bug, testing it and signing it off with a sandbox
  • Picking a bug that is yet to be fixed and working through a fix for it

Email andrew.auld@ptfs-europe.com for details.

CILIP Conference 2020

CILIP Conference is a highlight in the annual calendar for library, information and knowledge professionals in the UK and is an important opportunity to connect with networks, share work and build for the future. This year the conference format has had to be reimagined and will be delivered on a virtual event platform. The one-day event on 19 November will include all of the elements that you would expect – impressive keynote speakers, engaging sessions and chances to network.

PROGRAMME AND SPEAKERS
PTFS Europe will be in the virtual Exhibition Hall for this event giving the opportunity for delegates to learn all about Koha and how it could benefit their library.

Koha4Health

PTFS Europe is hosting a virtual conference for library professionals in the health sector on 24 November. With presentations from existing Koha libraries including The King’s Fund and Worcestershire Health Library this conference is an opportunity for health libraries to see why Koha is right for them. Yo can also learn more about other healthy living options at the Health Care Guys website

November General IRC Meeting

The November General IRC meeting will be held the 4th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

November Documentation IRC Meeting

The November Documentation IRC meeting will be held the 12th at 18:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

Past Events

October General IRC Meeting

The October General IRC meeting was held the 7th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

October Development IRC Meeting

The October Development IRC meeting was held the 7th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

October Documentation IRC Meeting

The October Documentation IRC meeting was held the 15th at 18:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

]]> Koha Community Newsletter: September 2020 https://koha-community.org/koha-community-newsletter-september-2020/ Thu, 01 Oct 2020 06:51:20 +0000 https://koha-community.org/?p=8514 Koha Community Newsletter: September 2020 Read More »

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September 2020

Volume 11, Issue 9
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

Please submit news items to Submit

Table of Contents

Development

Koha 20.05.04 Released

by Lucas Gass
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of 20.05.04.

Koha 20.05.04 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 1 security fix, 23 enhancements and, 40 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be viewed here:

Koha 20.05.04 released

Debian packages are available.

Koha 19.11.10 Released

by Aleisha Amohia
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.11.10.

Koha 19.11.10 is a security and bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 1 security fixes, 1 enhancement, 35 bugfixes.

Full release notes can be found here:

Koha 19.11.10 released

Koha 19.05.15 Released

by Victor Grousset
The Koha Community is happy to announce the release of Koha 19.05.15.

Koha 19.05.15 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 4 enhancements, 26 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be found at:

Koha 19.05.15 released

Debian packages will be available shortly.

Thanks to everyone involved 🙂

Community

Notes, Gossip & Announcements

2021 Equinox Open Source Grant

The application period for the 2021 Equinox Open Source Grant is now open. The Equinox Open Source Grant provides project management, training, hosting, and technology support services for the implementation of Koha ILS. Libraries, archives, museums, and other eligible educational, cultural, and information organizations are encouraged to apply. Applications will be accepted from September 8 through November 1, 2020. The application and submission details can be found here http://bit.ly/EOSG2021. For full announcement details please see the press release available on our website here.

Take a look here to see all the Koha Special Interest Groups available through the Koha-US group.

Kalleen Marquise reports on Koha-US and the challenges of providing library services in 2020:

New Koha Libraries

Koha Tips and Tricks

Amazing new learning resource created by the folks in the Koha-US group. A must see!

Take a look at these new tutorials from PTFS Europe:

Housebound module
In this video, Fiona Borthwick tells us about the Housebound Module or Home Delivery Service in Koha which controls the circulation of material to those who can’t get into their local library.
Koha Tables – a basic guide
Lucy Vaux-Harvey has produced this handy guide to the Koha database tables for you so you can easily find how your data is structured. This is really useful when you are writing or looking at Koha reports.
Batch editing MARC records
Lucy Vaux-Harvey has done this detailed video to show you how to batch edit MARC records in Koha using MARC modification templates.

The team at ByWater Solutions has some great new tutorials for you:

Support Provider News

From ByWater Solutions

From PTFS Europe
Koha available through G-Cloud 12

A very important framework in the UK for public sector procurement of software is the G-Cloud as part of the UK Government Digital Marketplace. For the eighth year, PTFS Europe has been successful in applying to be on the framework to implement and support Koha. Read the news article here.

PTFS Europe Customer Day 2020

Our virtual conference was a great success involving nearly 100 Koha library users from the PTFS Europe customer base. The full agenda involving presentations from five customer organisations as well as PTFS Europe staff is here. The event was live-streamed to YouTube and a video of each session is available here.

From Equinox
#ChatOpenS: Our next #ChatOpenS is going to be dedicated to documentation on October 14, 2020 from 12-1pm EDT. #ChatOpenS is a monthly Twitter Chat to bring together the open source library community.

Upcoming Events

KohaCon 2020 Update!

Kohacon is in 4 weeks! Here’s an update.

Registration
Be sure to register for Kohacon! We can’t emphasize this enough. Knowing exactly who is attending and how (online or in-person) helps us when it comes to supplying food for tea breaks and emailing out workshop sign-ups and video links. Please register here https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/registration/

Certificates of attendance will be provided to those who have registered.

Call for contributions to the Official Kohacon2020 Video
We’re making a Kohacon video and we want to hear from YOU! It will be the next best thing to having you here in NZ. To do this, please send us a short video clip or photograph (created on a mobile phone is fine) in landscape orientation by Friday 2 October (any timezone).

This video will be played during the conference, which will also be streamed on YouTube.

Upload your video clip or photographs of your libraries and people using the link below. Label content clearly with your name and your organization’s name: https://seafile.catalyst.net.nz/u/d/5bbd2f7adb9c43108a27/

Here are some suggestions:
– A quick shot of individuals who would like to say their name and optionally the library they are affiliated with – maybe mention your IRC nickname if you’re an IRC regular.
– A short message to the Koha community
– Tell us something special about your library/organization, or how Koha helped make something better
– Image/video of your library building, especially if it shows something special about your local area.
– Please provide all content in landscape orientation.

We can’t wait to see your videos and photographs!

Kohacon updates
Over on the Kohacon website, we’re posting a series of regular updates to highlight speakers, sponsors, talks, and workshops. You can find those updates on the About page https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/about/

The Koha team at Catalyst / Kohacon2020 organising committee

October General IRC Meeting

The October General IRC meeting will be held the 7th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

October Development IRC Meeting

The October Development IRC meeting will be held the 7th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

October Documentation IRC Meeting

The October Documentation IRC meeting will be held the 15th at 18:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

Past Events

September General IRC Meeting

The September General IRC meeting was held the 2nd at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

September Development IRC Meeting

The September Development IRC meeting was held the 9th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

]]> Koha Community Newsletter: August 2020 https://koha-community.org/koha-community-newsletter-august-2020/ Tue, 01 Sep 2020 01:06:51 +0000 https://koha-community.org/?p=8485 Koha Community Newsletter: August 2020 Read More »

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August 2020

Volume 11, Issue 8
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

Please submit news items to Submit

Table of Contents

Development

Koha 20.05.03 Released

by Lucas Gass
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of 20.05.03.

Koha 20.05.03 is a bugfix/maintenance release. It includes 3 security fixes, 44 enhancements, 67 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be viewed here:

Koha 20.05.03 security release

Debian packages are available.

Koha 19.11.09 Released

by Aleisha Amohia
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.11.09.

Thank you very much to everyone involved in this release.

Koha 19.11.09 is a security and bugfix/maintenance release. It includes 3 security fixes, 8 enhancements, 45 bugfixes.

Full release notes can be found here:

Koha 19.11.09 released

Koha 19.05.14 Released

by Victor Grousset
The Koha Community is happy to announce the release of Koha 19.05.14.

Koha 19.05.14 is a bugfix/maintenance release with security fixes. It includes 3 security fixes, 6 enhancements, 11 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be found at:

Koha 19.05.14 released

Debian packages are available.

Equinox Announces Update to Curbside Pickup Plugin for Koha ILS

Duluth, Ga., August 28, 2020: Equinox Open Library Initiative is pleased to
announce completion of the latest update to the Curbside Pickup plugin for libraries
using Koha ILS. This improvement will allow Koha libraries to immediately make
use of the plugin without having to pay for additional development services or wait
for a technical change to the core Koha ILS.

The specifications and workflow for the new Koha plugin were designed by Equinox
staff this past July based off of the Curbside Pickup functionality developed by
Equinox for the Evergreen ILS in June. The Koha Curbside Pickup plugin provides
new staff management tools for coordinating curbside pickup services and
expediting communications using the ILS. These staff management tools include
setting pickup intervals, setting the number of pickup slots allowed per interval, and
whether patrons may directly schedule their own appointments. The development
work completed by Equinox this week removes a technical barrier in the Koha
system, allowing libraries to quickly deploy the new plugin without added cost.

Community

New Koha Libraries

Koha Tips and Tricks

Take a look at these new tutorials from PTFS Europe:

  • What’s on our Mind: EDI ordering using EDIFACT in Koha. Jonathan Field has produced this EDI 101 guide which gives an overview of Setup, Workflow and Field mapping in the EDIFACT module.

The team at ByWater Solutions has some great new tutorials for you:

Support Provider News

From PTFS Europe
Discussion on Koha reporting

We ran a customer discussion session on reporting in Koha and here is a link to a recording of the session. Janet McGowan, Lucy Vaux-Harvey and Fiona Borthwick gave demonstrations as follows:

  • Email notices from reports and an emailer plugin
  • Batch modification of patrons and items from reports
  • Adding charts to reports

PTFS Europe Customer Day
We are running a virtual conference for our customers right on 30 September which we will be live-streaming to our YouTube channel. Videos of the conference sessions will also be available on the channel after the event.

From Equinox
#ChatOpenS: September 16, 2020, 3-4pm EDT with Chris Cormack guest moderating. Networking Twitter Chat bringing those interested in open source in libraries together.

Upcoming Events

KohaCon 2020 Update!

53 days until Kohacon! We’re really excited and we hope you are, too.

This is a short update reminder from us this month – be sure to register for Kohacon!
Registration https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/registration/

Certificates of attendance will be provided to those who have registered.

We will send out links for viewing presentations prior to the conference. For those participating in online workshops, we will send out the links and access code to those who register.

The conference will go ahead regardless of the status of Covid-19 restrictions. The conference will be completely online if required, however, we have plans for NZ participants to also gather in Wellington, in person. We hope to see as many NZ speakers and delegates as possible.

We are thinking about ways to enjoy each others company, even though that cannot be in person for us all. Watch this space for links and updates about sponsor rooms, online social hangouts, a live DJ, and more.

The programme has changed since we first launched it in February of this year and we would encourage you to take another look!
Programme https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/programme/

Sent with thanks to our very generous sponsors:
Pounamu: Bywater solutions, Catayst IT, EBSCO, and Equinox OLI.
Mānuka Honey: FE Technologies, Linux Australia, and PTFS Europe.

Please direct any questions to kohacon2020@catalyst.net.nz

Nā mātou noa, nā,
Koha team at Catalyst NZ

September General IRC Meeting

The September General IRC meeting will be held the 2nd at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

September Development IRC Meeting

The September Development IRC meeting will be held the 9th of September 2020, 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

Past Events

Koha ILS Users Philippines held Koha ILS Discussion Series

by Eugene Jose T. Espinoza and Raul V. Migriño, Jr.

The Koha ILS Users Philippines (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1470467196524189/) held five Discussion Series through Google Meet tackling various topics regarding Koha ILS. The series began last June 6 and culminated on August 15, 2020.

Below are the list of topics per date:
• June 20 – Koha Modules
• July 4 – Koha Installation
• July 18 – OPAC Customization
• August 1 – Data Migration using MARCEdit
• August 15 – Koha notifications

This Discussion series was based on a poll put up by Manuel Tamayao last June 14, 2020 which gathered 38 responses. Each episode of the discussion series was graced with one or two Koha specialists. Each episode was primarily led by Eugene Espinoza representing one of the two Koha specialists while a host moderates the forum. The series was a hands-on discussion type wherein community participants were asked to try out, in real time, what has been demonstrated by the facilitator.

The Discussion series was attended by current Koha ILS users as well as prospective Koha ILS users. Regular attendees include Jerwyn Fernandez and Ram Migrino who both played a major role in the organization of KohaCon2017 in Philippines.

Newcomer Benjade Palermo from University of Mindanao and Anna Gefreliz Erpelo from University of Rizal System were also regular attendees.

This discussion series was conceptualized primarily to enliven the Koha ILS Users Philippines as well as to reach out to Filipino Koha users having concerns in any phase of their Koha implementation but having no resources or means to address the same.

Koha ILS Users Philippines hopes to hold similar activities in the future.

August General IRC Meeting

The August General IRC meeting was held the 5th of August 2020, 14:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

August Development IRC Meeting

The August Development IRC meeting was held the 12th of August 2020, 14:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

August Documentation IRC Meeting

The August Documentation IRC meeting was held the 13th August 2020, 19:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

]]> Koha Community Newsletter: July 2020 https://koha-community.org/koha-community-newsletter-july-2020/ Fri, 31 Jul 2020 21:14:27 +0000 https://koha-community.org/?p=8445 Koha Community Newsletter: July 2020 Read More »

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July 2020

Volume 11, Issue 7
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

Please submit news items to Submit

Table of Contents

Development

Koha 20.05.02 Released

by Lucas Gass
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of 20.05.02.

Koha 20.05.02 is a bugfix/maintenance release, including 17 enhancements
and 25 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be viewed here:

20.05.02 Release

Debian packages should be available in a couple days!

Koha 19.11.08 Released

by Aleisha Amohia
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.11.08.

Thank you very much to everyone involved in this release.

Koha 19.11.08 is a bugfix/maintenance release that includes 8
enhancements and 18 bugfixes.

Full release notes can be found here:

Koha 19.11.08 released

Koha 19.05.13 Released

by Victor Grousset
The Koha Community is happy to announce the release of Koha 19.05.13.

Koha 19.05.13 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 16 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be found at:

Koha 19.05.13 released

Debian packages will be available shortly.

Thanks to everyone involved 🙂

Notes and Projects

Developer, Aleisha Amohia, writes about the amazing work being done in Koha 20.05.

HealthNet Nepal has released a Live DVD version of Koha for testing and educational purposes.

Community

New Koha Libraries

Equinox Open Source Grant Recipient Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico Goes Live with Koha

Duluth, Ga., July 29, 2020: Equinox Open Library Initiative is honored to
announce the successful migration of the Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico, a
division of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña in San Juan, Puerto Rico to the
Koha Integrated Library System. They were one of two 2019 Equinox Open Source
Grant recipients.

The Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico was created in 1967, a division of the
Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. In 2003 it became the National Library to
preserve and provide access to resources related to Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans.
The ir migration encompassed 56001 bibliographic records. Equinox services
included: project management, system configuration, extraction and migration of
bibliographic data, and staff training. Equinox also provided Koha support, hosting,
and auxiliary services.

“We are extremely happy and thankful for this extraordinary work,” said Carlos Ruiz
Cortés, Executive Director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. “The
catalogue is modern and very comfortable for research. It is also a great
opportunity as we are implementing new services for our users, while promoting
access to our valuable cultural resources.”

The Equinox Open Source Grant was offered for the first time in 2019 providing
Koha migration, support and training to two successful grantees. The grant was
inspired by the vibrant open source community and the belief that every community
deserves to benefit from an accessible and thriving library.

Staff from the National Library and the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, led by Hilda

Teresa Ayala-González, dedicated months to migrating data, configuring settings, testing,
and training for the new Koha system, while also compiling a list of betting sites not on gamstop to enhance
community resources. “This database sparked additional initiatives, including a new website launch during
the library’s closure and a planned digitization project linked with Koha to mark the 65th anniversary of the
Cultural Institute,” said Jennifer Weston, Implementation Project Manager at Equinox. “It has been a privilege
to collaborate with the Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico to expand these opportunities for their community.”

Koha Tips and Tricks

Take a look at these new tutorials from PTFS Europe:

The team at ByWater Solutions has some great new tutorials for you:

Support Provider News

From PTFS Europe
Developing Accessibility:

A current project that really encapsulates the strengths of the Koha community is work PTFS Europe developers are doing on enhancing Koha accessibility. This project is being funded by a Koha library at the UK Houses of Parliament, fixes for identified bugs are being developed by PTFS Europe and signed-off and quality assured at pace by a wide group of members of the Koha community. Bugs fixed include making headings semantically correct, adding ‘skip to main content’ links, adding aria labels to search results and making aria labels translatable. Full details of progress on this tree of bugs can be found here.

From Equinox

#ChatOpenS: August 19, 2020, 12-1pm EDT. Networking Twitter Chat bringing those interested in open source in libraries together.

Upcoming Events

KohaCon 2020 Update!

Tēnā koutou,

It’s 84 days to Kohacon! The programme has changed since we first launched it in February of this year and we would encourage you to take another look https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/programme/

Kohacon2020 will be a mix of in-person and online presentations. Speakers will deliver talks at the Tiakiwai Conference Centre venue and streamed online.

Our guest speakers hail from Finland, Pakistan, the USA, France, Bangladesh, Canada, Turkey, Australia, England, and New Zealand. Please register your intention to attend online or in-person at: https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/registration/

There is professional development goodness for everyone – documentation, accessibility, linked data, creative problem solving, cataloguing plugins, integration, and marketing tips to name just a few talks/workshops. You can register to receive programme updates, follow @nzkoha on twitter, and keep an eye on the website: https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/programme/

Details

If you have any questions, please contact us at kohacon2020@catalyst.net.nz

Nā mātou noa, nā,
Koha team at Catalyst NZ

Sent with thanks to our Kohacon sponsors: https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/sponsors/

Koha-US Cataloging SIG: MARC Frameworks in Koha

by Heather Hernandez
The next Koha-US Cataloging SIG (Special Interest Group) round table will look at MARC frameworks (we’ll edit one live!) followed by our usual open discussion of cataloging issues–this month, submitted questions already include: Why use cutters instead of author’s last names? And, what’s the difference between “form, subfield v” and “topic subfield x” in a subject heading–what makes something a “form” or a “topic?”. Please bring your questions, tips, tricks, ideas, and comments and let’s chat and learn from each other! You don’t have to be a member of Koha-US to participate, nor do you have to be a cataloger! We often work in real, live, in production Koha catalogs, and are happy to try things out live–it’s loads of fun! So please join us on Thursday, August 6, 2020 @ 8am – 9am PT (9 MT/10 CT/11 ET in the United States). Can’t make it? No problem–it will be recorded and available on the Koha US YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV58VVGJH5V1wNHZqYpAfX7y1dU9eWTXq

More information on the Koha-US SIGs is here: http://koha-us.org/special-interest-groups/ You can join via the “Join” button on this page, or email info@koha-us.org for assistance with joining any of the SIGs.

Upcoming topics of the Cataloging SIG meetings include Related formats (e.g. print/online) (September), Languages and record displays (October), Reports (November), Workarounds and documentation (December).

Please also feel free to address questions, tips, tricks, ideas for topics, etc. to the group or to me, heather_hernandez@nps.gov, via email at anytime. And guest presenters & hosts are most welcome if you have something you’d like to share! Full details on our SIG meetings (with the link to join), as well as those of the other SIGS, are on the Koha US calendar, http://koha-us.org/calendar/

August General IRC Meeting

The August General IRC meeting will be held the 5th of August 2020, 14:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

August Development IRC Meeting

The August Development IRC meeting will be held the 12th of August 2020, 14:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

August Documentation IRC Meeting

The August Documentation IRC meeting will be held the 13th August 2020, 19:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

Past Events

July General IRC Meeting

The July General IRC meeting was held the 17th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

July Development IRC Meeting

The July Development IRC meeting was held the 1st at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

July Documentation IRC Meeting

The July Documentation IRC meeting was held the 2nd at 19:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

]]> Koha Community Newsletter: June 2020 https://koha-community.org/koha-community-newsletter-june-2020/ Tue, 30 Jun 2020 01:52:59 +0000 https://koha-community.org/?p=8416 Koha Community Newsletter: June 2020 Read More »

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June 2020

Volume 11, Issue 6
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

Please submit news items to Submit

Table of Contents

Development

Koha 20.05.01 Released

by Jonathan Druart
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of 20.05.01.

This is a maintenance release and contains many bugfixes and enhancements.

Koha 20.05.01 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 11 enhancements, 48 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available at https://koha-community.org/koha-20-05-01-released/

Koha 19.11.07 Released

by Aleisha Amohia
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.11.07.

This is my first release as the 19.11.x release maintainer. Thank you very much to everyone involved in this release.

Koha 19.11.07 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 2 enhancements, 48 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available at https://koha-community.org/koha-19-11-07-released/

Koha 19.05.12 Released

by Victor Grousset
The Koha Community is happy to announce the release of Koha 19.05.12.

This is a maintenance release and contains many bugfixes and enhancements.

This is my first release as the 19.05.x release maintainer. Thank you very much to everyone involved in this release. And in particular to those who helped me on the community IRC channel to solve the various issues and confusions that I encountered for my first release ever.

It includes 1 enhancement, 30 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available at https://koha-community.org/koha-19-05-12-released/

Community

New Koha Libraries

Koha Tips and Tricks

Take a look at these new tutorials from PTFS Europe:

The team at ByWater Solutions has some great new tutorials for you:

Support Provider News

From PTFS Europe
Our successful FEstival online conference on 3 June was attended by a large number of delegates from the UK Further Education sector interested in what Koha offers their libraries. Particularly enjoyed were sessions from existing Koha libraries, Leeds City College and City of Glasgow College. All sessions are available to view on the PTFS Europe YouTube channel.

From Equinox
The next #ChatOpenS date is July 15, 2020 from 12-1pm EDT. It’s for discussing topics relating to open source in libraries – all communities welcome.

Upcoming Events

Koha US Cataloging SIG (Special Interest Group): archives and Koha

by Heather Hernandez
The next Koha-US Cataloging SIG (Special In terest Group) round table will look at archives and Koha. Please bring your questions, tips, tricks, and let’s chat about catalog records for finding aids hosted elsewhere, finding aids hosted in Koha, value of finding aids, objects (not just paper collections), using MarcEdit, EAD/MARC conversion, and as usual, any other tips, tricks, topics, or questions! You don’t have to be a member of Koha-US to participate, nor do you have to be a cataloger! We often work in real, live, in production Koha catalogs, and are happy to try things out live–it’s loads of fun! So please join us on Thursday, July 2, 2020 @ 8am – 9am PT (9 MT/10 CT/11 ET in the United States). Can’t make it? No problem–it will be recorded and available on the Koha US YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV58VVGJH5V1wNHZqYpAfX7y1dU9eWTXq

More information on the Koha-US SIGs is here: http://koha-us.org/special-interest-groups/ You can join via the “Join” button on this page, or email info@koha-us.org for assistance with joining any of the SIGs.

Upcoming topics of the Cataloging SIG meetings include MARC frameworks (August), Related formats (e.g. print/online) (September), Languages and record displays (October), Reports (November), Workarounds and documentation (December).

Please also feel free to address questions, tips, tricks, ideas for topics, etc. to the group or to me, heather_hernandez@nps.gov, via email at anytime. And guest presenters & hosts are most welcome if you have something you’d like to share! Full details on our SIG meetings, as well as those of the other SIGS, are on the Koha US calendar, http://koha-us.org/calendar/

July General IRC Meeting

The July General IRC meeting will be held the 17th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

July Development IRC Meeting

The July Development IRC meeting will be held the 1st at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

July Documentation IRC Meeting

The July Documentation IRC meeting was held the 2nd at 19:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

Past Events

June General IRC Meeting

The June General IRC meeting was held the 17th at 15:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

June Development IRC Meeting

The June Development IRC meeting was held the 3rd at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

June Documentation IRC Meeting

The June Documentation IRC meeting was held the 7th at 19:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

]]> Koha Community Newsletter: May 2020 https://koha-community.org/koha-community-newsletter-may-2020/ Sat, 30 May 2020 02:21:46 +0000 https://koha-community.org/?p=8353 Koha Community Newsletter: May 2020 Read More »

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May 2020

Volume 11, Issue 5
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

Please submit news items to Submit

Table of Contents

Development

Koha 19.11.06 Released

by Joy Nelson
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.11.06.

It includes 23 enhancements and 122 bug fixes.

The full release notes are available at

Koha 19.11.06 release

Debian packages will be updated within a few days.

Koha 19.05.11 Released

by Lucas Gass
The Koha Community is happy to announce the release of Koha 19.05.11.

This is a maintenance release.

It includes 13 enhancements, 72 bugfixes.

The full release notes can be found at:

Koha 19.05.11 Release

Debian packages will be available shortly.

Community

New Koha Libraries

Koha Tips and Tricks

The team at ByWater Solutions has some great new tutorials for you:

Support Provider News

From PTFS Europe
We are delighted to have been appointed by APUC (Advanced Purchasing for Universities & Colleges) to their Library Systems framework to supply Koha and integrations of the EBSCO discovery service to Universities and Colleges across Scotland – https://www.ptfs-europe.com/frameworks/

Finally, we have launched a new source of useful information for customers and the wider Koha community about what is On Our Mind at PTFS Europe. Every fortnight, we will be sharing a video, a presentation or a document on a subject that we are excited about, have been working on or have just discovered that we think folk might be interested in. As much of ‘What’s On Our Mind’ will take the form of videos, we will upload them to our YouTube channel into a special playlist. So people can subscribe to our channel.

From Catalyst IT
Aleisha Amohia, developer with Catalyst’s Koha team for five years, graduated this week with a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence) and a Bachelor of Commerce (Management & Info Systems).

Mental Health Education & Resource Centre Library now offers online self-registration
https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/mental-health-education-resource-library-now-offers-online-self-registration

Upcoming Events

KohaCon 2020 Continues!

The Kohacon team at Catalyst are excited to announce the following decision: we will go ahead with Kohacon2020.

Kohacon2020 will be a hybrid online and in-person event, appropriate to the New Zealand and global rules on travel at the time.

Following the success of the online Kohathon event, we realised that Koha storytelling, teaching, learning, planning and coding can happen, whether we are together online or in person. We already know that this is a strength of our project.

Conference programme:
– As much as possible, it will stay the same:https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/programme/
– We are thinking about live-streamed and pre-recorded presentations, streamed library tours and social events, workshops delivered using an online training platform, and we already have collaboration tools for us to work together on Koha – we’ll just make sure everyone knows how to participate.

Information for conference attendees:
– If you would like to register as an online-only participant, you will hear more soon about how to register. We are very excited that the online element of the conference will make it accessible to more people.
– We will keep in touch about NZ travel restrictions, to help you decide whether to plan attending in person. Booking travel is not recommended by us at this stage. We still plan to make a decision in July about how we will proceed “in person” so travel may be booked if possible.

Information for conference speakers:
– Speakers, please could you email kohacon2020@catalyst.net.nz to say whether or not you willing to speak at the conference, if your presentation will be delivered online-only.
– Please also provide your speaker bio (information about yourself) if you haven’t already. We will be in touch again with further details for speakers.

Thank you all for supporting the conference so far. We will be in touch again soon.

Extra special thanks to our conference sponsors: Bywater Solutions, EBSCO, PTFS-Europe and Catalyst.

Koha US Cataloging SIG (Special Interest Group): Authorities pt.2

by Heather Hernandez
The next Koha-US Cataloging SIG (Special Interest Group) round table will look at building your catalog without OCLC–really downloading authority records from free from the Library of Congress (I flubbed in May’s meeting & am totally learning from my mistakes, especially the public ones!), getting records via Z39.50 with Koha and/or MarcEdit, keying records (what is “good enough?”), and as usual, any other tips, tricks, topics, or questions. You don’t have to be a member of Koha-US to participate, nor do you have to be a cataloger! We often work in real, live, in production Koha catalogs, and are happy to try things out live–it’s loads of fun! So please join us on Thursday, June 4 @ 8 am – 9 am PT (9 MT/10 CT/11 ET in the United States). Can’t make it? No problem–it will be recorded and available on the Koha US YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV58VVGJH5V1wNHZqYpAfX7y1dU9eWTXq

More information on the Koha-US SIGs is here: http://koha-us.org/special-interest-groups/ You can join via the “Join” button on this page, or email info@koha-us.org for assistance with joining any of the SIGs.

Please also feel free to address questions, tips, tricks, etc. to the group or to me, heather_hernandez@nps.gov, via email at any time. And guest presenters & hosts are most welcome if you have something you’d like to share! Full details on our SIG meetings, as well as those of the other SIGS, are on the Koha US calendar, http://koha-us.org/calendar/

June General IRC Meeting

The June General IRC meeting will be held the 17th at 15:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

June Development IRC Meeting

The June Development IRC meeting will be held the 3rd at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

June Documentation IRC Meeting

The June Documentation IRC meeting was held the 7th at 19:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

Past Events

May General IRC Meeting

The May General IRC meeting was held the 13th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

May Development IRC Meeting

The May Development IRC meeting was held the 20th at 14:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

May Documentation IRC Meeting

The May Documentation IRC meeting was held the 4th at 19:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

]]> Koha Community Newsletter: April 2020 https://koha-community.org/koha-community-newsletter-april-2020/ Thu, 30 Apr 2020 04:10:07 +0000 https://koha-community.org/?p=8326 Koha Community Newsletter: April 2020 Read More »

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April 2020

Volume 11, Issue 4
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

Please submit news items to Submit

Table of Contents

Development

Koha 19.11.05 Released

by Joy Nelson
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.11.05.

Koha 19.11.05 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 15 enhancements, 77 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available at https://koha-community.org/koha-19-11-05-released/

Koha 19.05.10 Released

by Lucas Gass
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.05.10.

Koha 19.05.10 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 5 enhancements, 55 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available at https://koha-community.org/koha-19-05-10-release/

Koha 18.11.16 Released

by Hayley Mapley
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 18.11.16.

Koha 18.11.16 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 1 new feature, 16 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available at https://koha-community.org/koha-18-11-16-released/

Community

Community Announcements

Check out the latest adventure of Fred and the Avenging Chicken as they Don’t Go Much of Anywhere.

New Koha Libraries

KOHA ILS in Taylor’s University Malaysia

by Jesse Kah Ingland
We have recently implemented a challenging KOHA ILS in Taylor’s University Malaysia. The project was awarded November 2019 and went live on 14th February 2020 successfully.

Their previous library system, Virtua, was converted to KOHA ILS 19.05, with a comprehensive data migration that included MARC, Serial, Acquisition data, fines, and Circulation history dating back to 2010. During the migration process, we encountered a notable parallel while researching platforms with varied user preferences, such as casino’s zonder speellimieten, which prioritize user autonomy and unrestricted access. Similarly, our focus on ensuring seamless integration of payment gateways highlighted the importance of flexibility and functionality, akin to these platforms. As the final steps are underway with Taylor’s Infra team and Account Team, the system is projected to go live by the end of April 2020. The implementation process has been both challenging and rewarding, uncovering valuable insights that we are eager to share with the community.

The KOHA ILS in Taylor’s is implemented in three (3)-tier architecture whereby KOHA ILS itself was separated into 3 different installation server: Web server, Application server and Database server. The architecture then duplicated into 2 sets of servers making KOHA ILS were installed in 6 servers on production in total.
KOHA ILS was running in a load balancing mode to access into the 2 sets of servers. The concurrent user access is 3,000 users.

The authentication of KOHA for Taylor’s is integrated into the University’s Active Directory through LDAP.
Student authentication is connecting to Student LDAP, while the staff is connecting to Staff LDAP.
It’s our first implementation in multiple LDAP integration.

Taylor’s University Library is having 6 units of 3M Self Check Machines and 2 units of 3M Book Return Machines (with sorter). Our team has also assisted them to integrate those automation machines to KOHA ILS via SIP2.

In Malaysia, PayPal is not one of the payment method options as transactions are preferable in MYR (Malaysian Ringgit) while taking consideration of the commission charges too. For Taylor’s, they are using the payment mode of ipay88 online payment gateway. We developed a dedicated payment module for KOHA ILS to integrated to the ipay88 for patrons to make fines payment in KOHA. Paid fines then will be updated to Database via SIP2 or direct database method. Besides the ipay88 payment mode, our team were also able to integrate other payment modes such as “FPX” (a payment protocol set by Central Bank of Malaysia), “Molpay” and others provided with a particular set of protocol given.

In addition to the aforementioned integration, Taylor’s also is the first to integrate KOHA ILS to EBSCO discovery online resources in Malaysia. With the applied API developed by Alvet Miranda, patrons get to search online resources from EBSCO discovery via KOHA search. However, the display of the search result is not as complete as prepared by the native interface of EBSCO discovery. For this, we also would like to give credit to the efforts of Asia’s EBSCO team, and effort to Mr. Eugene Espinoza, our KOHA implementer team in the Philippines for their assistant and guidance along with the integration.

Tagging in the effort team of EBSCO team – EBSCO Singapore, EBSCO Malaysia; Mr. Eugene Espinoza; and Alvet Miranda (EBSCO API developer through https://github.com/ebsco/edsapi-koha-plugin.

For any community members that are venturing into such architecture and customization for the above implementation, please do not hesitate to contact us. We can share more information on it.

Taylor’s Library’s KOHA OPAC can be accessed via https://librarycatalogue.taylors.edu.my/

Attaching with the Training group photos we had with Taylor’s Library team, and a photos of Lemonjar’s team at Taylor’s University.

For other photos, please kindly check website news at: https://www.lemonjar.com.my/index.php/2020/04/15/koha-ils-to-taylors-university-malaysia/

Koha Tips and Tricks

Working from home? Chloe Gunn has you covered:

The team at ByWater Solutions have some great new tutorials for you:

Support Provider News

From PTFS Europe
We are holding an online conference for the FE sector on June 3 2020 called ‘FEstival’ at which we will be promoting Koha as an ideal LMS for Further Education college libraries. We have guest speakers from two current Koha libraries as well as sessions by our trainers, implementation team and technical team. This is the advert we have used:

Join us on 3 June for our online FEstival conference to learn about the open source Koha Library Management System and why it is the right choice for your FE College library. Speakers include Librarians with live Koha systems, implementation professionals with installation tips and experts on the Metabase data analytics tool.
All you have to do is join us – oh, and handle your own refreshments!
http://www.ptfs-europe.com/FEstival

From Catalyst IT
In March this year, Catalyst IT took over support for the customers of Calyx Information Essentials when Bob and Irma Birchall, directors of Calyx, made plans to retire. Our Koha team is delighted to be able to continue to host and support Bob and Irma’s Koha libraries.

Upcoming Events

Koha US Cataloging SIG (Special Interest Group): Authorities

by Heather Hernandez
The next Koha US Cataloging SIG (Special Interest Group) monthly round table is on authorities, on May 7 (the 1st Thursday of the month) @ 8am – 9am PT (9 MT/10 CT/11 ET), and like all our round tables, is open to all, and will be recorded and available on the Koha US YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV58VVGJH5V1wNHZqYpAfX7y1dU9eWTXq

Bring (or send me ahead of time at heather_hernandez@nps.gov) your questions–no question is too basic! What are authority records? What’s all this about linking? Merging? Overlaying? Oh, my! We’ll be working live in a real Koha catalog! Join us to ask questions and share your tips and tricks, via the chat or via audio & video–guest presenters always welcome! In June Z39.50 (especially building a library via Z39.50 without OCLC). Full details on our SIG meetings, as well as those of the other SIGS, are on the Koha US calendar, http://koha-us.org/calendar/ with more information at http://koha-us.org/special-interest-groups/ (anyone may join–Koha US membership not required), or email info@koha-us.org

May General IRC Meeting

The April General IRC meeting will be held the 8th at 21:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

May Development IRC Meeting

The April Development IRC meeting will be held the 1st at 14:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

Past Events

April General IRC Meeting

The April General IRC meeting was held the 8th at 21:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

April Development IRC Meeting

The April Development IRC meeting was held the 1st at 14:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

April Documentation IRC Meeting

The April Documentation IRC meeting was held the 9th at 19:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

April Education Meeting

An education meeting was held the 14th at 19:00 UTC. (note: Zoom meeting)

]]> Koha Community Newsletter: March 2020 https://koha-community.org/koha-community-newsletter-march-2020/ Wed, 01 Apr 2020 02:41:55 +0000 https://koha-community.org/?p=8284 Koha Community Newsletter: March 2020 Read More »

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March 2020

Volume 11, Issue 3
ISSN 2153-8328
Edited by Chad Roseburg, Koha Community Newsletter Editor

Please submit news items to Submit

Table of Contents

Development

Koha 19.11.04 Released

by Joy Nelson
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.11.04.

Koha 19.11.04 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 1 new feature, 6 enhancements, 44 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available at https://koha-community.org/koha-19-11-04-release/

Koha 19.05.09 Released

by Lucas Gass
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 19.05.09.

Koha 19.05.09 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 2 new features, 4 enhancements, 33 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available at https://koha-community.org/koha-19-05-09-release/

Koha 18.11.15 Released

by Hayley Mapley
The Koha community is proud to announce the release of Koha 18.11.15.

Koha 18.11.15 is a bugfix/maintenance release.

It includes 5 bugfixes.

The full release notes are available at https://koha-community.org/koha-18-11-15-released/

Community

Community Announcements

New Koha US Cataloging SIG (Special Interest Group)

by Heather Hernandez
Interested in cataloging? Just have a question that a cataloger might help with? Check out the new Koha US Cataloging SIG (Special Interest Group), open to all–like all the new Koha US SIGs, you don’t have to be a Koha US member or in the United States! The Cataloging SIG is one of Koha US’s new SIGs, listed here: http://koha-us.org/special-interest-groups/ You can join via the “Join” button on this page, or email info@koha-us.org for assistance with joining any of the SIGs.

The Cataloging SIG has a monthly round table on the 1st Thursday of the month @ 8am – 9am PT (9 MT/10 CT/11 ET), also open to all, which is recorded and available on the Koha US YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV58VVGJH5V1wNHZqYpAfX7y1dU9eWTXq
We generally start with a topic and let the conversation go from there! (And sometimes I wear my pearls, but I haven’t yet been tempted to clutch them!) Our next round table topic is going to be on MarcEdit (on April 2)–we’ll be playing around with it, so please join us to ask questions and share your tips and tricks, via the chat or via audio & video! In May we’ll look at authorities, and in June Z39.50 (especially building a library via Z39.50 without OCLC).

Please bring any questions, tips, tricks, etc. to any of our meetings or to the group or to me, heather_hernandez@nps.gov, via email at anytime. And guest presenters & hosts are most welcome if you have something you’d like to share! Full details on our SIG meetings, as well as those of the other SIGS, are on the Koha US calendar, http://koha-us.org/calendar/

And if you’re telecommuting an increased amount right now and would just like to get in a little socializing with fellow Kohans, please feel free to join us for that as well! No knowledge of MARC required, no question too basic!

New Koha Libraries

National Library of Greece signs MoU with 14 Public Libraries to migrate to Koha

By Sofia Zapounidou
On 24th of February, the National Library of Greece has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with 14 Public Libraries. All 14 Libraries are migrating to Koha with the financial support of the National Library of Greece. The migration process has been completed for ten of them. Moreover, the National Library of Greece has trained the 14 libraries’ librarians and other staff in using Koha. In these training sessions, the Koha Hellenic Users’ Group participated with Mr.Roussos, a member of the KOHA HUG administration team.

  • Aiantios Public Library of Atalanti
  • Historical Public Library of Andritsaina
  • Historical Public Library of Zafora
  • Central Public Library of Drama
  • Central Public Library of Edessa
  • Central Public Library of Eleftheropouli
  • Central Public Library of Kalamata
  • Central Public Library of Karpenissi
  • Central Public Library of Kilkis
  • Central Public Library of Pyrgos
  • Central Public Library of Rethymno
  • Central Public Library of Serres
  • Historical Central Public Library of Siatista – Manousseia
  • Papacharalabios Central Public Library of Nafpactos

The Koha Hellenic Users’ Group administration team:
Dimitrios Antonakis, Georgia Katsarou, Evgenios Papadopoulos, Andreas Roussos, Giorgos Veranis, Sofia Zapounidou.

Koha Tips and Tricks

Working from home? Read some tips from the staff at ByWater Solutions.

Paul Poulain started a wiki page on remote training.

Kelly McElligott and Jessie Zairo have added some great new tutorials to their Monday Minutes series:

Kelly McElligott explains Koha’s Overdue Notice Status & Triggers.

Learn about the new Claims Returned Enhancement in Koha 19.11 with Kelly McElligot.

Andrew Fuerste-Henry has some ideas for setting items to quarantine status upon return.

Andrew Fuerste-Henry answers the question, where are my circ rules in the database?.

Review this handy list from Andrew Fuerste-Henry as you prepare for library closures.

Hear about the new Patron Clubs Hold Feature from Kelly McElligot.

Thinking of getting involved in the Koha development process? Check out these two posts from ByWater Solutions.
Koha Virtual Hackfest – Code Spaghetti, Koha Virtual Hackfest – Documentation.

Upcoming Events

Hackfest 2020 in Marseille, Cancelled

from Paul Poulain

Posted on Koha Development List

In case you were still wondering “should I go to the hackfest this year ?”, I’ll answer for you : I’ve decided to cancel the hackfest. Too sad, but everyone is better at home, taking care of his family.

Update on Kohacon20

by Kathryn Tyree
Kia ora koutou,

Unfortunately it seems increasingly unlikely that Kohacon will go ahead.
Our recommendation is that you do not book any flights or accommodation
at this stage.

We intend to make a decision to go ahead, or not, in July.

Very best wishes to you all, and your families, through this difficult time.

The Kohacon organizing team

koha-US April 2020 Meetings & Events

by Jason Robb
koha-US online meetings and events are free and open to all.

See our calendar for a full list: http://koha-us.org/calendar/

*Meetings*
Board Meeting – Wednesday, April 1st @ 8:30-9:30 PT (9:30 MT / 10:30 CT / 11:30 ET)

*Learning Opportunities*

  • Basic SQL for Koha Users – Monday, April 6th @ 8:30-9:30 PT (9:30 MT / 10:30 CT / 11:30 ET)
  • Kohathon http://koha-us.org/kohathon-2020/ – Thursday, April 23rd @ 8am
    ET – 8pm PT

*Special Interest Groups*

  • Cataloging – Thursday, April 2nd @ 8-9 PT (9 MT / 10 CT / 11 ET)
  • System Administration – Tuesday, April 14th @ 9-10 PT (10 MT / 11 CT / Noon ET)
  • Acquisitions – Tuesday, April 21st @ 9-10 PT (10 MT / 11 CT / Noon ET)

See what other SIGs are in the works and join groups on topics important to
you: http://koha-us.org/special-interest-groups/

Are you currently suffering from Koha withdrawal because your library is
closed? Consider joining the *Demonstration SIG
*to
dive into the koha-US demonstration instance — help with setup, database
population, and more! As the name implies, this instance will be used to
show off Koha everywhere we go, but we’re also eager to explore additional
uses!

April General IRC Meeting

The April General IRC meeting will be held the 8th at 21:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

April Development IRC Meeting

The April Development IRC meeting will be held the 1st at 14:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

April Documentation IRC Meeting

The April Documentation IRC meeting will be held the 9th at 19:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is
here.

April Education Meeting

An education meeting will be held the 14th at 19:00 UTC. (note: Zoom meeting)

Past Events

March General IRC Meeting

The March General IRC meeting was held the 11th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is here.

March Development IRC Meeting

The March Development IRC meeting was held the 4th at 14:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is here.

March Documentation IRC Meeting

The March Documentation IRC meeting was held the 5th at 20:00 UTC.

The agenda, links to the minutes, and other information is here.

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