Koha

Assignment 3 LIS 630

Group I: John Friedrich, Ciara Meeks, Paulina Ryczaj-Bauza, Stephen Sonnenberg

Our group enjoyed working on Assignment 3. We were able to obtain

and develop Koha, an open source ILS, and get hands-on experience while

tailoring some of its features and tools. For best results we tried to configure

all parameters by reviewing tutorials of Koha created by other groups in the

previous assignment. Understanding how Koha modules work was essential

for us to do this project properly. During this exercise we took the following

steps:

I. Within the Administration module under Libraries – Branches and

groups, we created a fictional library branch named “Group One

Library”, and we entered a short branch code for it - 0001. We filled

in the street and mailing address as well as the phone, fax, and email

using the text boxes next to the fields. Than we clicked “submit” to be

ensure that the data we have worked hard on was saved. The results

are shown in the screen below.

Figure 1. Targeting Libraries under branches and groups. “Group One Library” was set up.

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II. Next, we set up a Book Budget (funds and budget) for our “Group

One Library”. We chose start date as 03/06/2012 and end date as

03/06/2013. Our budget is 6000.00 for the entire year which seems to

be reasonable for this type of the fund (Reference), in our opinion.

Figure 2. Budget and funds modification

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In case of Currencies and Exchange Rates, we didn’t change

anything as it was already set to US dollars at a rate of 1. If someone

needs more than 1 currency, he/she needs to enter the rate that is

calculated from his/her "main" currency. After filling all blanks, we

clicked on “submit” and now our new fund appears in the “Funds and

Budgets Administration” screen, in the form of a line on the grey table.

III. After generating the budget and the funds, we added new Z39.50

Client Targets which were University of Tartu and University of

Miami. Z39.50 defines servers for searching using Koha's Z39.50 client

with the domain name or IP address of the server, the port number to

use, and the name of the database to access. In this case, the

database that was chose was Innopac. The step by step process is

shown below as well as all information about the servers.

Figure 3 & 4. Filling information about University of Miami and University of Tartu on servers.

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Figure 5. University of Miami and University of Tartu placed on Z39.50 Servers Administration (final efect).

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i. Cataloging Module

As required in instruction, we went to Cataloging module - add MARC

Record. We pressed on Z39.50 search to locate items we wanted to add. We

looked for those items by searching either title or author. We also checked

Library of Congress as a search target (Z39.50) in order to specific

materialas we were looking for. When the record we wanted appeared on the

screen, we pushed “import” to get a full description of it. We repeated this

activity five times playing with frameworks such as book, reference

materials, CD, DVD, etc. In addition, Koha allowed us to add many different

parameters to the item including: lost status, damaged status, use

restrictions, current location, shelving location, barcode and so far. Because

for some reason automatic barcode generator didn’t work properly, we had

to generate our own barcodes starting with 123456789…, total of 12 digits.

We generated that barcode for each item that was addedd and saved by us

to use it later when checking out. The other issue we experienced within this

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module was no ability to add all five items to the collection as was required

in instruction because authorized value option did not work out. The five

items added are presented as follow:

Figure 6. “Rand McNally road atlas of Europe” (Map) record and its

description including barcode, location, status, etc.

Figure 7. “Double vision: an anthology of twentieth- century stories in English”(CD)

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Figure 8. “To children I give my heart” (DVD)

Figure 9. “The valkyries: an encounter with angels” (Book).

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Figure 10. “Primal leadership” (E-Book).

ii. Patrons Module

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Within the Patron module, we added three fictional patrons to our Group One

Library. Anyone can find them by searching patrons by library. They are an

adult (Brown Sandra), child (Brown Marco), and teacher (Cros Alan. R.).

During this process we found tha the Koha Admin selects individual patron

information to view, edit, or add to cart, which is visible below.

Figure 11. Patrons list.

Opening a patron user record allowed us to find information about patron’s

personal information, card number, borrower number, category, etc. Also,

the record provided us with information about patron’s lost items, checked-

out items, circulation services and more. An example is ilustrated below.

Figure 12. Patron record.

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To check-out our patrons (Brown Sandra, Brown Marco & Cros Alan. R.), we

pushed a check-out button on the left side of the screen. It took us to the

page where we had ```to provide the barcodes of materials already added to

“the collection”. ` Once we did it, we were able to change patron status. For

example, we checked out a book titled: ”Rand McNally road atlas of Europe”

(123456789567) to Marco Brown. Due: 04/02/2012.

Figure 13. “Rand McNelly road atlas of Europe” (Map), checked out to Marco

Brown.

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Figure 14. “To children I give my heart” (DVD) was checked out to Sandra Brown.

Figure 15. Double vision: an anthology of twentieth-century stories in English (CD) was checked to Alan Cross.

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iii. Acquisition Module

As per the class instructions, the Acquisitions Module required us to place the orders for two publications produced by the ALA as well as through other potential sources. This was a little trickier to accomplish than in a steam-lined and countywide ILS such as Guilford County Schools’ Destiny Program, but once you get started it is rather easy. The following steps are all that is required:

Koha Acquisitions - Friedrich

Step 1

The main administrator screen for Koha at Group One Library. I click Acquisitions.

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Step 2

The Acquistions Screen. I begin by searching for the Vendor (the ALA per assignment instructions). Note the budget screen on the center right. This already reflects three additions I made, but whose screen shots were lost.

Step 3

The American Library Association is a recognized vendor!

Time to click “add order”

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Step 4

A new basket for the ALA is created. Booklist is selected as an item to purchase.

Step 5

A list of possibilities is offered. Click “Order” for the right item.

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Step 6

Enter necessary information into the order screen, including from which fund (Childrens or Reference, in this case).

Step 7

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I used the same process to select a fiction YA book, “The Silver Ship and the Sea.” For some reason on this screen every item is duplicated five times. However this anomaly does not affect the total order price.

Step 8

To show the process of looking up a new vendor, I chose Penguin Books.

Step 9

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In order to procure necessary information to set up the vendor, I had to find their contact screen.

Step 10

the Add Vendor screen in Koha.

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Step 11

Success, vendor added!

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Step 12

I searched for a book from the new vendor.

Step 13

No results were found. At this point one must “search from new record.”

Step 14

I used WorldCat to find the necessary information to add this book.

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Step 15

Here is the add screen after I’ve placed all the necessary information.

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Step 16

Again it appears to automatically select five of the items.

Step 17

However by checking the Funds Screen from the main Acquisitions Screen, you can see that only one item of both The Silver Ship and Penguin Zombie were actually ordered.

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Step 18

One item each ordered as well for the ALA professional works, “Booklist” and “School Librarian’s Career Planner.”

iv. Tools

Under tools we created a new patron list for group 1. We then created a patron record for myself, Stephen Henry Sonnenberg, including a name, address, email address and phone number. I then created a patron named Dan Sonnenberg and his son James Sonnnenberg. I then proceeded to add them to group 1’s list. This was fairly simple to do. You could choose too to hide their records or to keep up with their records, and I chose to keep up with their records.

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The next thing our group did in the Tools module was test out the Calendar. We showed that we had every Sunday off, and we made it a “repeatable holiday”. This is shown by Sunday being highlighted in Yellow.

The next thing Group One/1 did under the Tools module was play around with adding Clubs and Services. We added two clubs. The first one is an ongoing Anime club with no end date. The second club is a summer reading club with an end date of August 15, 2012. I enrolled Stephen Sonnenberg, Dan Sonnenbrg, and James Sonnenberg, our group 1 patrons all in the Anime club. Since James is a young child, in middle school, I enrolled him in the Summer Reading Club.

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v. Lists

Below is a screen shot of items (five) we added in cataloging module that

are located under “Lists “on the main page.

vi. Report (if possible to generate)vii. Summary:

Our group worked succinctly together to fully get through this Koha assignment. We found Koha to be fairly simple and not too hard

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to navigate. Our group, group one, on top of setting up a library branch, and budget. We found it fairly easy to imput everything that we needed. Obviously from our screenshots, we used different kinds of computers and programs. We did a lot of trial and error. We would send each other what we had done, and then correct what others had done. Paulina and Ciara primarily took the lead on the project and were very organized. John did a great in depth job on the acquisitions module, showing a step by step picture and annotation of his process of how to order from a vendor via Koha. I, Stephen Sonnenberg, primarily added the Tools module, which included adding some patrons for our group, creating clubs and adding patrons to those clubs, and adding a calendar showing that our library was off every Sunday.

The hardest part is getting everyone organized on the same timeline. We used email communication to exchange documents and ideas. It is still complicated knowing what group members are working on, and we ended up working long hours on trying to combine our final product.

The greatest thing we found about Koha was its usability. It might look a little clunky, but navigating the website was pretty easy. The fact that you are able to add vendor contact information and patron contact information we found particularly nice. The ability to add groups is nice too because you are able to promote your groups through emailing patrons or just keeping track on who is involved. The thing we liked best about the system is how you are able to have several libraries on one system, and also things like several book orders to an order basket. Combining these items makes a system really user friendly.

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