- Koha-devel - lists.koha-community.org

Modern Perl blog article
by Fridolyn SOMERS 27 Jun '12

27 Jun '12

Here is an interesting short article on "modern Perl" : http://www.josetteorama.com/perl/what-is-modern-perl/ It may give some ideas. -- Fridolyn SOMERS fridolyn.somers(a)gmail.com Marsillargues - France <fridolyn.somers(a)gmail.com>

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Official Koha Newsletter: Volume 3, Issue 6: June 2012
by Daniel Grobani 27 Jun '12

27 Jun '12

Official Koha Newsletter: Volume 3, Issue 6: June 2012 [Below is the text of the newsletter. For active links and a more readable format, please visit http://koha-community.org/koha-newsletter-volume-3-issue-6-june-2012] Official Koha Newsletter (ISSN 2153-8328) Volume 3, Issue 6: June 2012 Edited by Daniel Grobani, Koha Community Newsletter Editor. Please submit news items to danielg.koha(a)gmail.com. Table of Contents Koha Development Koha 3.8.2 Released Koha 3.6.5 Released Koha 3.6.6 Released Koha Statistics Release Manager’s Newsletter MARC Records in PostgreSQL Adding VIAF Autosuggest for New NAME Authorities Koha Community New Koha Libraries Community Gossip Koha-Kobli News Past Koha Events June General IRC Meeting KohaCon12 Upcoming Koha Events July General IRC Meeting KohaCon13 Koha Development Koha 3.8.2 Released by Chris Cormack The Koha community is proud to release Koha version 3.8.2. This is a bugfix release, and contains a large number of fixes. You can obtain Koha 3.8.2 here. Release notes are here. Koha 3.6.5 Released by Jared Camins-Esakov The Koha release team is happy to announce the release of Koha 3.6.5. This is a stable release and contains bugfixes as well as updated translations. You can download Koha 3.6.5 here. Release notes are here. Koha 3.6.6 Released by Jared Camins-Esakov The Koha release team is happy to announce the release of Koha 3.6.6. This is a stable release and contains bugfixes as well as updated translations. You can download Koha 3.6.6 here. Release notes are here. Koha Statistics Chris Cormack, unofficial Koha Community Statistics Wizard, has posted statistics for Koha 3.6.5, May bugs & enhancements, Koha 3.8.2, and Koha 3.6.6. Release Manager Newsletter Paul Poulain, Koha 3.8 Release Manager, is publishing a monthly newsletter dedicated to Koha 3.8 development. It can be found on the Koha Community website in the Koha News category. The latest issue is here. Experimental Support for MARC Records as a Proper Datatype in the PostgreSQL Database by Marc Balmer Sitting in one of the nice pubs in Edinburgh during KohaCon, I had this idea to add MARC records as a proper datatype to the PostgreSQL database server. After a discussion with Marc Véron and Dobrica Pavlinusic about what that could mean, I decided to just try it and I have now a basic implementation (or, more a proof of concept). Here is some information on this: If MARC records are a proper datatype, that means they are stored right in the database, are backed-up, can be restored, replicated, etc., just with the standard database tools. If a function is provided to access individual fields of a MARC record, then this can be used in SQL expressions, e.g. for selects or to create views, etc. As PostgreSQL supports functional indexes, you can create indexes on individual MARC fields, giving you super fast access to your data. How does it look? There is a datatype called ‘marc’ for now: CREATE TABLE books ( id serial, sig varchar(16), marc_record marc ); MARC records are loaded into the database as raw, binary records, encoded in hexadecimal: INSERT INTO books (sig, marc_record) VALUES (‘a01b’, ’3030383830…..’); To access individual MARC fields, the function ‘marc_field()’ was created; it returns VARCHAR: SELECT id, marc_field(marc_record, ’020') AS isbn FROM books WHERE sig = ‘a01b’; Of course MARC fields can be used to search data: SELECT id, marc_field(marc_record, ’020') AS isbn FROM books WHERE marc_field(marc_record, ’245') like ‘whatever%’; An index on a specific field can easily be created: CREATE INDEX books_isbn_idx ON books (marc_field(marc_record, ’020')); As syntactic sugar, the expression marc_record@’020' is equal to marc_field(marc_record, ’020'). Marijana Glavica kindly let me use a MARC database of ~250,000 records to make some tests, here are some real world examples: books=# \d test_marc Table “public.test_marc” Column | Type | Modifiers ——–+———+——————————————————– id | integer | not null default nextval(‘test_marc_id_seq’::regclass) marc21 | marc | books=# select count(id) from test_marc; count ——– 246727 (1 row) How many Croatian books do they have? books=# select count(id) from test_marc where substring(marc_field(marc21, ’008'), 37, 3) = ‘hrv’; count ——- 52582 (1 row) Of course much more complex queries are possible with this, and using the right indexes it is really, really fast. One query I tested went from 8.4 seconds to 0.21 ms with the right index. That’s a speedup of 40,000 times. Thanks to Marijana, Dobrica, and Marc for feedback, interesting discussions and ideas! Feedback and suggestions are of course more than welcome at marc(a)msys.ch. Adding VIAF Autosuggest for New NAME Authorities by Stefano Bargioni The Pontificia Università della Santa Croce has written a script to enhance authority cataloguing using VIAF. While adding new authorities of type *NAME, the VIAF catalog can be browsed using its autosuggest API. The script adds a field on top of the /cgi-bin/koha/authorities/authorities.pl page. Typing three or more letters, a popup will be populated with the first ten names. Upon selecting a name, information about the sources of the authority name will be displayed, as well as the full authority record from VIAF, or LC if available. This is an initial version. The next version will try to copy the VIAF authority record into Koha. Comments and help to bargioni(a)pusc.it will be appreciated. Koha Community New Koha Libraries Bethlehem Public Library (via ByWater Solutions) Cooperative Information Network (via ByWater Solutions) Fresnes-en-Woëvre (via BibLibre) New Zealand Education Institute Te Riu Roa Library (via Catalyst) New Zealand Ministry of Education Library (via Catalyst) Pierrefitte-sur-Aire (via BibLibre) San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (via ByWater Solutions) Spincourt (via BibLibre) Université Rennes 2 (via BibLibre) Valley Automated Library Network (via ByWater Solutions) Vigneulles-les-Hattonchatel (via BibLibre) Community Gossip Silvia Giannitrapani, a student of Library and Information Studies at London’s UCL, is researching open source library management systems for her dissertation “Can Koha and other open source library management systems compete with proprietary systems?” To support her research she is inviting Koha community members to share their views and overall satisfaction with Koha in a brief survey. For more information, email silviag(a)bu.edu. Four French libraries are now using Koha with Solr. Nicole Engard has created a version of Koha 3.8 release notes addressed to users and librarians. A discussion on the Koha-devel list addressed alternatives to having to participate in an IRC meeting in order to vote on a question before the community. D Ruth Bavousett posted her thoughts on diversity in open-source communities. Mirko Tietgen has Koha running on a Raspberry Pi, “An ARM GNU/Linux box for $25?. More information is here. Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, blogged about her experience with setting up Koha. An RFC on the Koha namespace has been posted to the wiki. Gaetan Boisson reports that Biblibre recently submitted to the Drupal community an opac module that allows Drupal to connect to Koha (or other ILS’s). More information is here. Koha-Kobli News by Domingo Arroyo The Koha-Kobli release team is happy to announce the second stable release of Koha-Kobli 1.8, based on Koha 3.8. Kobli is a customized version of Koha ILS developed by the Working Group of BAGEs (Spanish General State Authority Libraries). Kobli 1.8 is released in two versions: one for normal installation, and one as a VMware virtual appliance. Koha-Kobli’s 1.8 download is here. More information is here. Recent implementations of Koha-Kobli include the Spanish Ministry of the Presidency Library and the Library of the Center for Analysis and Forescasting of the Spanish Civil Guard. More information is here and here. Past Koha Events June General IRC Meeting The June general IRC meeting was held on 13 June 2012. More information, including the agenda and links to the minutes, is here. KohaCon12 KohaCon12 has come and gone! David Nind (with others) has done an excellent job of updating the conference’s schedule page with lots of links to blog posts, photos, slides, and more. The Hackfest page has also been updated with links to some slides, posts, and tools. Upcoming Koha Events July General IRC Meeting Details on the July general IRC meeting are not yet available as we go to press. KohaCon13 The deadline for posting bids to host KohaCon2013 is almost here. See the conference’s wiki page for the current bids or to add yours.

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Koha on Ubuntu server
by Uy 26 Jun '12

26 Jun '12

> > I am trying install Koha on ubuntu server. I did install koha 3.8.1 in ubuntu server and desktop. It all works. I can add record with a Marc framework. I added patrons... I can check out, check in... All functions work like magic, but only the " Search the catalog" doesn't work :(. Is there anyone are using Koha on Ubuntu server with all work out ok? I follow all steps on http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Koha_on_Ubuntu especially these steps settup zebra index and zebra server. I saw all works well, but nothing i can search! Anyone help? I'm newbie! > > Kindest Regards! > Nguyen Quoc Uy

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Re: [Koha-devel] Social library
by Quoc Uy 25 Jun '12

25 Jun '12

Thanks. It's very hard to find some volunteer to help, but i think i can call someone working with me working together. I just try to tell everyone what i really want and hope. Maybe i need time to make it come true, but i think, who love Koha must answer a question: What should we do with Koha, to make our patrons stay longer and longer in our website (it means that our website is not only the place for search some books, which is easier with google, but also the place for them to talk more and more about their favorite books, share them with friends). Of course they can do with sharing on facebook, on twitter, but it's really perfect if it shares automatically with Koha. When i was young, i stayed in a library, looked at a nice girl, wondered what kind of book she was reading. Now with Koha, if i know her, it's perfect when i can see what kind of books my friends are reading, how do they think about it?... right? I know, maybe some people thought about this before but it's quite difficult. Hope that if anyone want to make it, i can help about expanding some ideas, collect some experiences. Thanks all! ________________________________ From: BWS Johnson <abesottedphoenix(a)yahoo.com> To: Quocuy <nguyenquocuy_1102(a)yahoo.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 1:15 AM Subject: Re: Social library Salve! > Ok! I will wait for u. If u have time, we gonna talk about it more and more > then. I'm back now. I think the overarching thing that I have to say is that it sounds like part of what you want is already done, and the parts that aren't yet done sound like logical extensions. Stephen Johnson talks about the notion of the adjacent possible in innovation, and what you seem to be talking about all seems to fall in that realm. To me, it would boil down to a few different options if you discover that precisely what you want doesn't exist yet. You could pay for support so that a developer that does know Koha can just code what you want. You could find a volunteer somewhere that knows how to code, but doesn't necessarily know Koha. The last option is to learn everything yourself and then just do it. Whatever happens, if you ensure that you upstream what you change, it would be great. I will say that your attitude helps a whole lot. You sound very positive to me. As long as you're very patient, people might get around to implementing different ideas, but the free route tends to take a very long time. There's an olde sign here that reads Fast Cheap Good You can have any 2. It's very true for Koha. :) Half the battle is trying to chunk things out to allow for easy consumption and describing precisely what you want the best that you can so that a developer can get a bead on what exactly you need. If you do a good job with the division of tasks, then it's easy for people to pick up a little scrap as in quilting and stitch things together. Cheers, Brooke

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Re: [Koha-devel] Opac's interface can change with user's information?
by Mike Hafen 25 Jun '12

25 Jun '12

We can do something similar in Koha currently, which is to have a custom css and search limit in an apache virtual host for each library. I see in etc/koha-httpd.conf these lines in the opac virtualhost: # Repeat this virtualhost stanza changing the following environment vars to # create multiple OPAC interfaces with custom css and/or search limits: # SetEnv OPAC_CSS_OVERRIDE mystyle.css # SetEnv OPAC_SEARCH_LIMIT branch:CODE # SetEnv OPAC_LIMIT_OVERRIDE 1 The custom css could be used to set icons I believe, and could easily be used to change the color scheme. It doesn't change the interface according to the user, but maybe with some javascript you can redirect a user after they have logged in to the opac virtual host for their branch. On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 5:32 AM, Robin Sheat <robin(a)catalyst.net.nz> wrote: > Op 25-06-12 12:00, Zeno Tajoli schreef: > > the easy solution to this problem is to install 20 time Koha on your > > server, (so 20 MysQL d, 20 different user at command line, etc.). > > Is it possibile to do this with one Koha db ? > > Out of the box, no. > > It's quite possible to do this out of the box. Use the packages, and use > koha-create to create the libraries you want. However, this isn't so > great if you want to make it easy to share information between them. > > Whether this is the right solution depends on your use cases though. > > -- > Robin Sheat > Catalyst IT Ltd. > ✆ +64 4 803 2204 > GPG: 5957 6D23 8B16 EFAB FEF8 7175 14D3 6485 A99C EB6D > _______________________________________________ > Koha-devel mailing list > Koha-devel(a)lists.koha-community.org > http://lists.koha-community.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel > website : http://www.koha-community.org/ > git : http://git.koha-community.org/ > bugs : http://bugs.koha-community.org/ > >

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Opac's interface can change with user's information?
by Quoc Uy 25 Jun '12

25 Jun '12

I have a problems- or maybe an idea. I have for example, 20 libraries on my host website- i mean 20 home branches libraries (Library A, B, C....). But i can change my OPAC site for only one interface. Is there some ways to change OPAC's interface associate with the user's information? Let me tell u more about this. In our country, it's expensive and impossible to have 1 hosting for 1 library (1 school), so we want to make a hosting for 20 libraries (20 schools) with one website like http://systemlibrary.edu.com. In this Koha library, we have 20 branches libraries with 20 staffs - not superlibrarian. Is there some ways, when patron A (branch library A) login in OPAC site, he can see messages, icon, schoolA's Logo... And when patron B (branch library B) login in the OPAC site, he saw absolutely other things (schoolB's logo, icon and messages...). Sorry for my bad english.

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Koha 3.6.6 released
by Jared Camins-Esakov 24 Jun '12

24 Jun '12

The Koha community is proud to release Koha version 3.6.6. This is a bugfix release, and contains a number of important fixes You can obtain Koha 3.6.6 from the http://download.koha-community.org site. Debian packages will be available from the http://debian.koha-community.org shortly also. Please read the release notes below for more information RELEASE NOTES FOR KOHA 3.6.6 24 Jun 2012 ======================================================================== Koha is the first free and open source software library automation package (ILS). Development is sponsored by libraries of varying types and sizes, volunteers, and support companies from around the world. The website for the Koha project is http://koha-community.org/ Koha 3.6.6 can be downloaded from: http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.06.06.tar.gz Installation instructions can be found at: http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Installation_Documentation OR in the INSTALL files that come in the tarball Koha 3.6.6 is a bugfix/maintenance release. Highlights of 3.6.6 ====================== 7016 blocker CanBookBeReserved uses GetItemsInfo unnecessarily 7354 critical Can't edit local use system preferences 7528 critical amount subtracting 1 cent 7927 critical library not showing on subscription full history anymore 2012 major Add bilio crashes under no zebra 3969 major Budget Search Doesn't Work 5327 major Unit tests required for all C4 modules 6496 major authors appearing incorrectly in OPAC and Staff Client 6931 major hardcoded insert incompatible with UNIMARC Bugs fixed in 3.6.6 ====================== 2399 normal All status fields in the item edit interface offer two blank/null entries per dropdown instead of one 3337 normal RSS link is not correct 3413 normal repeatable tickbox not sticking 1st time round 7722 normal Insidious problem with searching 7820 normal Missing packages from install_misc/debian.packages 7833 normal unique holiday link broken 7845 normal Multiple 260s don't display properly in search results 7922 normal Fixing typos and improving translations in German sample data 8022 normal Permissions test doesn't check all languages 8025 normal Patron attribute not selected if value is zero 1577 enhancement installer and language 7213 enhancement Document /svc/ HTTP API and provide example command-line client 7990 enhancement bad html attribute into aqplan.tt : styl= insted of style= System requirements ====================== Changes since 3.4: * Perl 5.10 is required Documentation ====================== As of Koha 3.2, the Koha manual is now maintained in DocBook. The home page for Koha documentation is http://koha-community.org/documentation/ As of the date of these release notes, only the English version of the Koha manual is available: http://manual.koha-community.org/3.6/en/ The Git repository for the Koha manual can be found at http://git.koha-community.org/gitweb/?p=kohadocs.git;a=summary Translations ====================== Complete or near-complete translations of the OPAC and staff interface are available in this release for the following languages: * Chinese (China) * Chinese (Taiwan) * Danish * English (USA) * English (UK) * English (New Zealand) * French (Canada) * French (France) * German * Greek * Italian * Portuguese (Brazil) * Spanish Partial translations are available for various other languages. The Koha team welcomes additional translations; please see http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Translating_Koha for information about translating Koha, and join the koha-translate list to volunteer: http://lists.koha-community.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/koha-translate The most up-to-date translations can be found at: http://translate.koha-community.org/ Release Team ====================== The release team for Koha 3.6 is Release Manager: Chris Cormack <chrisc(a)catalyst.net.nz> Documentation Manager: Nicole C Engard <nengard(a)gmail.com> Translation Manager: Frédéric Demians <frederic(a)tamil.fr> QA Manager: Ian Walls <ian.walls(a)bywatersolutions.com> Bug Wranglers: MJ Ray, Marcel de Rooy, Paul Poulain, Mason James Past Release Maintainer (3.6.x): Chris Nighswonger <cnighswonger(a)foundations.edu> Release Maintainer (3.6.x): Jared Camins-Esakov <jcamins(a)cpbibliography.com> Credits ====================== We thank the following libraries who are known to have sponsored new features in Koha 3.6: * Los Gatos Public Library * NEKLS * East Brunswick Public Library * Athens County Public Libraries * Horowhenua Library Trust * Halton Borough Council * South Taranaki District Council We thank the following individuals who contributed patches to Koha 3.6.6. 1 Gaetan Boisson 3 Jared Camins-Esakov 1 Colin Campbell 1 Galen Charlton 3 Chris Cormack 1 Stéphane Delaune 1 Jonathan Druart 1 Magnus Enger 11 Katrin Fischer 2 Kyle M Hall 1 Dobrica Pavlinusic 3 Paul Poulain 2 MJ Ray 1 Adrien Saurat 2 Robin Sheat 2 Ian Walls 1 mveron We regret any omissions. If a contributor has been inadvertantly missed, please send a patch against these release notes to koha-patches(a)lists.koha-community.org. Revision control notes ====================== The Koha project uses Git for version control. The current development version of Koha can be retrieved by checking out the master branch of git://git.koha-community.org/koha.git The branch for Koha 3.6.x (i.e., this version of Koha and future bugfix releases) is 3.6.x. Koha 3.8.0 was released on April 23, 2012. The next major feature release of Koha will be Koha 3.10.0. Bugs and feature requests ====================== Bug reports and feature requests can be filed at the Koha bug tracker at http://bugs.koha-community.org/ Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini

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Re: [Koha-devel] Koha-devel Digest, Vol 79, Issue 28-unsubscribe
by Smita Biswas 24 Jun '12

24 Jun '12

________________________________________ From: koha-devel-bounces(a)lists.koha-community.org [koha-devel-bounces(a)lists.koha-community.org] on behalf of koha-devel-request(a)lists.koha-community.org [koha-devel-request(a)lists.koha-community.org] Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 10:00 PM To: koha-devel(a)lists.koha-community.org Subject: Koha-devel Digest, Vol 79, Issue 28 Send Koha-devel mailing list submissions to koha-devel(a)lists.koha-community.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.koha-community.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to koha-devel-request(a)lists.koha-community.org You can reach the person managing the list at koha-devel-owner(a)lists.koha-community.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Koha-devel digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Social library (Quoc Uy) 2. Re: Social library (BWS Johnson) 3. Regression considered harmful (Jared Camins-Esakov) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 03:46:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Quoc Uy <nguyenquocuy_1102(a)yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Koha-devel] Social library To: "koha-devel(a)lists.koha-community.org" <koha-devel(a)lists.koha-community.org>, "abesottedphoenix(a)yahoo.com" <abesottedphoenix(a)yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1340448396.28442.YahooMailNeo(a)web160206.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ??? ??? Fisrt, thanks for sharing this: http://thesocialopac.net/. It's really nice way to find some help. I agree with you about the law's problem. We can solve it with some option for user to choose like "sharing you action to your friends, not sharing...". And if u ask, where we can put this Wall on the Opac website, i think we can creat one more little menu like- "My friend's action" above the "My summary" on the menu. ??? ??? We can make a default like sharing your actions with your classmates (for shool's library or university's library). After friend's action, you can comment, like (it looks like in facebook). I think, the main idea is that, you can share your opinion about some books, recommend it to friends... We did have all databases, how can we make it comes true? I hope some programmer can do it and i think they really can. Best regard!

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Regression considered harmful
by Jared Camins-Esakov 23 Jun '12

23 Jun '12

Hello. Regardless of your stance on goto statements (and I would note that they are thankfully pretty scarce in the Koha codebase, with the exception of sms/sms_listen.pl, which has a surprising number for a 126-line script), I think we can all agree that regressions in Koha's functionality are a very bad thing. Well, I have a proposal for one way we might go about cutting down on regressions, *and* saving testers time: Test::WWW::Mechanize. By adding tests that use Test::WWW::Mechanize, it would be possible to include unit tests that confirm that the interface (at least the parts that are not Javascript-dependent) continues to function as intended. I find this an extremely promising concept, and one that I would *love* to put into practice in my Release Maintaining of 3.6.x (whether the tests are committed to Koha, or whether they are in a separate repository). So, what can you do to help us reach our lofty goal of no regressions, ever, and no simple regressions requiring people-hours to identify? Easy! Start writing those tests! I filed a bug ( http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=8300) and attached a unit test that checks the stage MARC import tool is still looking. Take a look, and think about whether you could come up with some scripts. Lest you think that writing this sort of unit test has to be hard, I have good news! It's not actually all that hard. Documented on the wiki we have instructions for setting up an http-recorder proxy to simplify your test writing to the very basics: go through the steps with your web browser, save the resulting file, and change get() to get_ok() and click() to click_ok() (yes, it really can be that simple). Moreover, I have documented the two gotchas that we have encountered with this so far on the wiki, and I will continue to document the solutions to problems I encounter. So, what are you waiting for? Get thee to the wiki and begin testing! http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Interface_testing_with_WWW::Mechanize Regards, Jared Camins-Esakov -- Jared Camins-Esakov Bibliographer, C & P Bibliography Services, LLC (phone) +1 (917) 727-3445 (e-mail) jcamins(a)cpbibliography.com (web) http://www.cpbibliography.com/

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Re: [Koha-devel] Social library
by Quoc Uy 23 Jun '12

23 Jun '12

Fisrt, thanks for sharing this: http://thesocialopac.net/. It's really nice way to find some help. I agree with you about the law's problem. We can solve it with some option for user to choose like "sharing you action to your friends, not sharing...". And if u ask, where we can put this Wall on the Opac website, i think we can creat one more little menu like- "My friend's action" above the "My summary" on the menu. We can make a default like sharing your actions with your classmates (for shool's library or university's library). After friend's action, you can comment, like (it looks like in facebook). I think, the main idea is that, you can share your opinion about some books, recommend it to friends... We did have all databases, how can we make it comes true? I hope some programmer can do it and i think they really can. Best regard!

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