FW: [Koha] PTFS Support for the Koha Community
John Yokley, our CEO, posted the following message to the main Koha list. He is not subscribed to koha-devel, so he asked me to forward it to this list. I have been subscribed to the various Koha lists for some time, since I joined PTFS. I have 20 years' experience in the ILS world, 13 of them as a Sirsi system administrator and programmer at the U.S. Courts, NASA, and University of Virginia Health Sciences Library. Several of you already know me from that environment. I haven't posted anything yet because I am still learning the system. I thought it would be a courtesy to do my homework before posting newbie questions either here or to the main Koha list. However, I certainly plan to actively participate in the community, as do our developers. From my years in the Sirsi world, I know how valuable a resource a good user/developer community can be, and I look forward to building some good friendships with you. When I was a brand-new Sirsi admin, I got a lot of help from the older sites, and I have always tried to pay that debt forward by helping other sites in turn. I think personal relationships will be even more valuable in the open source world than in the vendor world. I look forward to a lot of good conversations! Jane Wagner, PMP Library Systems Analyst PTFS Inc. Content Management and Library Solutions 6400 Goldsboro Road, Suite 200 Bethesda, MD 20817 (301) 654-8088 x 151 jwagner@ptfs.com <mailto:jwagner@ptfs.com> From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Yokley, John Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 12:56 PM To: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: [Koha] PTFS Support for the Koha Community Dear members of the Koha user community. Please note that the press release posted to the Koha.org site on January 29th was inappropriate and deceptive. Here are the facts: PTFS submitted an application to be included on the Koha support list Web page on 11/03/2008 and we fully complied with the policies posted at that time. The rules to allow a company to be listed on that page were subsequently changed after our application was submitted and we received a rejection email on 11/06/2008. PTFS sent another email on 1/15/09 indicating that we were now ready to resubmit our application and asking for clarification on the latest policies. We are now able to comply with the revised rules that now include client contracts, references and a working Koha installation. We fully intend to resubmit our application. Note that PTFS is well equipped to support this marketplace and we are just beginning to gear up to do so. We currently employ over twenty librarians on staff who implement, configure, train and support software management solutions for libraries. We also have a software development group well suited to support Koha development. I have been advised that there are community concerns over code submission. While we have not yet completed a Koha development project, we fully intend to provide the source code to our customers for submission to the community. PTFS, Inc. is a company that has been in the information industry since 1995. We have been installing and supporting commercial ILS systems for over a dozen years and are now focusing our expertise to provide high quality support and development to the Open Source ILS community. We also think we can add significant value to the library community by integrating our ArchivalWare content management system with the Koha Open Source ILS. See press release from SLA, June of last year http://www.ptfs.com/company/press_releases_current.aspx <http://www.ptfs.com/company/press_releases_current.aspx> . I do not typically post notes to lists but felt I needed to respond to this issue personally. In addition, I do not think this list is the forum for this type of conversation. If you want more information on PTFS or this issue we would be happy to talk to you directly by phone or email. John Yokley CEO Please contact Patrick Jones pjones@ptfs.com <mailto:pjones@ptfs.com> 301-654-8088x127 John Yokley P | T | F | S Content Management and Library Solutions 6400 Goldsboro Road Suite 200 Bethesda, MD 20817 (301) 654-8088, ext. #111 FAX: 301-654-5789 Cell: 240-447-8970 jyokley@ptfs.com www.ptfs.com _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 7:29 AM, Wagner, Jane <jwagner@ptfs.com> wrote:
John Yokley, our CEO, posted the following message to the main Koha list. He is not subscribed to koha-devel, so he asked me to forward it to this list.
I have been subscribed to the various Koha lists for some time, since I joined PTFS. I have 20 years' experience in the ILS world, 13 of them as a Sirsi system administrator and programmer at the U.S. Courts, NASA, and University of Virginia Health Sciences Library. Several of you already know me from that environment. I haven't posted anything yet because I am still learning the system. I thought it would be a courtesy to do my homework before posting newbie questions either here or to the main Koha list. However, I certainly plan to actively participate in the community, as do our developers. From my years in the Sirsi world, I know how valuable a resource a good user/developer community can be, and I look forward to building some good friendships with you. When I was a brand-new Sirsi admin, I got a lot of help from the older sites, and I have always tried to pay that debt forward by helping other sites in turn. I think personal relationships will be even more valuable in the open source world than in the vendor world.
I look forward to a lot of good conversations!
Hi Jane Welcome to the Koha community :) It's a fun place to be, we have developers, translators, documenters, and users in every single continent. (Well maybe not antartica, but who knows? :)) Id encourage you to jump on irc sometime, irc.katipo.co.nz #koha. Most of the developers hand out there and with our different timezones, there's usually always someone there. Also, I recommend taking a look at the rfc's on wiki.koha.org. And the bugs in bugs.koha.org. Patches for bugfixes are accepted with huge gratitude :) (I won't address the email you forwarded in this forum, as I think the community has already made clear it's current issues with your employer.) Once again welcome, and I look forward to communicating with you more in the future. Chris
Many thanks. I've been looking at the wiki and the bug sites, as well as the documentation site. Still learning my way through the software. Can anyone point me to a good, detailed description of what frameworks are and how they are meant to work? I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that concept and how it relates to the MARC format policies in the Sirsi-verse. Jane Wagner Library Systems Analyst PTFS Inc. Content Management and Library Solutions 6400 Goldsboro Road, Suite 200 Bethesda, MD 20817 (301) 654-8088 x 151 jwagner@ptfs.com -----Original Message----- From: Chris Cormack [mailto:chris@bigballofwax.co.nz] Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 2:15 PM To: Wagner, Jane Cc: koha-devel@lists.koha.org Subject: Re: [Koha-devel] FW: [Koha] PTFS Support for the Koha Community Hi Jane Welcome to the Koha community :) It's a fun place to be, we have developers, translators, documenters, and users in every single continent. (Well maybe not antartica, but who knows? :)) Id encourage you to jump on irc sometime, irc.katipo.co.nz #koha. Most of the developers hand out there and with our different timezones, there's usually always someone there. Also, I recommend taking a look at the rfc's on wiki.koha.org. And the bugs in bugs.koha.org. Patches for bugfixes are accepted with huge gratitude :)
On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 8:18 AM, Wagner, Jane <jwagner@ptfs.com> wrote:
Many thanks. I've been looking at the wiki and the bug sites, as well as the documentation site. Still learning my way through the software. Can anyone point me to a good, detailed description of what frameworks are and how they are meant to work? I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that concept and how it relates to the MARC format policies in the Sirsi-verse.
Hi Jane I can't answer in respect to how Sirsi-dynix works. But frameworks for Koha, in a nutshell, allow you to build up a different set of MARC tags for cataloguing differing types of items. EG you might have an Audio CD framework that just has the fields that are useful wrt to it. Basically it allows you to define a framework that means you dont have to tab through a bunch of fields (that you leave empty). Hope that helps Chris
Thanks, Chris. I thought from the documentation that the framework served the data entry template function, but I'm still not clear on a few points. In the Sirsi-verse, the format policy serves three purposes. * It defines the MARC format, and must be updated when the MARC standard changes (new fields defined, new subfields defined, fields repeatable/not repeatable, etc.). Does the Koha framework set the MARC standard for the system? If so, how does it get updated when the standard changes? Do site administrators need to modify it manually? Do updates happen automatically with Koha version upgrades? Do each of the framework policies need to be updated? Or does Koha handle the MARC standard definition elsewhere? * Along with an accompanying policy it defines what fields/subfields display in the OPAC and how they're labeled. Staff can always see all MARC fields in edit mode, but display depends on the policies. Does the framework control OPAC display in Koha? How are things like staff notes and other internal data fields hidden from public display? I haven't dug into the web template pages yet -- maybe display setup happen there. * The Sirsi format policy controls index settings. I understand that in Koha those are handled separately, through the Zebra setup. Is that correct? (I've also seen reference to non-Zebra indexing in the system preferences, but I gather those are irrelevant if we're using Zebra.) If anyone can point me to some documentation on frameworks, I'd be grateful. I've found some brief mentions in other docs, but nothing in depth. In particular, I'd like to know the implications of modifying a framework policy. Thanks much. Jane Wagner Library Systems Analyst PTFS Inc. Content Management and Library Solutions 6400 Goldsboro Road, Suite 200 Bethesda, MD 20817 (301) 654-8088 x 151 jwagner@ptfs.com -----Original Message----- On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 8:18 AM, Wagner, Jane <jwagner@ptfs.com> wrote:
Many thanks. I've been looking at the wiki and the bug sites, as well as the documentation site. Still learning my way through the software. Can anyone point me to a good, detailed description of what frameworks are and how they are meant to work? I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that concept and how it relates to the MARC format policies in the Sirsi-verse.
Hi Jane I can't answer in respect to how Sirsi-dynix works. But frameworks for Koha, in a nutshell, allow you to build up a different set of MARC tags for cataloguing differing types of items. EG you might have an Audio CD framework that just has the fields that are useful wrt to it. Basically it allows you to define a framework that means you dont have to tab through a bunch of fields (that you leave empty). Hope that helps Chris
* Along with an accompanying policy it defines what fields/subfields display in the OPAC and how they're labeled. Staff can always see all MARC fields in edit mode, but display depends on the policies. Does the framework control OPAC display in Koha?
Frameworks don't affect how data is displayed in the staff client or the OPAC. In the staff client and the default OPAC view the display is defined by the script that generates the output. In the OPAC you can also display records using an XSL template--turn on the XSLTDetailsDisplay system preference. You could then edit the MARC21slim2OPACDetail.xsl file to customize the display. I like the idea of having the framework control the display in the staff client and the OPAC but I don't have any idea whether it would be workable. -- Owen -- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org
participants (3)
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Chris Cormack -
Owen Leonard -
Wagner, Jane