Introduction
I traveled a lot lately, and I have noticed something interesting, northern european countries show more and more interest in the Open Source ILS Koha. The city of Joensuu used Koha for a year now, the Olso library chose it for its new library due in 2017 and the library of the university of Stockholm is currently testing Koha and think about using it live in September. During my last trip in the scandinavians countries, at the Koha conference held in Joensuu, I had the chance to talk with many Koha users with developments project, showing that our community is stronger than ever and continues to grow.
We are also sponsors at ELAG where we will pursue our mission, promote Open Source Software in Libraries. This will be an other opportunity for us to showcase Koha during this tradeshow made for the european librarians.
Paul Poulain
Software updates
Koha 3.20
Koha 3.20 as been announced few days ago by Tomas, Koha’s release manager. This major update has 5 new features, 114 enhancements and 407 bug fixes. More detailed information about this update is available on Koha’s community website.
New customers
EBAF
The biblical school of Jerusalem chose BibLibre to host their Koha. We will also take care of Koha’s update and the submission to the community of some of their developements.
Gondrecourt le Chateau
The library of Gondrecourt le Chateau chose Koha with BibLibre. Making the most of the agreement we have with the Meuse regional library, the library og Gondrecourt le Chateau will get the hosting and the support for their Koha via our offer Pikoloco.
Past events
Joensuu, Finland, May 22 & 23, 2015
I was invited at Koha’s conference in Joensuu, Finland to showcase Koha on May 22 & 23. I talked about Koha’s history and I have been able to meet many interesting librarians from Sweden and Europe (Sonia Bouis from Lyon 3 was representing France with me).
Upcoming events
ELAG conference at Stockholmn, Sweden from June 8 to 11, 2015
I will be with Arnaud Lelache at the ELAG conference (European Library Automation Group Systems) from June 8 to 11. BibLibre is a sponsor of this conference dedicated to library software. Arnaud will lead a workshop called: Digital mediation with Bokeh library portail. This workshop will allow many European librarians to discover the Open Source library portal Bokeh.
ABF Strasbourg, June 11 to 13, 2015
We will be with AFI at the next ABF tradeshow from June 11 to 13 in Strasbourg. Come see us at the exhibitor area to discover or rediscover the Open Source ILS Koha, the Open Source library portal Bokeh, the Open Source ERMS Coral as well as Piwik, AFI-Nanook and Omeka. You will also be able to com back home with one of our wunderful cuddly toys from WWF.
Koha’s symposium at Vitre, June 15 & 16, 2015
The annual Koha symposium [fr] is held at Vitré on June 15 and 16. The program includes the general meeting of Kohala, the association of french Koha users, followed by two different program depending on the fact that you use Koha or not. During the second day, some patch tests and some conferences/feedbacks will be organized. I will be there during the whole symposium, I hhope to see you too.
