[WEB4LIB] Re: will OSS impact library automation?

[Jennifer Geard]

Hi All,

The winner of the 3M prize for innovation at last year's New Zealand library
conference was an open-source library automation system. It's called Koha
(meaning "gift" in Maori) and you can find out more about it -- and download
the program -- from www.koha.org. Chris Cormack from Katipo, company that
wrote the original code says:

> Probably the best little technical description is in the actual INSTALL
file
http://www.koha.org/download/INSTALL

> Its not really limited to linux or mysql ... any system that you can get a
webserver, a relational database, and perl going on should work.
Having said that, it was reckon to work with mysql, perl and apache.
So some tweaking would be needed.

I'd strongly suggest that anyone keen on OSS have a look at existing
projects like Koha, check out whether they can do what you need, and pitch
in to make them stronger and more multi-featured. And, by the way, I'm not
associated with the Horowhenua District Library Trust which commissioned the
original software, not with Katipo who did the original coding. I'm just
married to an open-source weenie (with a copy of Koha on his Linux box) and
I'm very interested in seeing things like this grow.

Cheers,
  Jennifer Geard