5 June 2012

Migrating to Koha: A British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) Journey

KohaCon12

Edinburgh, Scotland

Presented by Nason Bimbe

(Email: n.bimbe@ids.ac.uk )

Discussion

Background

Why a FOSS ILS - Koha

Choosing an Open Source Software

Implementation Strategy

Lessons Learnt

Conclusions

Background: BLDS

British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) is based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton

BLDS has extensive holdings built up in the 1960s, constituting Europe’s most comprehensive research collection in development studies

BLDS holds over 1,000 journal titles, over 10,000 magazines, annual report and newsletter titles and over 84,000 monographs

BLDS serves over 1000 patrons and these include students, staff and visiting fellows

Through document delivery service, BLDS also serves users from developing countries (Africa and Asia)

Background: The Problem with old bespoke LMS

Bespoke LMS became unstable, needing a lot of staff maintenance, and was leading to a very poor customer service experience for our users

The role of BLDS had changed substantially since the initial design of the system, and is now much more global in reach, requiring new functionality

LMS technology had advanced exponentially, and with it the demands of library users for a more flexible, user-led search experience

Bespoke LMS was not future-proofed in terms of further developments

Background: The Search

BLDS had a limited budget to work with

We looked at a number of commercial LMS and almost settled for one

I was apprehensive of FOSS at the time – though we were running Koha only as a Z39.50 server

Through networking, Koha kept cropping up but put off by the amount of messages on the mailing list

Having read Tristan Muller’s paper – I had a change of mind

Visitation to Koha sites and talking to people in Koha development helped sway our decision

In 2005, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems quipped that open source software was "free like a puppy is free." Just as you can pick out a puppy from the pound without paying expensive breeder fees, you can download and use open source software without buying a single license. But puppies become dogs, and dogs need food, toys, training and lots and lots of love. Even with all this attention, there’s no guarantee your cuddly puppy won’t develop a vicious streak. Will you need endless obedience classes and a chain and muzzle to control it? The same goes for open source software. As soon as you introduce open source into your organization, the real costs, commitments and risks become clear.

Why a FOSS ILS?

Myth or Fact?.....

Why a FOSS ILS?

The software was developed and maintained by a worldwide community

We could install and modify it ourselves

We could also use a third party company to install and manage it for us

We would have been freed from lock in with a single supplier

Going FOSS aligned BLDS with our new objectives of building capacity in the developing countries

Our funders were also pointing us towards FOSS

New Koha Installations in 2009, 2010 and 2011Source: Marshall Breeding: Integrated Systems turnover in 2009, 2010 and

2011http://librarytechnology.org/ils-turnover.pl

2009 2010 2011

Koha 171 172 283

25

75

125

175

225

275

Koha

Axis Title

Choosing an Open Source Software

Tristan Müller, (2011) three stage analysis was very useful in evaluating FOSS

Process involves– Evaluating software licensing– Evaluating the community– Evaluating functionalities

Tristan Müller, (2011) "How to choose a free and open source integrated library system", OCLC Systems & Services, Vol. 27 Iss: 1, pp.57 – 78

Choosing an Open Source Software

Adapted from Tristan Müller, (2011) "How to choose a free and open source integrated library system", OCLC Systems & Services, Vol. 27 Iss: 1, pp.57 – 78

Evaluating Software Licensing: Categories of licenses by usage rights

Public domain

Free Software

Open Source Software

Freeware

Shareware

Proprietary Software

Patented Software

Just because software are offered under the designation of “free license”, does not necessarily mean that all aspects of the product are free and open. We had to take a close analysis of the licensing terms offered

Evaluating the Community: Categories of community assessment

Inactive– No observed development activity going on

Just released– Community do not currently have a critical mass

of developers, contributors and users– Some procedures, methods, practices and tools

remain unimplemented and are not freely available

Evaluating the Community: Categories of community assessment

Emerging– Has a growing community of developers,

contributors and users– Has failed to implement procedures, methods,

practices and tools to ensure sustainability

Sustainable– Has obtained critical mass of interested

developers, contributors and users– Has in place a very solid collaborative

infrastructure made of development tools to help manage goals, function, architecture and design, outlining the responsibilities of developers and contributors

• Is FOSS Community engaged and dynamic?• We were always alive to the fact that when you choose a FOSS, you are also

joining the community

Evaluating Functionality: Categories of maturity of functionality

Immature

Improving

Mature

Does the functionality of FOSS meet our needs?

Of the Open Source LMS identified, Koha was seen as the most functionally complete with worldwide support

Implementation Strategy: Three Options

‘Self Management’ [Option 1]– Installation – Configuration– Customisation– Migration– Hosting

(Some) Third Party Help [Option 2]– Installation– Configuration– Customisation

Complete ‘Outsource’ [Option 3]– Installation– Configuration– Customisation– Migration– Hosting– (Server) Management

Implementation Strategy: The Challenges

Time and Resource Availability

Skill Availability

Environmental Consideration

IDS Future ICT Strategy – Utilising cloud based services/systems where

possible

After assessing the challenges mentioned above and also looking at Koha implementation landscape in the UK we went with Option 3

Lessons Learnt

Always talk to people/organisations that have done it before

Research – web has lots of information

Plan well and plan ahead

Have enough time on data mapping (if migration involved) and document well – if not using ‘standard library system’

Don’t be discouraged by what is perceived to be different in the way you work – decouple systems and componetize

Develop a high level architecture showing all the different functions/services you are offering – so that you avoid making the LMS do what is not its ‘core’ function

Develop good working relationship with your contractor - if using outsourcing model

Join the community – mailing list

Project Time Scale

From go ahead to launch: took approximately 8 months

From contract signing to launch: took approximately 7 months

Implementation – Installation, Configuration, Customisation, Training, Data Migration and Testing took approximately 5 months

SearchSearch

PlanningPlanning

ImplementationImplementation

Jun – Aug 2011

Oct – Dec 2011

Jan – May 2012

23 June 2011 – Go ahead given

19 Sep 2011 – Contract signed with PTFS Europe

19 Dec 2011 – Planning, Configuration completed

15 May 2012 – Koha is launched at http://bldscat.ids.ac.uk/

Conclusion

We now have a great library management system that we can build on as a platform

We will be looking into integrating it with other systems/ technologies– Resource discovery tools– Mobile– Linked data

Though we are still sorting out a few problems, we consider the implementation to be a SUCCESS – no complaints from our core users, only praise!

I would recommend Koha to any library that is thinking of upgrading their LMS or just considering automating their library processes

Lastly but not least, I would like to thank PTFS Europe for their support

http://blds.ids.ac.uk (website)

http://bldscat.ids.ac.uk (OPAC)

http://ids.ac.uk (website)

Email: n.bimbe@ids.ac.uk