he panui Koha 30 November 2002 Kia ora, We've just finished celebrating Thanksgiving here in the States, and I think that we've got a lot of things to be thankful for right here in the Koha project.
From the Kaitiaki
It's almost the end of November, and the holidays are nearly upon us. It looks like we're going to be able to ring in the New Year with a better, faster, more capable Koha -- and with many more libraries using it. More and more people recognize Koha, and we're getting more press than ever before. It looks like we'll be featured in the Linux Journal early in 2003, and may have a few more articles after that. (If you're at all interested in writing an article about Koha, please feel free to contact me at katiaki@koha.org -- I'd be happy to talk with you.) Development There have been several big events on the development side of Koha this week. Paul has just released Koha 1.3.2, the next alpha version of the forthcoming 2.0 series. This release features: * Many improvments in MARC management from 1.3.1. * acquisition.simple now works : you can upload marc files in a breeding farm. When you search for an ISBN/ISSN in the acquisition screen, if you choose the "New biblio" option and the biblio is in the breeding farm, it's automatically retrieved and can be modified. * installer now install marc21 in english or unimarc in french datas. * marc parameters complete documentation : see http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/wiki/index.php?page=UserDoc If the 2.0 release sounds exciting to you and you've got some MARC, Perl, or HTML background, please consider jumping in and helping with 2.0 development. There are opportunities for people of all skill levels. Just because we're getting ready to roll 2.0 out the door doesn't mean we plan on slowing down. We've already got our eyes on the horizon. Steve Tonnesen has agreed to take on the role of 2.1/2.2 release manager, this will be a big task as we start to build new functionality onto the MARC base which Paul is building with 2.0. We've also released two Releases For Comment (RFCs): the first is for a serials module, the second is for a 'foraging OPAC'. A serials module is one of the big features missing from Koha at this point. Once we've gotten a good idea of what we need to have in this module, we'll be able to start developing it. The 'foraging OPAC' is an interesting interface into the catalog, imagine browsing through the collection as though you were walking through the library. Another analog would be a Yahoo-like hierarchical view of the collection where the patron would be able to navigate through categorizations to find a set of books related to what she wanted to find. Community A big event in the world of Koha this week has been the dual face lifts at HLT. Not only did they complete the renovation of their main library, but they've moved to a new set of templates for their Koha OPAC. You can see their beautiful new interface at http://opac.library.org.nz -- congratulations are due to Rosalie and all her gang! There have been some new additions to the wiki that you might want to take a moment to look at (and maybe even update) them. Wikis are a great tool for collecting and distributing information within a community. They're very easy to use, and (especially in this case) worth spending some time on. The first new page is a listing of libraries using or migrating to Koha. If you fit into this category, please add yourself to http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/wiki/index.php?page=KohaUsers -- having an idea of how many users we have will help us recruit developers, recommend Koha to other libraries, and seek grants (or other funding) to add new features. The second new page is a listing of Koha Interest Groups (or KIGs). This page (at http://http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/wiki/index.php?page=KohaInterestGroups -- and sub-pages) contains a list of KIGs that are starting to form and some hints for starting a KIG. These kinds of groups will be key to getting Koha to the next level of acceptance. Hopefully, they'll also end up being a useful and fun group for the members -- providing a chance to get together and talk about Koha, find help for problems, and lobby for new development. Please think about getting involved with your local KIG. French Nicolas Morin has taken on a more formal role as the manager of the translation of Koha into French. Please join with me in congratulating him on this new position. Nicolas has been working hard on Koha for quite a while. He's helped to translate the fr.koha.org web site, translated these newsletters, worked with the French library and library education communities, and generally been a great help to the whole community. Spanish Fransisco M. Marzoa Alonso has recently begun the effort of translating the Koha templates into Spanish. His efforts are being coordinated with other translators and proof-readers on the new Spanish mailing list (see above). If you're interested in helping Fransisco, please join the mailing list and get involved. e iti noa ana na te aroha -pate Pat Eyler Kaitiaki/manager the Koha project