Matthew Hale - Open Source at the Kings Fund

Using Koha @ The King’s Fund:Integrating library management

systems

Matthew Hale, Online Services Librarian, The King's [email protected]

Abstract

The King's Fund Information and Library Service went live with a new Library management system, Koha, in January 2010, migrating from its previous SirsiDynix Unicorn system, working with support company PTFS Europe. The fact that this is one of the first implementations of an open source Library management system in the UK has attracted a lot of interest from other libraries.

This presentation will describe the background to a move to a new system, the process by which Koha was chosen, aspects of the migration, some information on the system itself, system support and development, and a look to the future, highlighting in each of these areas particular elements specific to it being an open source product. The overall aim will be to place our migration to Koha against the backdrop of a broad philosophy and implementation of open source solutions across the Library service.

It will be demonstrated that in this context, rather than an isolated business decision, the choice to move to Koha was a natural and logical one.

Overview

The King’s FundThe King’s Fund Information and Library ServiceBackground for change, open sourceProducts developed: aggregated news; enquiry databaseThe existing Library Management SystemKohaPTFS EuropeMaking the decisionMigrationLooking forwardConclusion

The King’s Fund

Cavendish Square, central LondonCharitable statusIndependent health think-tankHealth improvementPolicy and media workLeadership coursesEvents venueLibrary

The King’s Fund Information and Library Service

Health and social care managementPublic library license, reference-only12 staff, some flexible working 93,000 bibliographic records (49,000 journal article records)20,000 subject authority records“Grey” literature informal and unpublished worksThe King’s Fund publications3 NHS Evidence Specialist Collections

Background for change, open source

Drive to innovate:– declining Library footfall, increasing isolation– Library move decision July 2006– physical relocation, 2/3 stock to storage– Chief Executive – external audience– Head of ILS Ray Phillips, April 2007

Online Services Team (Julia Florin - Information Specialist (Data Management), Meghan Jones - Assistant Electronic Services Librarian from May 2009)Proprietary website and intranetLimited resourcesRapid customised application and prototype developmentOpen source approach adoptedDesktop web server Abyss – sandbox MySQL, PHPkingsfundlibrary web space 2008 – applications, wiki, databases

Products developed: aggregated news

Sharing Library and IT links and newsGregarius (http://gregarius.net/) feed aggregator (Magpie RSS parser http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/)List of blogs and news feedsUnobtrusive Ajax Star Rater (http://masugadesign.com/the-lab/scripts/unobtrusive-ajax-star-rating-bar/)Split items, display with rating barStore rating with item recordPHP to generate html and RSS based on score and currency Inclusive and incrementalQuality improves through involvement


Sample daily item display for rating


Fields added to item record to store rating information


http://kingsfundlibrary.co.uk/news/itnews.php


Daily top health news items selected by Library team using aggregated news toolhttp://www.kingsfund.org.uk/applications/dynamic/rss_news.rm?id=20546

Products developed: enquiry database

Existing system:– Paper form based enquiry system– Results emailed then deleted

New database designed to:– reuse answers to questions, with a search facility– build knowledge base – support flexible working– efficiencies through automation of manual processes and statistic

generation– produce reusable output in various formats


Requirements:– Subject-based for output, awareness– Web-based: easy access externally and cross-department– Multiple output formats, such as html, email, RSS– Configurable, potential for development

Open source platform:– enquiry database from scratch, MySQL– incorporating a Wiki (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki) with

designated namespace to store freetext data– familiarity, inbuilt searching, formatting

PHP for database handling


Enquiry desk front end with enquiry database, statistics and storage requests


Adding a new enquiry


Tie enquiry record to wiki page:– append unique id from the new Enquiry record to a base URL and store

that value in the wiki_url field to maintain a permanent link to a wiki page.

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM enquiry where enquiry_date like '$today'");

$url="http://www.kingsfundlibrary.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=KB:";$array=mysql_fetch_assoc($result);$url .= $array['id'];mysql_query("UPDATE enquiry set wiki_url= '$url' where enquiry_date like

'$today'");

http://www.kingsfundlibrary.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=KB:163


Wiki answer page for enquiry record (163)


Enquiry database search options

The existing Library management system

1st UK customer for Sirsi in 1989No customisation, OPAC made public in 2006Limited functional requirementsDatabase as focus for developmentData extracted and manipulated – subject-based RSS feedsPipe-delimited output rather than reportsFunctionality outside of Library management system, extracting and reformatting data, for example into XML for integration into website:


Fields in dataset for export to website search. RDF using Dublin Core tags, and a boolean indicator to distinguish recommended items:– Control number for link to item record.– Title– Personal author– Corporate author– Subject– URL– Abstract– Reference– Publisher– Date– Format– Recommended title tag


Sample Library data in RDF


Library results alongside site search results. http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/applications/site_search/?term=technology


Library results embedded in topic page on main website. http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/topics/personalisation/index.html#knowledge

Koha

1999 Horowhenua Library TrustFirst open source Library system, Jan 2000Katipo Communications LtdFree open source - GNU General Public Licensewww.koha-community.orgLinux, Apache, MySQL, PerlWeb-based – XHTML, CSS, JavascriptZebra search engine, Z39.50 protocolLibrary standards compliantIntegrated system

http://www.koha-community.org/

Koha

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Library and Information Service (CAMLIS) (http://www.cam.nhs.uk/) visit Jan 2008Installing a copy locally on UbuntuDocumentation, supportPerl dependencies – packagesWorking modelBreaking the barriers conference May 2009Viable option:– internal reception to open source model– maturity of Koha– PTFS Europe support company

Strategy paper – replacement system needs, Koha, open source

http://www.cam.nhs.uk/



PTFS Europe

http://www.ptfs-europe.com/Former SirsiDynix staffArchivalWare digital library softwareSupporting Koha and Evergreen Software as a Service, upgrades and patchesDetailed knowledge of Unicorn productFlexible support, partnershipRelationship with community, mailing lists, IRC

Decision

Sirsi-Dynix merger 2005 and end of “special relationship”Development and enhancement processPTFS Europe:– familiar and trusted staff– knowledge of Unicorn system– speed and flexibility of implementation

Initial and ongoing costIntegration with ILS development strategy and productsTo avoid proprietary support and development tie-inOpen source and standards to avoid reliance on individuals

Migration

28th September 2009 demonstration and quote9th October approval given23rd October project initiation meeting3rd November system configuration meetingServer setup and initial data load5 half-day training sessions: system admin, OPAC, cataloguing, circulation, serials.Data feedbackSecond data loadLive system 5th January

Migration

Cancellation of SirsiDynix annual maintenanceInternal funding of project, opportunity more than formal processSerial control recordsOPAC customisation“Advanced features (beta)”Exposure of “local” cataloguing issuesMore data cleaningOpen process, documentation on wikiDowntime - noneSupport throughout

Migration

773 local field for recording journal article data:BMJ 2009; 339 (7717): 371-373 (15 August 2009) Single text string was split as part of migration to provide semantic structure

using a single regular expression which matched 43682 out of 48325 records:

[^0-9]*[0-9]\{4,\};[^:]*:[^(]*([^)]*)into constituent parts $t (title) $y (year) $v (volume) $n (number) $p

(pages) $d (date) Koha to MARC mapping sample: Koha Field Tag Subfield Libauthor 100 a Personal author title 245 a Title

Print option from cartMARC perl modules, Record.pm Batch.pmperl –CS for UTF-8 compatibility

Migration

King’s Fund OPAC. kingsfund.koha-ptfs.eu

Migration

Staff interface

Migration

Administrative settings

Migration

Main Koha site - http://koha-community.org/General mail list http://lists.katipo.co.nz/public/koha/Live OPAC demo http://catalog.bywatersolutions.com/Live staff client demo http://intranet.bywatersolutions.com/ (Username is bywater password is bywater)Support companies - http://koha-community.org/support/paid-support/LIS-KOHA http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-KOHA.htmlDownload - http://koha-community.org/download-koha/

http://koha-community.org/

http://koha-community.org/

http://lists.katipo.co.nz/public/koha/



http://catalog.bywatersolutions.com/



http://intranet.bywatersolutions.com/



http://koha-community.org/support/paid-support/

http://koha-community.org/support/paid-support/

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-KOHA.html

http://koha-community.org/download-koha/

http://koha-community.org/download-koha/

Looking forward

Vibrant and growing system, freedomPTFS support and developmentSoftware releases and roadmapsMailing listsIRCCommunity support embracing bothAll working on one system, documentation, code, reports (paste MySQL)

Looking forward

Still exploringLean processesWeb2 functionality in OPACEmbed aspects of enquiry databaseThesaurus managerUK user base

Conclusion

New system in 1989: – hardware excluding terminals £21,000– Unicorn software £35,750– BRS / Search £9,750– 13-month intensive process

Cost and speed in 2010 fractions of thatOpportunity rather than planned process in context of other developmentsChanged attitude to open source internallyThe 3 questions we’re usually asked:– can Koha do…?– how much did it cost?– what’s the catch?

[email protected]

Matthew Hale - Open Source at the Kings Fund

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