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Re: [Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: [school-discuss] library conversion to opensource]]



I have heard Koha is good library automation software.
I think there's two packages that are really worth looking at: the previously mentioned Koha <http://www.koha.org> and OpenBiblio <http://obiblio.sourceforge.net/>. (FYI, <http://oss4lib.org/projects/> lists out many library-related free software projects.)

The big difference between the two are the languages they're written in. Koha is in Perl and OpenBiblio is in PHP. Despite my preference for PHP, I think Koha is a stronger product. Koha seems a bit more mature and I really like the architecture of it.

Koha allows you to easily set up library branches. While that was designed to be a typical library branch, there's no reason why a "branch" couldn't be a completely different library. This opens up the possibility of a school district running a Koha server at the high school, and then making the middle and elementary schools as branches. Or -- perhaps even better -- to link in the town's library as a branch. (Sadly most town libraries in my neck of the woods (northern New England) have pitiful tech resources compared to the schools (not to imply that the schools are rich in them!))

The network link between a branch and the main library database can be as simple as a dial-up link -- there's no need to run serious equipment at the actual branch location.

And both Koha and OpenBiblio are web-based, which gives a multi-platform spin and means no client software to install/support.

Regards,
.
Randy

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