Page 55 - DLIS007_LIBRARY AUTOMATION

Library Automation

Notes GUI based easy user interface for retrieval, display and data entry
Intelligent search assistance and thesaurus manager
Converter technology which allows user to import and export over 30 different
word processor file formats

Notes TECHLIBplus is a comprehensive library automation package developed over
BASISplus and customised to perform all the operation and activities of a fully electronic
library. TECHLIBplus supports OPAC, Catalogue maintenance, Circulation, Serials
management, Acquisition, Processing and MARC cataloguing. The LMS provides direct
access to information in Current Contents.
3. KOHA: KOHA is an integrated library management system that was originally developed
by Katipo Communications Limited of Wellington, New Zealand for the Horowhenua
Library Trust (HLT), a regional library system located in Levin near Wellington. In 1999,
Katipo proposed developing a new system for HLT using open source tools (Perl, MySQL,
and Apache) that would run under Linux and use Telnet to communicate with the branches.
The software went in production on the January 3, 2000, and released under the GPL for
public use in July 2000. There has been a high level of interest in KOHA internationally,
and it is currently being used in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, United States, India,
Thailand, United Kingdom, and France. Many of the libraries presently using KOHA are
small and medium sized mainly school and special libraries. KOHA has just been
implemented at the Nelsonville Public Library in Ohio.

The KOHA project has attracted developers in a number of different countries, with release
1.2.2 being coordinated from Canada and the current stable release, 2.0.0 (available both
for Linux and Windows), from France.

The major features of KOHA are:
General: free to download, no license fee, fast, web centric, fully customisable,
environmentally friendly (one can recycle those old PCs), establishing an
international community of users and developers giving libraries the freedom to
do it themselves or work directly with the system builders, generating an
international spirit of co-operation and collaboration, easy staff training, supports
both Windows and Linux platforms, uses freeware companions.

Example: Apache as web server, MySQL as backend RDBMS and PERL as scripting
language, supports web OPAC and web interface for staff, branches access main server via
ordinary phone lines and modems, can run on PC grade or server grade hardware.
Circulation: issues (including rentals), renewals, returns and fines. Uses barcode
scanners or keyboard; can generate a list of over dues for a phone reminder system.

Acquisitions: multiple book budgets and suppliers, real time budget information.
Catalogue updates fast and slick, support for MARC 21 and UNIMARC.
Searching by keyword, author, title, subject, class number or combinations, customise
to suit need of individual library.

Memberships – one-stop-shop with all member information on one page.
User driven reservation facility from OPAC interface (Do-it-yourself reserves, in
the Library or via the Internet).

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