Workshop Report

Koha: An Open Source Software for Library Solutions

11-12 November 2016
DSIMS (Durgadevi Saraf Institute of Management) Mumbai in collaboration with IGIDR (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research), Mumbai jointly organized two days’ workshop on KOHA:An Open Source Software For Library Solutions during November 11-12, 2016. Altogether 32 participants from Mumbai, Pune and Indore, have attended the workshop.

The inaugural function of the workshop held on November 11, 2016 at 9.45 am. The workshop was inaugurated by lighting the lamp and invoking the Sarswati vandana.

The Students of DSIMS welcomed the dignitaries and the participants. The Director General, DSIMS and DGMCMS Dr Kondap delivered the inaugural address, Director, DSIMS, Dr Babu gave a Directors address and Ms Sunita Pujar, Librarian, DSIMS presented an overview of the workshop.

Chief Guest and Keynote speaker Smt. Vasumati Sriganesh, CEO, QMed Knowledge Foundation, Mumbai delivered the keynote address and explained the changing role of libraries and librarians in the present era and how the deployment of technology has become an absolute necessity to reach out to the users.

The resource persons of the workshop, Dr Sunita Barve, Sr. Technical Officer, National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune; Dr G.K. Manjunath, Chief Librarian, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai and Mr. Amit Gupta, Head, Technical Lead, Informatics Publishing, Bangalore, were introduced to the workshop audience.

Ms Sneha Sawant, Asst Librarian, DSIMS, proposed the vote of thanks to all the dignitaries and the participants at the end of the inaugural session.

After the inauguration function, Technical session of the workshop was commenced with the brief introduction about open source software and data standards by Dr G.K. Manjunath.

Dr Sunita Barve, the main resource person of the workshop started the session with a detailed introduction to Koha integrated library management software. She gave an account of different modules of the software. She also explained about LibliveDVD and using this, how one can easily install Koha software on a computer system along with DSpace digital library software and Drupal content management system software.

After the lunch, Dr Barve conducted a session on configuring Koha Global System preferences. This was followed by a session on Acquisition module, wherein she showcased, how books can be acquired by creating vendors, baskets and adding titles to the baskets. Dr Barve also showed receipt management, accessioning and invoice processing. The sessions were conducted along with hands on practice by the participants.

Mr. Amit Gupta, resource person conducted the last session wherein he discussed about advance developments in Koha, its cloud hosting services and customization undertaken by Informatics Publishing, Bangalore.

On the second day of the workshop, Dr Barve conducted a session along with hands on practice by the participants on patron’s management and Circulation module including defining rules of circulation for different types of patrons. During the 2nd session of the day, she introduced participants to Serial control module of Koha and explained how the subscriptions can be managed, receipt management and adding holdings to the serial title.

Post lunch, Dr G.K. Manjunath, another resource person of the workshop explain in detail about data conversion, data standards, and conversion of data from Excel to MARC21 using MARC Edit software along with hands on practice by the participants. His session was followed by a session on Import/Export of data to and from Koha conducted by Dr Barve. During the session, she showcased how bibliographic data in Koha can be imported and exported in MARC-21 format. In the last session of the workshop, she demonstrated how to take barcode, backup data and upgrade the software to the next version.

The Valedictory Session was held on November 12, 2016 and Certificates were distributed to all the participants by the resource persons Dr Sunita Barve and Dr G.K. Manjunath. Ms Sunita Pujar, Librarian, DSIMS conveyed vote of thanks and expressed her gratitude to IGIDR for collaborating and successful organization of the event.