<quote who="Pat Eyler">
On Sun, 15 Sep 2002, Saiful Amin wrote:
I've worked on this software only for testing purposes to see how far it is suitable for the Indian libraries. So far I've got the koha-1.2.2 working with z3950 client and the sample database. I plan to test koha for many other features such as handling of multilingual documents.
If you're planning on working with m18n issues, you'll probably want to get involved with the other people working on translations. I'm sure that's the place where we'll first see problems rearing their ugly heads.
I don't know what is m18n. The term 'multilingual documents' might have been ambiguous. I meant cataloguing and search of documents in more than one language. The library for which I worked for 5 years (I'm studying on deputation) had collection in three languages -- English, Bengali, and Hindi. I was interested in how to catalague and give an integrated search interface to the entire collection. Translating a software (if that is what you meant above) in Indian languages would be very difficult because of the script. We would have to use Unicode for the Indic scripts like Devnagari. But if there is any effort on this direction going on then I would be willing to get involved.
I'm currently busy this month with a team project on the Greenstone digital library system. My next project might well be on Koha! I am a big supporter of open source projects and would like to contribute at least in the documentation of this software.
I would be more than happy to help out anybody in my locality concerning installation, etc. I really want it to keep growing.
That's great to hear. I'm not aware of any ongoing Koha projects in India at this point, but there have been several Indians starting to show an interest. If you start to coalesce around translations, implementations, or project work, we'd be happy to run a in.koha.org website and mailing list.
This is a great idea! Just before getting this mail I was thinking of starting my own Yahoogroup mailing list on Koha for Indian libraries. I'm delighted that you proposed this so early. Please go ahead with the idea though I would start my work from next month only.
thanks, -pate
c/o, DRTC Indian Statistical Institute Bangalore, India. email: saifulamin@yahoo.com