Koha Evaluation

My scenario is a 4-branch county library---Coastline County Public Library(CCPL).

Pros and Cons

Based on the attribute analysis, we find the greatest draw of Koha is the lower cost (TCO) for an Open Source library system, as well as the freedom from “vendor lock-in”. Another draw is that Koha is full-featured, and scalable for different-sized libraries. Koha development status is stable, and is improving. Furthermore, being an Open Source software, Koha’s source code is open for self-support and reconstitute. Koha maintains an active Developer Mailing List. The transparent nature of Koha software provides a large room for customization and improvement. The major drawback of Koha, on the other hand, is the support challenge and potential costs. Besides, Koha development status is rated “stable” instead of “mature”, and less than mature software implies more risk for the users. Moreover, being an Open Source software, Koha may not find it easy to keep a financial stability. As we know, a financial instability is a risk factor for project instability.

Conclusion

For the libraries like CCPL, Koha’s advantages outweigh its drawbacks. Koha meets the core needs of CCPL in a cost-effective way. It is full-featured, with modules for circulation, acquisitions, cataloging, authorities, searching, serials, and patron/membership management. Koha is the first open-source library automation system; it is free of licensing costs, and its source code is always available for modification. To sum it up, Koha is a choice worth consideration by CCPL management.

Conclusion on Talis paper

Talis’ paper is more an advocacy for than a research on Library 2.0. It lacks pros & cons analysis and feasibility analysis we expect to find for a new model proposal. Given the fact that Talis is a vendor on Integrated Library System(ILS), you won’t be surprised that the authors take one-sided attitude. The large population underprivileged inDigital Divide, is totally forgotten by Chad and Miller; Amazon and Google are portrayed as the direction for libraries to follow. You may find the truth is, Amazon cataloguers and customer service people are heavily exploited. They are loaded and work on very low salary. Our future librarians certainly do not like our employers to follow THAT direction, do we?

However, the paper turns out to be a good entry for constructive discussions in library society.
Two papers that assess Library 2.0 are particularly recommendable:

Crawford W.(2006), Library 2.0 and “Library 2.0”, Cites and insights, Midwinter 2006, 6(2).
Crawford M.R.(2006) Library 2.0: A summary of what's been said so far, Retrieved on Oct.13, 2007. http://neoarch.files.wordpress.com/2006/03/Library_2.0_Summary.pdf

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Hi, future librarians!
I found a funny video about us. Do you think it charaterize us?

What do you think about blogging?

Hi, Bloggers! Now we all blog up, for better or for worse. What do you think about blogging? Some find blogging waste a lot of time. Some claim that blogging represents one of the most democratic media or media format in history(J. Carrolll, 2004). See how a mathematics Phd studentcharacterizes blogshere...(Gooseania, 2004)

http://gooseania.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_gooseania_archive.html
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