While I was in the US, I gave a couple of demo’s/presentations on Koha. Nicole has done a great write up of them here
Category: Koha
Photos from Library Camp
Nicole took a bunch of photos today. here they are.
I took some as well, but they are way more random, I’ll put them up later.
NYC Libray Camp Session 3
Green Librarianship
Started with introductions.
People talked about their frustrations.
- Recyclables disposed of trash
- Packaging, rolls of paper wrapped in plastic
- Aerosoles.
- Web based products, but backed up with printed manuals
- Organization not conscious of the environment, styrofoam cups etc.
- Printers that won’t print double sided.
Suggestions
- Free research guide, practical but also tying into Philosophy, connecting with global community
- Engage the profession at large, use existing networks/organizations
- Reusable coffee cups, Columbia Health sciences library gave out free coffee mugs.
- Fresh Aire initiative – Fresh Aire
- Programs/Collections based around being green
- Charges for printing
- Myth of the paperless Office – Book
- Use a wiki instead of printing out your drafts
- Freecycle
- Materials for the Arts mfta.org
- Allow patrons to bring in used printer cartridges, return them to a refill place for a discount/free refills
- Green Line Paper
- A green library wiki
- More conferences like this, or even virtual conferences.
- Rebrand book sale into reread sale .. its not just about books its about recycling.
- Partner with other recycling agencies
- Energy Star
- Low or No VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) for furniture or paint (improves air quality)
- Report bad air condition to OSHA
- Use the biggest resource, the patrons. Allow green groups to meet in the library.
- Use some of the existing networks, like Palinet, Incolsa etc to leverage buying power
- Kilowatt meters – Kill a watt
- Optional date due slip
- Freegans might be willing to use unwanted items Freegan.info>
- Set an example, influence the culture of an organization
- Screensavers on reference computers
Green Librarian Organization
- Set up a Special interest group
- Radical Reference wiki http://wiki.radicalreference.info/index.php/Green_Librarianship
- Virtual Meetings
- Metro Meetings
NYC Libray Camp Session 2
Library Thing for Libraries
Second Session of Library Camp
- What is Library Thing (social cataloguing too)
- Library thing for libraries, they sell the data to libraries. (They reserve the right to do this, when you sign up as a library thing user).
- Danbury Library first Library to use Library thing for Libraries
- Works with any ILS
- Possibility of licensing or providing data for free, rather than the web services.
- Better for public libraries, not as good for special
- Licensing data to aqua browser
Interesting, not really discussion, more a sales pitch, but interesting nonetheless.
Library Camp NYC – Session 1
Open Source Desktop
Talking about general open source, not just desktops.
Talked about Howard County and how they went to OSS
Talked about Games – FreeCiv
Talked about locked down access, how to restrict.
Talked about Koha – Asked about libraries using it
Talked more about Koha, the history of it. And case studies.
Touched on vista
Talked about ILS that can run on open source operating system.
Talked about OpenOffice, and Ubuntu how its creating a groundswell.
Greg from NYPL using OSS stuff for webwork.
User needs analysis should be the driver
Koha Project Day
This has shifted to Friday (nz time) so yesterday was project day again.
I spent the morning working on automated testing and the afternoon on a system to allow Koha users to easily update the help files. It’s not quite finished by next project day I should be able to finish it off.
Koha Project Day #2
Today was Project day again (its a weekly thing). This week I worked on a few more unit tests, finishing off the tests for C4::Date. Quite a bit of wiki cleaning and working with Joshua about how we might use git in the project. To wit I created this
And Joshua has been fleshing out a ton of text to go with it. Theres a bit more to go but it will be all ready for the developers meeting.
On a more positive note
I finally got my Koha IM bot mostly working, and did a post here
http://blogs.liblime.com/developers/2007/06/22/instant-message-your-ils/
. If you want to have a play let me know, and ill start the bot up for you. I’m in the process of documenting it so people can run their own ones. But if anyone wants the code (such as it currently is) I can give you access to the git repository its in.
Koha Project Day
We had our first Koha Project Day today, and got quite a bit done. Some work on the website, some bugs tidied up and a bunch of skeleton test scripts written.
I spent a bunch of time documenting the modules and the files that use them.
Nice and productive, and I’m sure next week will be even more so.
Kahurangi sleeps over at Manaia’s house
We had a 50th birthday party to go to last night so Donna offered to babysit Kahurangi. So he got to hang out with them and teach Manaia how to squeal