Hello everyone, it seems like it's about time for another of my infrequent newsletters. Quite a few things have taken place recently, and I want to make sure everyone is 'in the loop'. Most importantly, we're coming very close to a 2.0.0 release. The bug counts are down: 'must fix' 6 'should fix' 27 'might fix' 3 While a couple of new bugs get reported a week, the developers are still making progress. Part of our approach to 2.0.0 includes a beta testing cycle. That's already begun, and we're currently on release 2.0.0pre2. Paul is away for a couple of weeks, but I'm anticipating that he'll make another 2.0.0pre release shortly after his return. In other development news, we have two new features that are being held out of the main distribution while 2.0.0 stabilizes, rssKoha and ldapKoha. These are being distributed as separate packages so that people can see them and start working with them. At some point after the official 2.0.0 release, they will be merged into the main distribution. rssKoha is a system that allows a Koha system to syndicate RSS feeds based on data from the system. This will allow a library to begin publishing data to users through a different path than the OPAC. Good examples might be a list of the most recently acquired DVDs, or a list of the most requested/reserved mystery novels. ldapKoha allows a Koha system to authenticate users from an existing LDAP server. This feature should be particularly interesting to corporate or academic libraries. This feature was developed by the students at ESIEE (http://www.esiee.fr) More information about these (and other news about Koha), please take a look at http://www.kohalabs.com/news/ -- translations of stories are currently being provided in English, French, and German (Spanish should follow soon). If you're interested in helping translate or write stories about Koha, please email news@kohalabs.com with your contact information and interests. The final bits of news involves two more libraries picking up Koha! The Ecole des mines de Paris (I've been told that they're comparable to MIT in the US) has decided to begin working with Koha. The doxulting company (a Library systems consulting firm) and Paul Poulain will be working with them during this process. The University of Buffalo is going to start using Koha in some of its Library Information Systems courses. The students will be installing, testing, and reviewing Koha at first. Hopefully we'll see more involvement as the process moves forward. thanks, -pate Pat Eyler Kaitiaki/manager migrant Linux sys admin the Koha project ruby, shell, and perl geek http://www.koha.org http://pate.eylerfamily.org