Second public library system in the US switches to Koha
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
West Liberty Public Library Migrates to Koha | oss4lib
… the West Liberty Public Library located in Iowa, USA has migrated to Koha, the first open-source Integrated Library System. This makes West Liberty the second public library system in the US to switch to Koha.
Tim McMahon, Technical Services librarian at West Liberty Public, said “We started looking for a new system when we tried to get our old one online and not only did the project fail, but it caused serious damage to our records. We chose Koha because with open source there is always the possibility someone will add a feature you need or if you have the knowledge, you can add it yourself.”
The Koha system is installed on a Linux server and provides West Liberty with web-based access to cataloging, authority control, circulation, acquisitions, and serials control. Patron images are displayed on the circulation page so that circulation staff can easily identify patrons. Online access to the catalog as well as online member services (such as online reserves and renewals) are available through Koha’s OPAC module. Enriched catalog records, provided by Amazon.com allow users to view–along with record information–jacket images, book reviews, descriptions, tables of contents and more. The OPAC can be found online at: http://opac.wlpl.org.
I was really disappointed to find out that Tech had chosen Innovative as the new ILS (they were deciding when I interviewed.), there are many things that we could have done with an OS system.
Open-Source Software — laura
