Alaska Bush Library Service

Today was a great day in the training arena.  Maggie, the library assistant in my office, was asked to check out some books.  I had already checked the books out in Koha and wanted her to check them out in LibraryPro.  The first step she took was to check them out in Koha.  She quickly realized that the page I had handed her was a print out from Koha, but I was thrilled that her first step was to look at the new program that she isn’t as comfortable with.

The library aide that lives on Diomede Island, three miles from Russia, has Skyped me a few times over the last couple of days asking for clarification.  She loves the new program and sees the improvements over Library Pro.  Even the library aide in Savoonga has emailed me to ask a question or two.  While I knew he would like the new program, the fact that he is attempting to use it and understand it really makes me proud.

Now back to checking out materials from Library Pro and reprogramming the bar code reader.

We have started the training process.

This week I am asking my library assistants to log into Koha and find a book in their libraries. I also let people know that the next step will be to check out books that are currently checked out in their LibraryPro system.

Studies say that by tonight 4 assistants will be started on the checking out, 8 will have looked for a library book by the end of next week, and 4 won’t have even looked at the website. It will be interesting if this holds true. I have to be careful now because now comes the time when I want hurry up. I know the information, so why won’t somebody else pick it up and run with it.

Trying to talk to my assistant here in my office to log onto the system, I came up with a song to share:

Put you first record in
Put your first record out
Put your first record in and shake it all about
Do the Koha shuffle and turn your self about
A new catalog is what it’s all about

Ahh, what fun the next few months will be. I am happy that the system is up and running. I am also proud of the fact that I am so early in the game on this one. Washington County School District in Utah is also using Koha district wide. They have been the only other district I have found that used it as Open Source.  Unfortunately, I can’t find links on their district sites to get to the OPAC.  I will email them later today to find out why they aren’t providing easier access for their teachers and students.

1. Learn to write macros.  If I had done a macro, I could have condensed my data so that I only had one record for each different book and then a seperate 9XX line for each copy.  Instead I have lots of records that are repeats.
2. Set each record as checked in.  I downloaded my information from sites in September and from the main branch in November.  Many things have changed since then.
3. Read the manuals fully.  I just had to reset the issue rules page.  I read the part about a default.  I missed the part that said the default isn’t working in this version.

I have been checking out information all morning and nothing has said that it was already checked out.  This information may not be kept in the same place that I have it in my records.  I am going to check this out before I continue to check items out.  This may not be an issue.  That would be nice.

Now that Koha is up and going, it is time for me to reflect on what could have made the process easier. If I were to start the process over for a new library, I would attempt the steps in the following order;

1.  Use Marc Edit to organize and update my MARC records.
2.  I would be more careful setting up my item types. I have everybody books, nonfiction books, Alaska books, vhs tapes, dvd,s and a multitude of other items.  I think I need them all, but I am worried that there are too many divisions.
3. I would have the librarian side of the program ready to go before I worried about having Koha up and running.  I feel guilty for how many times the person that is hosting the site has had to reload the records.
4. I would like to have a KOHA users group.  The listserv is mainly for people who are installing KOHA to the computers, but people using Koha seem to be left out in the cold.

That is about it for what I would do differently.  I have really enjoyed the process of putting the site up. I have a better appreciation for MARC records and for the possibilities of integrated library systems.

Wow,

Dan finished uploading the records to the BSSD OPAC yesterday morning. I can see I need to edit some records, but it looks great. I am really happy that this part is done.

Thanks go out to everyone who was helpful. Josh at LibLime, who answered questions when I was at the end of my rope. Dan at DanTech Services, who is hosting this program for me also gets a great deal of thanks. We have used Skype to ask each other questions and figure out what we needed to do next.

Dan and I will present Koha at the ASTE conference here in Alaska next month. I am presenting at the library conference the week before. I hope there is some interest.

Now the next part, I need to train library aides how to use the new program. We need to set a date to check everything in and out on Koha. I didn’t change the data for what was in/out on Koha. Now that I think about it, I wish that I had set everything as checked in.

Battle of the Books is coming soon. Students have 12-15 books to read throughout the school year. In February, they compete with other teams via videoconferencing to see who will represent the district at the state battles. State Battles are still done by telephone. I think it will be a great week.

It always amazes me how quickly I can get bogged down and feeling like I can’t get anywhere.  Today is one of those days.

My goals for the week are:

1. To have five sites patrons ready to load into Koha.
2. Reset the date for the District Battle of the Books.
3. Order and set up a kit for life cycles for first graders.
4. Get materials out that teachers requested.
5. Order books for the RIF program.
6. Join ALA/AASL.
7. Pay for NECC conference.
8. Clean my desk.
9. Set up travel for the rest of the year

That should be enough to get me through Friday.  Hopefully I will have a lot of them marked off.