The British Library for Development Studies migrated from an old proprietary library management system to the open source Koha system. They chose Koha because it was developed and maintained by a worldwide community, allowed them to install and modify it themselves, and aligned with their objectives of building capacity in developing countries. After evaluating various open source options based on licensing, community support, and functionality, Koha was seen as the most complete system. The migration was outsourced to a third party vendor and took approximately 8 months. While some issues remained, the implementation was considered a success with praise from users.

1. 5 June 2012
Migrating to Koha: A British
Library for Development
Studies (BLDS) Journey
KohaCon12
Edinburgh, Scotland
Presented by Nason Bimbe
(Email: n.bimbe@ids.ac.uk )

2. Discussion
Background
Why a FOSS ILS - Koha
Choosing an Open Source Software
Implementation Strategy
Lessons Learnt
Conclusions

3. Background: BLDS
British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) is
based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
in Brighton
BLDS has extensive holdings built up in the 1960s,
constituting Europe’s most comprehensive research
collection in development studies
BLDS holds over 1,000 journal titles, over 10,000
magazines, annual report and newsletter titles and
over 84,000 monographs
BLDS serves over 1000 patrons and these include
students, staff and visiting fellows
Through document delivery service, BLDS also
serves users from developing countries (Africa and
Asia)

4. Background: The Problem with old bespoke LMS
Bespoke LMS became unstable, needing a lot of
staff maintenance, and was leading to a very poor
customer service experience for our users
The role of BLDS had changed substantially since
the initial design of the system, and is now much
more global in reach, requiring new functionality
LMS technology had advanced exponentially, and
with it the demands of library users for a more
flexible, user-led search experience
Bespoke LMS was not future-proofed in terms of
further developments

5. Background: The Search
BLDS had a limited budget to work with
We looked at a number of commercial LMS and
almost settled for one
I was apprehensive of FOSS at the time – though
we were running Koha only as a Z39.50 server
Through networking, Koha kept cropping up but put
off by the amount of messages on the mailing list
Having read Tristan Muller’s paper – I had a change
of mind
Visitation to Koha sites and talking to people in
Koha development helped sway our decision

6. In 2005, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems quipped that
open source software was "free like a puppy is free." Just as
you can pick out a puppy from the pound without paying
expensive breeder fees, you can download and use open
source software without buying a single license. But puppies
become dogs, and dogs need food, toys, training and lots and
lots of love. Even with all this attention, there’s no guarantee
your cuddly puppy won’t develop a vicious streak. Will you
need endless obedience classes and a chain and muzzle to
control it? The same goes for open source software. As soon
as you introduce open source into your organization, the real
costs, commitments and risks become clear.
Why a FOSS ILS?
Myth or Fact?.....

7. Why a FOSS ILS?
The software was developed and maintained by a
worldwide community
We could install and modify it ourselves
We could also use a third party company to install
and manage it for us
We would have been freed from lock in with a single
supplier
Going FOSS aligned BLDS with our new objectives
of building capacity in the developing countries
Our funders were also pointing us towards FOSS

8. New Koha Installations in 2009, 2010 and 2011
Source: Marshall Breeding: Integrated Systems turnover in 2009, 2010 and
2011
http://librarytechnology.org/ils-turnover.pl
2009 2010 2011
Koha 171 172 283
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
AxisTitle
Koha

9. Choosing an Open Source Software
Tristan Müller, (2011) three stage analysis was very
useful in evaluating FOSS
Process involves
– Evaluating software licensing
– Evaluating the community
– Evaluating functionalities
Tristan Müller, (2011) "How to choose a free and open source integrated library system", OCLC Systems &
Services, Vol. 27 Iss: 1, pp.57 – 78

10. Choosing an Open Source Software
Adapted from Tristan Müller, (2011) "How to choose a free and open source integrated library system", OCLC Systems & Services, Vol. 27 Iss:
1, pp.57 – 78

11. Evaluating Software Licensing:
Categories of licenses by usage rights
Public domain
Free Software
Open Source Software
Freeware
Shareware
Proprietary Software
Patented Software
Just because software are offered under the designation of “free license”, does
not necessarily mean that all aspects of the product are free and open.
We had to take a close analysis of the licensing terms offered

12. Evaluating the Community:
Categories of community assessment
Inactive
– No observed development activity going on
Just released
– Community do not currently have a critical mass
of developers, contributors and users
– Some procedures, methods, practices and tools
remain unimplemented and are not freely
available

13. Evaluating the Community:
Categories of community assessment
Emerging
– Has a growing community of developers,
contributors and users
– Has failed to implement procedures, methods,
practices and tools to ensure sustainability
Sustainable
– Has obtained critical mass of interested
developers, contributors and users
– Has in place a very solid collaborative
infrastructure made of development tools to help
manage goals, function, architecture and
design, outlining the responsibilities of
developers and contributors
• Is FOSS Community engaged and dynamic?
• We were always alive to the fact that when you choose a FOSS, you are also
joining the community

14. Evaluating Functionality:
Categories of maturity of functionality
Immature
Improving
Mature
Does the functionality of FOSS meet our needs?
Of the Open Source LMS identified, Koha was seen as the most
functionally complete with worldwide support

15. Implementation Strategy: Three Options
‘Self Management’ [Option 1]
– Installation
– Configuration
– Customisation
– Migration
– Hosting
(Some) Third Party Help [Option 2]
– Installation
– Configuration
– Customisation
Complete ‘Outsource’ [Option 3]
– Installation
– Configuration
– Customisation
– Migration
– Hosting
– (Server) Management

16. Implementation Strategy: The Challenges
Time and Resource Availability
Skill Availability
Environmental Consideration
IDS Future ICT Strategy
– Utilising cloud based services/systems where
possible
After assessing the challenges mentioned above
and also looking at Koha implementation
landscape in the UK we went with Option 3

17. Lessons Learnt
Always talk to people/organisations that have done it before
Research – web has lots of information
Plan well and plan ahead
Have enough time on data mapping (if migration involved) and
document well – if not using ‘standard library system’
Don’t be discouraged by what is perceived to be different in the
way you work – decouple systems and componetize
Develop a high level architecture showing all the different
functions/services you are offering – so that you avoid making the
LMS do what is not its ‘core’ function
Develop good working relationship with your contractor - if using
outsourcing model
Join the community – mailing list

18. Project Time Scale
From go ahead to launch: took approximately 8 months
From contract signing to launch: took approximately 7 months
Implementation – Installation, Configuration, Customisation,
Training, Data Migration and Testing took approximately 5
months
Search
Planning
Implementation
Jun – Aug 2011
Oct – Dec 2011
Jan – May 2012
23 June 2011 – Go ahead given
19 Sep 2011 – Contract signed with PTFS Europe
19 Dec 2011 – Planning, Configuration completed
15 May 2012 – Koha is launched at http://bldscat.ids.ac.uk/

21. Conclusion
We now have a great library management system that we can
build on as a platform
We will be looking into integrating it with other systems/
technologies
– Resource discovery tools
– Mobile
– Linked data
Though we are still sorting out a few problems, we consider
the implementation to be a SUCCESS – no complaints from
our core users, only praise!
I would recommend Koha to any library that is thinking of
upgrading their LMS or just considering automating their
library processes
Lastly but not least, I would like to thank PTFS Europe for
their support

22. http://blds.ids.ac.uk (website)
http://bldscat.ids.ac.uk (OPAC)
http://ids.ac.uk (website)
Email: n.bimbe@ids.ac.uk