1. An overview of Koha ILS
(Bowen University, Iwo, Nigeria Koha Training March 2105)
Olugbenga Adara

2. Presentation Overview
History of Koha
Features of Koha
Some Koha Statistics
What next?
Questions

3. History of Koha
• First Open Source ILS
• It’s Koha – and not KOHA
Koha means “gift, present, offering, donation or
contribution” in Maori Language
“Koha is an example of the reciprocity which is a
common feature of much Māori tradition, and often
involves the giving of gifts by visitors (manuhiri) to a
host (marae) - Wikipedia

4. • Horowhenua Library Trust (HLT)commissioned Katipo
Communications to write a new library software
because of the Y2K bug
• Software made open source and released mid 2000
• Free as in speech
• Used by public, academic, government, special
libraries.

5. Brief Koha Timeline
• 2000 – Koha 1.0 Released as Open Source Software
• April 2004 – Koha 2.0 released
• May 2006 – 1st International Koha Conference (KohaCon) in Paris, France
• Sept. 2007 – Bowen deploys Koha (Longest Running Install in Nigeria)
• Aug. 2008 – Koha 3.0 released
• April 2009 - KohaCon 2009 in Plano, Texas, USA
• Oct 2010 – KohaCon10 in New Zealand (10 years anniversary)
• Oct 2011 – KohaCon11 in Mumbai, India
• June 2012 – KohaCon12 in Edinburgh, Scotland
• Oct. 2013 – KohaCon13 in Reno, Neveda, U.S.A.
• Oct. 2014 – KohaCon14 in Cordoba, Argentina
• Feb. 2015 – Koha 3.18.04 released

6. Koha Features
• Standard modules
Acquisitions, Cataloguing, Circulation, Patrons
Management, Authorities, Serials, Course Reserves,
Reports, OPAC
• All Modules included in every installation
• Web based – works on mobile devices
• Web 2.0 compliant
• No license fees

7. • Circulation
– Send SMS, Email on Check in and Check out
– Overdue notices by email and paper
– Bar patrons owing from borrowing books
– Drop book off after library closed
– Offline circulation
– Fast cataloguing
– Self checkout and return
– In library usage tracking

8. • Cataloguing
– Copy cataloguing (using z39.50)
– Full MARC standards (and RDA compliant)
– Catalogue different materials, including electronic resources
– Upload local images
• Patrons Management
– Self registration
– Access control
– Upload patron pictures
– Upload documents to patron accounts(for librarian use)
– Manage fines and fees

9. • OPAC
– Self Renewal and Reserves
– Web 2.0 – Facebook, Twitter, Email, Comments
Ratings and Tags
– Private OPAC (login required)
– Purchase Suggestions

10. • References
– Create lists
– Catalogue relevant websites
• Acquisitions
– Manage Vendors
– Order books from patron’s suggestions
– Manage budgets and funds

11. • Serials
– Catalogue serials/journals
– Manage frequencies and subscriptions
– Catalogue individual articles in Journals (Analytics)
• Reports
– Run any kind of report on your data
– Auto schedule reports and email

12. • Other features
– Export and import data
– Multi language
– Inventory/stocktaking
– Fully customizable
– Printing barcodes, spine labels, patron cards

13. Some Koha Statistics
• http://hea.koha-community.org/ collects stats about
Koha installs. You can contribute if your Koha has
Internet access. (Data just from 62 libraries, Feb. 2015)
• Largest Koha Library has 444,000 books, 754,234 items
• Highest number of patrons in single Koha install is 74,322
• Highest issued items in a single install is 9,384,321
• Koha has been translated into 46 languages
• 2854 Koha libraries in library tech.org database

14. Requirement to run Koha
• Software – LAMP (Linux , Apache, MySQL and Perl)
• Hardware (Recommended)
– Physical server - 2 GB RAM, 4 core processor, 250GB
Hard Disk
– Cloud hosted – 2 GB RAM, 2 core processor, 20 GB
Disk space
• Internet Access (Optional but recommended)
(Note: Bigger is always better with hardware)

15. What next?
• Learn Koha, Deploy Koha and spread the word about
Koha!
• Join the mailing list, help new users.
• Translate Koha to the major Nigerian Languages
• Attend KohaCon15

16. Web links
• Koha website – www.koha-community.org
• Like Koha on Facebook - www.facebook.com/kohails
• Koha on Twitter - twitter.com/kohails

17. Thank you for listening
Questions?