LITA Pre-conference: Open Source Installfest: Day 1
October 28th, 2006 by Christina HennesseyDay 1 was presented by Gary Wan of the TAMU libraries. He showed about 20 of us how to install and configure the following library-relevant open-source products: Koha, Greenstone, Swish-e, and Wordpress.
First, he explained open-source and the LAMP platform. LAMP is the software bundle commonly used for OSS products. LAMP stands for: Linux (the operating system), Apache (the web server), MySQL (the database management system), and either Perl, PHP or Python (the scripting programming languages).
Koha (www.koha.org) is an open-source web-based integrated library system (ILS). It includes modules for all major ILS functions (e.g. cataloging, circulation). Koha administration requires a Linux server (preferred, although other server installations are available), Apache, MySQL, Perl, root access to the server, and an internet connection. To run the Koha client, you just need a web browser. Gary walked us through the steps of installation and configuration, including how to uninstall if you mess up. He recommends installing the stable release 2.2.5, even though there are later releases of Koha. Koha has both a “public interface” (the OPAC), and a “librarian interface” (where all the staff modules are located). He showed us how to customize the Koha ILS and then let us loose on his installation of Koha! Paid support is available for Koha from Katipo and LibLime.
My impressions of Koha: I was struck by how “immature” the system was. Gary warned us that authority management was not very good, and as I looked through the parameters, I saw many places where I would have liked finer granularity of functionality than just on/off. The great thing about OSS is that if you don’t like something, you can re-program it yourself! Koha would not meet the needs of my institution, but I could see how it would work well for a small library that didn’t need much customization or granularity of tasks.
Other OSS ILS that Gary did not cover but did mention: Emilda, PhpMyLibrary, and Openbiblio.
Greenstone (http://www.greenstone.org/) is a suite of OSS for managing digital collections. System requirements are: Windows/Unix/Mac server, Apache or other web server, Perl, root access to the server, and a Java environment for the librarian interface (GLI). Gary walked us through the installation and configuration of Greenstone, both on the server and on the client, and showed us how to create a new collection, add documents to a collection, and add Dublin Core metadata for each document. The GLI must be run on every library staff computer that will be adding documents to the collection, and there does not seem to be a way to allow submissions from faculty or patrons without going through library staff.
I found Greenstone to be very easy to use and it looks good right out of the “box” (although there is no box here!). My institution will definitely be testing out this product in-house for managing documents.
Other OSS digital collection managers that Gary did not cover but did mention: DSpace, and eprints.
Swish-e (http://www.swish-e.org/) is OSS for indexing collections of web pages or other files. Swish-e can index plain text, email, PDF, HTML, XML, Microsoft Office files, and just about any file that can be converted to XML or HTML text. System requirements: Windows/Unix/Mac server, Apache or other web server, Perl, and root user access to the system. Gary walked us through the installation and configuration of Swish-e, including how to specify what files and/or URLs to spider.
I found Swish-e to be easy to use and configure. Our institution does not have a solution for searching our library web pages only (our pages are hosted on an institutional web server that has every page in the university), and this might just solve our problem!
Other OSS web-page retrieval tools that Gary did not cover but did mention: Nutch, and ASPSeek.
Wordpress (www.wordpress.com) is OSS for hosting blogs on your own web server. Wordpress can also be a host for your blog (no server needed), but Gary focused on the version that you host yourself. System requirements: Windows/Unix/Mac server, Apache or other web server, PHP, and MySQL. Gary walked us through the installation and configuration of Wordpress on a Linux server. Wordpress is well-documented and makes it easy to import entries from other blog software.
Wordpress seems very easy to setup and would be a good solution for libraries wanting to host staff blogs or patron blogs.
Other OSS blog hosting software that Gary did not cover but did mention: bBlog and Simplog.
Other OSS software mentioned in the presentation but not discussed:
For ILL: OpenILL, ILL Wizard, and ILL ASAP
For Document Delivery: Prospero
For virtual reference: OpenAAQ
October 28th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Great post!
To see a better example of the “state of koha” than was presented, check out the West Liberty PL site: http://opac.wlpl.org/
Roger
October 29th, 2006 at 1:00 am
Or you could look at
http://search.athenscounty.lib.oh.us/
Or
http://www.rangitikeilibrary.org.nz/
With respect to authorities, Koha does have a powerful authorities management system it just isnt well documented. I would also stack the 2.4 Opac (seen at athens county above) against any opac.
November 6th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
“I was struck by how “immature” the system was.”
I can see what you’re getting at — but for a relatively new ILS, I consider Koha quite an achievement. Maybe it needs a little more slick makeover here and there, but remember, these folks are **just getting started** compared to the decades of library automation the III’s and SirsiDynix’s of the world have had…
As an Innovative / Millennium user, I’d have to say that the “immature” designation is easily applied to our system, especially in the WebOPAC — where it really counts for our clients’ interaction. Endless examples here…
I’d have to say that especially WebOPAC wise, Koha & Evergreen are already offering same or more of what we have now even after the 12+ years of investment into III. Give the Koha folks another year or two and I’m sure they’ll be even more competitive.
I think more and more folks are coming to the conclusion that it makes sense to invest into an “immature” ILS based upon open foundations, rather than to continue staying with proprietary, closed systems with vendors who engineer their products for obfuscation and whose products limit our innovation through extreme and needless product segmentation…