Intro to the
Koha
Open Source ILS
Nicole C. Engard
Koha Documentation Manager
nengard@gmail.com

A bit of History
• Koha was started at the Horowhenua
Library Trust (HLT) by Katipo
• They needed a new ILS (because of a
Y2K bug)
• They got no suitable responses to
their RFP
• none of the vendors actually read it
- because none of their solutions
would actually work
• Katipo thought - it’s just a database,
how hard can it be?
• Neither HLT or Katipo wanted to be
vendors so they decided to release it
under the GPL - didn’t want to write the
project and then try to sell it. They also
looked at it as if you give something out
you’ll get something back.
http://www.web2learning.net/archives/2775

A bit of History
• January 5, 2000 Koha went live
• Announced to the world on July
2000 (article in Library Life in NZ).
• Soon after the release HLT won
some awards and the software
started selling itself - just like they
wanted.
• When 1.0 was released in July
2000 it only took 20 minutes before
someone first downloaded the
system.
http://www.web2learning.net/archives/2775

A bit of History
• By 2002 things really got moving with
new developers and US interest at the
Nelsonville Public Library in OH
• In 2008 Koha 3.0 was released
introducing some amazing new
features:
• Zebra search engine
• Tagging in the OPAC
• Improvements to:
• label creator
• notices
• guided reports
• and more
http://www.web2learning.net/archives/2775
http://koha.org/news/koha-version-3-released

Koha Today
• In 2009 Koha 3.2 will include:
• A completely revamped
Acquisitions module
• ‡biblios integration
• More advanced Circulation rules
• Lots of new sources for OPAC
enhanced content
• LibraryThing
• Syndetics
• Babelthèque
• Improved Serials management
• And so much more!!
http://www.web2learning.net/archives/2781

The Community
• It’s impossible to talk about Koha
without mentioning the community
• Open source is about sharing and
community while you can just
download and use Koha - it’s a much
more rewarding process if you join the
community
• Ways to contribute
• Help with documentation
• Help with coding
• Help with debugging
• Educate fellow librarians about open
source and Koha
http://koha.org/about/get-involved

Open Source
Philosophy
Open source revealed a fundamental
truth about humans that had gone largely
unnoticed until the connectivity of the
Internet brought it into high relief: labor
can often be organized more efficiently in
the context of a community than it can in
the context of the corporation. The best
person to do a job is the one who most
wants to do that job; and the best people
to evaluate their performance are their
friends and peers who, by the way, will
enthusiastically pitch in to improve the
final product, simply for the sheer
pleasure of helping one another and
creating something beautiful from which
they all will benefit. (p.8)
http://www.web2learning.net/archives/2848

Open Source &
Libraries
Libraries and Open Source
Both...
• Believe that information should be
freely accessible to everyone
• Give away stuff
• Benefit from the generosity of others
• Are about communities
• Make the world a better place
-- Horton, G. http://tinyurl.com/3jvumn

Show me
what it can
do!

Thank You
Nicole C. Engard
Koha Documentation Manager
http://koha.org/documentation
nengard@gmail.com