Page 82 - DLIS007_LIBRARY AUTOMATION

Unit 4: Problems, Evaluation and Trends in Library Automation Software

According to library officials, this company had limited involvement in the Notes
implementation, configuration, and operation of the Koha software and did not have
previous experience with library automation. The company had only expected to gain
experience with Koha through its involvement in this project.
Retrospective conversion from legacy system is a fear factor for many libraries with huge
collection of records. But Delhi Public Library could overcome the situation with the help
of appropriate cost effective open source automation solution by relying on their staff.
This practice helped the Delhi Public Library to gain full control over their automation
system and data.

Mysore University Library
Mysore University Library switched from a proprietary automation system to Koha in
2010 after an intensive evaluation. In their experience, proprietary legacy systems are not
suitable for long term service and decided to find a suitable open source library automation
system. “After an extensive survey and analysis, an Expert Committee consisting of senior
library professionals and teaching faculty of University of Mysore recommended the
adoption of Koha”.

Availability of features suitable for university library, third party commercial support,
and active development due to its strong community world over is the main factors
favourable to Koha. Fifty eight libraries come under the purview of library automation
project using Koha in Mysore University. It includes the Main Library, libraries of five
colleges, thirteen institutions and thirty six Departments. About ten lakh (one million)
records will be available in the final stage of migration. Centralised database, decentralised
inputting and housekeeping activities and Universal access to OPAC are the main features
of the Koha implementation in Mysore University. The university has hosted Koha on
cloud hosting environment and no additional investment on server, maintenance,
manpower, air-conditioning, etc. were done. Dr. I.R.N. Goudar, Visiting Professor-cum-
Library Advisor says, “We have not even spent one third of what we would have spent for
a medium priced commercial LMS. The amount we paid to our service provider covered
installation and configuration, migration of existing data, training, little bit customization,
hosting initially on cloud hosting environment and AMC for one year”.
Scholarly literature published on the impact of open source library management system
among Indian libraries is limited.
Technical Support
Installation and maintenance of Koha was difficult for library professionals because of its
complex installation procedure. Koha support using community resources is free. Highly
detailed user manuals, installation procedures, data migration assistance, active discussion
forums and blogs are very helpful for library professionals (91.18%) who like to maintain
Koha without using the help of commercial service providers. Majority of Koha users
participated in this survey made use of community resources for Koha installation and
maintenance. Very few Koha users (8.82%) approached commercial Koha service companies
for Koha installation and maintenance. Assistance from commercial Koha service
companies are very helpful in data migration from legacy systems, customisation,
development and online hosting.
Koha Live CD
Manual installation of Koha is time consuming and requires the expertise of a Linux
administrator. Majority of the libraries (69.70%) that participated in this survey installed
Koha manually and 30.30% of libraries installed Koha with the help of Koha live CD.
Contd...

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