Heart of Gold in Bergen

Just passed this on the way to work this morning and could not resist posting. What a wonderful reminder of all the great imagination and creativity the human mind is capable of. One thing is this ship which really defies most conventional shipbuilding ideas, but the other is the reminder of Douglas Adams fertile imagination and the wonderful improbability drive starship Heart of Gold which this reminded us of. My wife and I giggled when we saw it and she said “Heart of  Gold” almost immediately. I’m so lucky to be married to a woman who can make such connections!

Filed under: Library 2.0

To host or not to host, that is the question

Just a few days into the process of moving from one ILS to another I discover that another library in California is a bit further along the same way that I am now on. Great to know I’m not alone.

One question that came up on the Koha migration blog yesterday was one we also had to consider when we decided to move to Koha. Should we host the ILS at our vendor, or should we keep the system in-house?

We had one of our IT-persons with us during the discussion of this issue, and fortunately, I’m happy to say, our IT-person was completely open to the idea that our vendor could access and trouble-shoot on the in-house server. The deciding factor from our point of view was that the price for hosting and in-house was the same, and  lightening the load for our IT-people is a high priority for me. So we go for the hosted solution, but always with the option to move to one of our servers if we want. This is the preferable solution for our vendor as it simplifies upgrading and control of multiple installations.

It will be interesting to see which type of libraries migrate to Koha here in Norway. My prediction is that secondary education libraries and small academic and special libraries will lead the way. Most of these libraries will probably prefer a hosted solution if the price is right:-)

Filed under: ILS, Koha , hosting, Koha, migration

Five reasons to go for Koha

My main reasons for choosing Koha is:

1. Custom interface – the fact that I can customize the OPAC interface and the administrative interface is really important for me.

2. Development and implementation cycles -It is also great to follow the development from question to implementation. The openness and insight is one of my main reasons for leaving the proprietary system world behind.

3. LibraryThing for Libraries. The announced close ties between Koha and LibraryThing for libraries is just what I want for my library. The richness of tags and comments will make my catalog so much more valuable for the students and employees of the naval academy.

4. Cost – Yes I know open source is free as in free kittens, not free beer.  But to change a system usually costs a bundle. With Koha I could both test locally and experiment before I made a choice. The desicion was more informed than it has been at any other time in my career (and I have changed systems about four times in different workplaces). And I’m not tied to one service provider, I can move my Koha installation anywhere I like and not be stopped by “business restrictions”.

5. Community – The Koha community is worldwide and welcoming. Just look at the comments on the first Koha post   I love the idea of open source and the community around Koha. That I have something in common with librarians in New Zealand, USA and France is just awsome.

Filed under: ILS, Koha, Library 2.0 , Koha

Koha FTW!

Maybe I should change the name of the blog? Koha will probably be the main theme for this blog in the next few months. After almost a year of information gathering, thinking and discussing the library I work in have decided to go for Koha as our new ILS.

Our old system, Tidemann (norwegian only), is not a bad system as such, but it was not as good as Koha on some of the features I think a good library system should have. And of course the development cycle of Koha is so much more rapid than any commercial system can achieve.  I especially love the user interface of the Koha OPAC and how we can adapt it to our own needs.

From now on this blog will be my main chronicle of the switch to Koha.

Filed under: ILS, Koha