Library Management System

[Jeffrey LePage]

We're in a similar position.  We are a small public charter school with an aging proprietary system (Sagebrush Athena).  We have a librarian, but only one geek (me) who handles _all_ the IT.  We're trying out Koha now.  We managed to install it and import MARC records from Athena.  Everything seems to be working, but it's a large complicated system, and it's a complicated install.  If you want to run zebra (for industrial strength indexing), you have to install a few things from source.

I plan to re-install this weekend.  The previous install worked, but there are some nagging issues that I want to resolve.  The biggest thing is that the first time we attempted the MARC import the books did not show up on the frontend.  However, a quick inspection of the database showed that the books did actually import successfully.  The trick seems to be that you need to install, set up the default library, and then import.  At this point we have two copies of the same MARC records in the database, but only one copy shows up on the frontend.  <sigh/>.  As I said I think I'll do a clean re-install.

I'll post the results of the preliminary eval soon.  Despite the complicated install, it looks nice.  Also, if you don't need zebra, then the install is a lot easier.



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Another topic:  I'm sorry to hear that you've been told "MS products only".  This is insane, but I've seen similar things before.  As a charter school we have a lot of flexibility, mostly because the local district refuses to give us any meaningful IT support.  They can't tell us what to use if they don't pay for it.


Jeff Lepage
Free Horizon Montessori


> Good Morning.
> 
> I work at a small charter school and we are looking for a
> library management
> software solution that can be accessed by multipule users. 
> We have 15
> teachers, 250 cadets and as we are a small campus we do not
> have the funds
> for a librarian.  We have a high turn over rate and will go
> through $10,000
> worth of text books per year from teachers not keeping
> accurate text book or
> library book inventories.  Does anyone know of a good
> solution either
> edubuntu/opensource or MS?  Currently we are running a
> windows 2000/2003
> server environment and i am looking at ways of adding an
> edubuntu segment.
> We have orders from our county office that their networks
> (and ours) are
> "Microsoft Products Only".  I have been slowly
> chiping away at that
> directive :)  and have had minor success with adding
> OpenOffice and a few
> other open source software titles.
> 
> Any input would be appriciated.
> 
> 
> LT. Don E. Davie
> 
> La Sierra Military Academy
> 1735 E. Houston Ave.
> Visalia, CA 93292
> 
> 559-733-6963 - 264