[Koha-devel] Re: Mexican Library Story

[Pat Eyler]

On Mon, 15 Jul 2002, Sharon Primm-Dayot wrote:

> Hello Pat.
>
> Thank you so much for your interest in the library that is being
> created in El Roble. I am a friend and partner with Marlene (whom you
> read about in the paper)and I am so very encouraged by the response that
> we've had from the PI's story. It's heartwarming to know that so many
> people want to help with such a wonderful and worthwhile project.
>

I'm glad to hear you've received such a positive response.  It seems that
people are very interested in doing good things, they just need a bit of
motivation (like seeing an article about a neat project).

> Koha also sounds like a wonderful and needed project. And it certainly
> sounds like something we would love to talk to you about! Anything that
> can help to provide efficient and quality library service for the people
> of rural Mexico causes us to pay attention.

I'd love to talk with you about it.  Either by email, or in person.  I'm
currently looking for a new consulting contract, so I have some time
available.  I've included a bit of additional information below, and am
Cc:ing this email to our development mailing list.  Hopefully we can
generate some additional discussion.

>
> I briefly checked out the Web sites that you referred to us. Thank
> you!  Am I understanding correctly that your service will help us
> provide an on-line library system that would fit our library
> specifically? Any further information that you can share with us would
> be greatly appreciated.

I think Koha would make an excellent system for a rural Mexican library.
It isn't ready for playing that role yet though.  The biggest things that
need to be done are:
  1) translation of the documentation into Spanish.  We currently have one
volunteer to work on this (a librarian from Chile), unfortunately he
hasn't been heard from since his initial offer.  There are two kinds of
documentation that require translation; librarian oriented and support/IT
oriented.  These will require slightly different skills of the
translators.  I'm hoping to work with the Callimachus Group,
<http://www.callimachus.org>, to write a grant request to hire a couple of
translators to perform this work for us.
  2) a templated version of the OPAC (Patron) and CIRC (Librarian)
systems needs to be completed.  We hope to have this work done within the
month.  Another group is already working with pre-release versions to do a
translation into French.  (They are actually working with some of our
french developers, so this is quite a boon for us.)

I'm a volunteer (as are most of the people working on the Koha project),
but would be happy to help make Koha work for your needs.  I think this
can be done without a great deal of effort.  A gentleman from Nigeria is
currently working to install Koha for his local library and things are
proceeding nicely, so there seems to be some momentum building.

>
> I wish you success with your project! And I hope that there can be
> collaboration between our two worthwhile endeveours in the future.
> Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions.

Thank you, I hope that El Roble's library becomes a reality in the near
future.  I think that there is a lot of room for us to help you meet that
goal, and that we will benefit from the work that's done.

Thanks,
-pate


Pat Eyler
Kaitiaki/manager
the Koha project

>
> Sincerely,
> Sharon Primm-Dayot
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Sharon Primm-Dayot
> EOP Bridge Academic Administrator
> Instructor: Instructional Center & Upward Bound
> Trainer: TRIO Training
>
> University of Washington
> Box 355650 - 1307 NE 40th
> Seattle, WA 98105
> Office:(206) 543-4240
> Fax:(206) 616-9092
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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