Calibre | ebook management software

calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features divided into the following main categories:

• Library Management E-book conversion 
• Syncing to e-book reader devices 
• Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form 
• Comprehensive e-book viewer 
• Content server for online access to your book collection

(Link)

Koha | Open source library management system

"Koha is the first free software library automation package. In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of users collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base.

In use worldwide in libraries of all sizes, Koha is a true enterprise-class ILS with comprehensive functionality including basic or advanced options. Koha includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more."

(Link)

Koha does not mean 'to steal'

This makes me extremely angry. One of our key online tools is our library catalogue Koha. It's patron-centred, allowing students and staff to write review, tag items, create and share reading lists, rate and recommend books- it's a wonderful tool for promoting literacy. It was developed 12 years ago by the Horowhenua Library Trust and open sourced as a gift to the world (koha means gift in Maori). It is inconceivable that a foreign corporation could apply for, and receive, a trademark for the word Koha in New Zealand. It was developed here, it's a common Maori word and it's community owned. Large international firms who can hire better lawyer than a community trust shouldn't be able to bulldoze their way through law. It's just wrong.

Donations are being gathered here for the legal fight.

Summer reading...

When I'm not learning to be a father, I try to read as much as I can (which falls short of as much as I'd like to). One of Koha's cool features is the ability to create and share lists. Here's a quick list called 'Mark's Favourite Books' which I'll continue to update. Happy reading...

Koha 3.2 : The next step

We're about to implement two exciting features in our library: RFID and self-check. It's not common for school libraries to use RFID, but as the cost comes down and there is more support for what it can do I'm sure it'll become increasingly popular. Once you make the transition from a 'dumb' tattle-tape security system to and RFID system, you can have a lot more fun with your items. One of the projects I'm hoping to get students involved in this year is to integrate an RFID reader, Koha and a touchscreen so students can walk up to a screen, place a book in front of it and have Koha pull up reviews of that item or recommendations based on that title.

When our Librarian and I started talking about self-check, my first thought was 'Oh... I wonder if Koha can support it?' I hadn't heard anything on the lists about it so I was prepared to start looking for some developer funding, but sure enough, it's one of the features Koha has that isn't widely known.

Below is Jo Ransom and Chris Cormack's presentation on Koha 3.2, due out in the next little while. I'm really looking forward to the upgrade: there are a whole lot of new features including enhancements to the federated search feature in Koha.

Koha 3.2 : The next step

View more presentations from jransom.

Koha and SCIS

Funny how things work: at almost the same time as Mason James finished work on our Koha/SCIS integration, I noticed this on the Calyx.com.au website:

In a boon to Australian and New Zealand schools considering the Koha open source integrated library management system, CALYX information essentials recently demonstrated the seamless upload of bibliographic records from SCIS to Koha.

...which is preciesly what Mason has just done for us. Great minds think alike I guess. The Calyx site also has a great explanation of why Koha is such a create ILS:

Why Koha?

Koha is a full featured integrated library system (ILS). In use worldwide in libraries of all sizes, Koha is a true enterprise-class ILS with comprehensive functionality including basic or advanced options. Koha includes modules for circulation, cataloguing, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more. For a comprehensive overview of features visit the Koha feature map.

Features

• Friendly and intuitive web-based catalogue searching
• Accessible from any web enabled computer
• Powerful self-service tools for patrons
• Circulation, borrower and fees management
• Acquisitions, cataloguing, authority control, serials
• Koha 3.0 is OAI-PMH compatible
• FRBR-style results display
• True n-tier architecture
• Granular permissions in the administration module
• Branch flexibility and control
• Easily create records from scratch or download records from free sources
• Customize record types and locations to match your needs
• Web-based search engine integrates with your existing intranet
• Can easily integrate with existing member’s database
• Manage digital objects
• Reading-level, abstracts, thumbnail cover images
• Full utilization of record metadata
• Incorporate digital resources directly into the catalog results
• Integrated federated searches for databases and other external resources
• Library standards compliance (MARC, Z39.50)
• A powerful full-featured search engine
• Scalability from a thousand to tens of millions of records
• Multiple record formats (MARC, XML, etc.)

Library 2.0, tagging and the Tenenbaums

I've got a good sized DVD collection. My top 5 DVDs change all the time but there are a few with which I couldn't live without: The Royal Tenenbaums, Citizen Kane, Rushmore. My collection stretches to about 80 carefully selected items, all arranged alphabetically by title -a bit obsessive I know, but I used to work in a library. Alphabetically by title makes perfect sense to me, but depending on who you are, you might nit like my method of cataloging items- you might choose to group actors together, or use genre, or Director, or... or...
My point is that any system of organising things only works if it makes sense to you. Which is where tagging comes in. Using tags is a good way of letting users bring their own method or organisation to a collection of items: they can label things with their own keywords. These keywords can be gathered together across all users and displayed in the form of a cloud.
Our library management system Koha allows patrons to add their own tags to items from either the search results or details page. It's true library 2.0 but it has the benefit of allowing patrons to use a taxonomy or a folksonomy.

Koha and 5 star ratings

Our developer Mason James has just finished a prototype for a 5-star rating system for our Koha installation. At the moment it's only available on the testing site but it's looking really good. Patrons can log in, search for an item, rate it (on the search results or details page) and share those ratings with others.
I'm thinking that if we can get students to log in to rate an item, we're close to getting them to log in and write reviews, renew books, tag items etc. There's also a deeper goal here: if students see other students rating and making reading recommendations, it's the ultimate way to create a culture that promotes literacy and reading.

Edit: this feature is being contributed to Koha 3.2 along with our reading recommendation engine.