Koha 3.8.6 is the current stable release version of the project coordinated at koha-community.org.

Koha is developed and maintained by an active world wide community of librarians and software developers. Koha is used by four national libraries and thousands of academic, public, school and special libraries across the globe.

CALYX provides regular upgrades as part of our ‘Hosting with Support’ agreement with libraries around Australia and the Pacific. We ensure that only stable, robust software is made available to our clients, whilst providing timely access to the latest features and benefits of Koha.

In addition to the software upgrade, we have now made available to all libraries the English New Zealand (en-NZ) translation which restores our familiar spelling of ‘catalogue’ (rather than the US ‘catalog’) and enables librarians to reserve, issue and return instead of holding, checking out and checking in. We like this, but the US translation (en) remains available at the click of a mouse for those who prefer it.

For more information about Koha or CALYX’ services, please contact us.

The Shire has established public libraries at Derby and Fitzroy Crossing to support access to information services by its diverse and geographically dispersed community. CALYX information essentials has been contracted to provide Koha services including software implementation and configuration, data conversion, training and ongoing support. The system will be hosted off site in Calyx’ state of the art data centre. Derby and Fitzroy Crossing Public libraries are expected to be live on Koha before July 2012.

Koha is the world’s first and foremost open source library management system. Used around the world by academic, public, school and special libraries, Koha is fully featured and web 2.0 rich. Originally developed for the Horowhenua Library Trust in New Zealand, Koha is now developed and maintained by a world wide community of librarians and software developers. The home of the Koha community is at http://koha-community.org.

Kate Hithersay, Library Manager for Shire of Derby West Kimberley, stated that the Shire’s current library system lacks functionality and flexibility and is approaching end of life. “In selecting a replacement system, price was a factor but by no means the only consideration”, Kate said. She feels that Koha’s full feature set is impressive and consistent with the Shires needs. According to Kate, the library wanted to be able to explore the product features before becoming engaged with a vendor. Calyx provided a demonstration system that enabled staff to do so in considerable depth.

According to Irma Birchall, Calyx Director, “the cloud computing model we offer will enable the Shire to save time and money, achieve scalability and flexibility with predictable costs, and to focus on reader needs rather than infrastructure. This is Calyx’ first deployment of Koha to the public library sector in Australia. We used to champion Koha because of the advantages of the open source approach. Now these advantages are realised and we champion Koha’s features, reliability and flexibility. We are delighted to assist Shire of Derby West Kimberley to improve the library services available to its community.”

Koha is the world’s first free and open source integrated library management system. Originally developed by Katipo Communications of New Zealand for Horowhenua Library Trust, Koha is now maintained and developed by a world wide community of librarians and software professionals. The Koha community is located at www.koha-community.org.

Koha 3.8.0 is a major feature release containing over 130 enhancements with over 1000 changesets from 71 developers.

Highlights of Koha 3.8 include Hourly Loans (important for academic libraries) and a new style sheet improving the appearance and usability of the staff client. Other significant improvements include:

• star ratings in OPAC;
• authority matching improvements;
• in Acquisitions, cancelled orders tracking and claims management improvements;
• ability to search for borrowers on email or phone number only;
• in Circulation, user configurable slips (now driven under the Notices editor), improvements to the offline circulation module and support for floating collections;
• more options in Advanced Search;
• several ‘under the hood’ changes to improve Koha’s performance for large collections.

The release notes for Koha 3.8.0 may be found here: http://koha-community.org/koha-3-8-0-released/

This release will be followed monthly by maintenance releases, with the next major feature release (Koha 3.10) due in October 2012.

CALYX will liaise with clients individually regarding their upgrade schedule to Koha 3.8.

All hosted clients of CALYX have now been upgraded to Koha version 3.06.04.000.  This is the current stable release of Koha.

The upgrade was completed in the week ending 16 March 2012.  A small glitch in Koha’s self-check-out module required a quick fix; apart from that, the upgrade was without incident.

We are now looking forward to the release of Koha 3.8 (due in April).  As always, Calyx will monitor progress of the 3.8 release with a view to upgrading all our hosted clients prior to the end of the year.

We recommend that non-hosted clients also now upgrade to Koha 3.6.  All Koha installations should by now be upgraded to at least version 3.04.007, for security reasons.

Koha Version 3.6 is major feature release, containing 85 enhancements and 356 bugfixes.

Just listing a few  …

• Z3950 results highlighting
• Improve controls for cloning and deleting MARC subfields
• Capability to blank subfields in Batch Modification
• Show a warning if placing a hold incurs a charge
• Paging on the opac detail page, allowing the user to move through search results
• Show number of comments on the “Comments” tab in OPAC
• Partial fine payments
• If a patron search returns one result, redirect to patron details page
• Added ISBN filter
• Enable Koha to fetch book covers from Open Library

Enjoy! http://koha-community.org/koha-3-6-0-released/#more-2830

We’ll be at the Conference in Melbourne, 6-9 Feb. If you’re attending, be sure to come and see us at Booth #27!

Chris Cormack from Catalyst IT who wrote the first line of Koha’s code in 1999 and knows Koha inside out will be there too.

VALA is the conference for all matters relating to information technology for libraries.

CALYX’ practice is to upgrade our hosted clients twice per annum. Upgrades are timed to ensure that clients receive prompt access to the latest software developments whilst being offered only stable software that has been tested and proved not only by CALYX personnel but by librarians around the world. The Koha project makes major feature releases twice per annum, in April and October. Every month there is a maintenance release that applies patches to any problem software that has been identified since the previous release, where the patch has been tested and signed off by users, has passed QA and been accepted by the Release Manager for inclusion in the next release. The Release Manager for Koha 3.04 and for the forthcoming Koha 3.06 is Chris Cormack, of Catalyst IT in New Zealand. The Release Manager for Koha 3.08, due in April 2012, will be Paul Poulain of Biblibre in France. The outcome for users of Koha is that they receive stable software that does what it is supposed to do.

Koha just keeps getting better and better. And it works. For more information about Koha visit the community’s web site: http://koha-community.org/ or call Irma today on 0413 510 717

KohaCon is a free conference. Previous conferences have been held in Paris (France), Plano (Texas, USA) and Wellington (New Zealand). The Koha community is excited to be taking KohaCon to India where deployment of Koha is widespread and flourishing. This promises to be the largest KohaCon ever with several hundred delegates from around the world expected to attend.

Registrations are still open.

As we did in Wellington in 2010, CALYX is proud to be a sponsor of KohaCon11 in Thane.

With no registration fees and a strong Australian dollar, this conference provides a great opportunity for Australian librarians who wish to influence the future direction of Koha. Rub shoulders with librarians and software developers from the USA, UK, France, Germany, New Zealand and other European, Asian and African countries. Or simply come to learn more about Koha and the advantages of the free software model. Whilst you are there, take the opportunity to see something of the rich culture and history of India, an emerging world power. CALYX directors will be making a side trip or two and would love you to join us!

Information about KohaCon11 in Thane can be found here: http://kohacon11.vpmthane.org/ocs/index.php/k/k11 or contact us: irma@calyx.net.au

openSA Presents: “Open Source Software & Open Standards: The Sustainable Alternative for Information Management”

Venue: Hilton Hotel, 233 Victoria Square, Adelaide SA

Date: June 14th, 2011

Registration: 5:30pm registration for a 6pm start ~

1. “The cost alternatives of commercial data management software” presented by Anastasia Govan (Director, Inforg Information Services)

Upon comparing open source and commercial library, records and digital management repository in the Australian market one may be mistaken for thinking there is a distinct expensive Americanisation occurring in product offering, implementation and support. Functional specifications were identified by interviewing a client’s information management staff and analysing foreseeable technology trends and information management standards. The specification was sent to vendors with an Australian presence requesting level of compliance and estimated costs. There is a particular gap in the Australian market to provide cost effective, single, Australian focused and supported data and document management systems that bring data and objects from various systems together. Could Open Source and the cloud be that cost effective solution?

Anastasia Govan is the founder of Inforg Information Solutions, an Australian consulting, research, education and labour placement organisation specialising in project management, data quality and electronic document management solutions. In 2006 Ana was named Australian Young Professional of the Year and has consulted in Australia and Asia for 15 years whilst holding academic positions with the University of South Australia and Charles Darwin University. Ana has extensive experience as a Director of not for profit and private sector organisations, publishes and speaks regularly, holds research grants and is an active member of relevant professional societies helping others to develop their professional information and technology potential.

2. “Information Managers: Has Open Source’s Time Arrived?” presented by Irma Birchall (Director, CALYX Information Essentials)

Koha, the first free library management system, has since 2000 been a trend setter and with much wind in it’s sails has been part of deep changes in the global library landscape. The focus of the presentation will be the features of Koha Version 3.4. as well as some other free and open source applications. Developing collaborative capacity is at the core of dynamic open source communities and libraries. How this is achieved, the challenges, the necessary structures, the meritocracy and who benefits from the bridges built will be explored to understand more fully the change open source applications like Koha are offering and how libraries can be empowered in the process.

Irma Birchall is the founder of CALYX information essentials, a Koha and Kete support provider in Australia since 2003. She worked at Sydney University’s Fisher Library and other libraries for 10 years after graduating in Library Sciences and is an active member of ALIA the Australian Library and Information Association. She is also a member of various free software user groups and takes part in many GLAM (galleries/Libraries/Archives/Museums) sector activities. During Koha implementations, Irma’s focus is on training, and she brings to her clients a solid understanding of Koha, library processes, international library standards and of the Australian library context.

Koha is the world’s first free and open source integrated library management system. Originally developed by Katipo Communications of New Zealand for Horowhenua Library Trust, Koha is now maintained and developed by a world wide community of librarians and software professionals. The Koha community is located at http://koha-community.org.

Koha 3.4.0 is a major feature release. Numerous new features and additional system preferences are added. There is a major change to the underlying architecture (adoption of Template::Toolkit for templating) and performance enhancements (removal of item data from biblio records).

A feature sponsored by a CALYX client has been incorporated into 3.4.0.

Work by French universities at Aix-Marseilles, Lyon and St Etienne has enhanced the readiness of Koha for academic libraries and will be added to in future releases. CALYX looks forward to seeing Australian universities contributing to this effort. (Please contact us to discuss!)

The release notes for Koha 3.4.0 may be found here:

http://koha-community.org/koha-newsletter-volume-2issue-4-april-2011/#notes

This release will be followed monthly by maintenance releases, with the next major feature release (Koha 3.6) due in October 2011.

CALYX will liaise with clients individually regarding the upgrade schedule to Koha 3.4.