[Koha-devel] RE: [Koha] Questions about using Koha in our primary school

[Nicholas Rosasco]

I know I'm not answering all your questions/concerns, but some of them fall
within my purview (2 dollar word, there :) ) since they touch on the manual.

> The main question is one you must receive frequently.  Does
> platform independence really include Windows?  The computer has
> been purchased and I assume it
> came with Win XP (I haven't seen it yet).  I don't think I could
> convince them to use Linux, even if I had a clue about it myself.

We've had people do it.  There are versions, if nothing else, of all the
core tools available for windows (apache, etc).
I'll let someone else cover that in more detail....

>  In any case, I want to test out and
> demonstrate Koha using my laptop which runs Win ME.  I see from
> the installation notes that it has been installed on NT and Win
> 2000 with considerable difficulty.
> Can you tell me how difficult?  I have no knowledge of perl or
> Apache.  Does that make it pointless trying without years of study?

Perl knowledge isn't a requirement... we have a pretty good (this is coming
from the documentation manager) manual to help you :). A lack-of-fear of
Apache (ie, a willingness to ask if you are stuck) does help.  Windows
setups have been done, I think.

> The next question is about languages.  The OPAC at our school
> would be presented in at least 5 European languages, including
> Greek.  The school has 5 language
> sections, plus Irish, but all other languages in the European
> Union would be represented in the book collection.  So would a
> multilingual OPAC be difficult to
> produce?
I'm a bit confused.  The software cares not for the data (ie, titles, etc).
:)
If you mean the labels/text on screen (ie MAIN, etc) the hope is that the
templating system we have underway (currently in between development and
beta testing -- ver. 1.3) will permit the user to select from the available
languages.  Could you elaborate on this?

> There would possibly be some benefit to Koha from this, and
> perhaps this could be our contribution to the cause: translations
> of key documents into all these
> languages.

You're making me drool :).  I'm responsible for coordinating the translation
of our supporting materials.

> Next question.  The library will be staffed by volunteer parents
> with less computer knowledge than even me.  There won't be a
> trained librarian for at least 3 years.
> Would this present a problem?  Is the system sufficiently simple
> and robust that we can't get into much trouble?

We currently have a manual for operators (ie, library staff) underway.  It
is being written by a librarian, not a computer geek :).  My hope is to have
in integrated into the master manual (on www.koha.org) within approximately
a week or so (fingers crossed there).

> Next question.  As the collection will be started with donated
> books, we need to catalog them.  There is a shareware proggy that
> purports to take an ISBN and then
> search the internet for the book, then places the biblio dat in a
> database.  It's called Readerware.  It says it even gets the
> cover art and includes that.  I think that
> having cover art would be really nifty for a primary school
> library.  So could the OPAC show that.  Is this simply a question
> of having an image in a field of a MySQL
> database.  And is that possible?

We've got a similar feature in re ISBNs, also in development (target of
Septemberish).  I'll let another developer or a librarian answer in more
detail.  Cover art, no, we don't have an equivalent.

> I'll stop there.  If you can give me good news I'll start
> downloading.  I've got a couple of months to get it going as the
> school year starts in September in Europe.  As if
> things weren't weird enough.
>

I'm cc'ing the developers (I'm just the manual geek), so they can can give
you their take on these questions.

Nick Rosasco
nrosasco at acm.org