The Kansas story: a sea of Koha green on the plains
| Pages | 239-252 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-02-2016-0004 |
| Published date | 14 November 2016 |
| Date | 14 November 2016 |
| Author | Robin Hastings,Heather Braum,Harry Willems,Crystal Hutchinson,Gail Santy,Maribeth Shafer,Jason Robb,Roger Carswell |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Records management & preservation,Information repositories |
The Kansas story: a sea of Koha
green on the plains
Robin Hastings
IT Department, NEKLS, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
Heather Braum
NEKLS, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
Harry Willems
CKLS, Great Bend, Kansas, USA
Crystal Hutchinson
Department of Technical Services, CKLS, Great Bend, Kansas, USA
Gail Santy
CKLS, Great Bend, Kansas, USA
Maribeth Shafer
Department of Automation, CKLS, Great Bend, Kansas, USA, and
Jason Robb and Roger Carswell
SEKLS, Iola, Kansas, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Three of the seven regional systems in Kansas report on the history and use of the
open-source Koha integrated library system (ILS) in their regions.
Design/methodology/approach – Each of the systems wrote up their experiences and then they
collaborated on sections that discussed how they work together to achieve success with this product.
Findings – Each of the systems will continue to use the Koha software, and there are a few stand-alone
instances of Koha already in place in Kansas. Development and advocacy of the product will be
continued by all three of the systems.
Originality/value – This is a rare instance of three separate consortia coming together to work on
improving everyone’s experience with an open-source ILS. The authors feel that the experiences they
have had with this software are of value to anyone considering making use of it.
Keywords Collaboration, Libraries, Koha, ILS, Kansas, Open source
Paper type General review
Intro to Koha ILS
Koha was born in 1999, on the cusp of the new millennium. The project came from
frustration with the current crop of integrated library system (ILS) products on the
market at the time and the prices that the vendors were charging for those products. A
group of folks in New Zealand took the opportunity to create a new ILS, one that was
based on open-source principles and used a distributed, eventually world-wide,
developer community to create and extend their new software, which they called Koha
(a Maori word meaning “gift”). That group – a combination of staff from the
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2059-5816.htm
The Kansas
story
239
DigitalLibrary Perspectives
Vol.32 No. 4, 2016
pp.239-252
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2059-5816
DOI 10.1108/DLP-02-2016-0004
To continue reading
Request your trial