Alaska Bush Library Service

I have been trying to build a Linux machine on an eMac.  This has caused me an unending supply of brain hurt.  I think I have given up today and will purchase a base machine with Debian on it that can be a machine that I can play with Koha a bit on here at work before I sent the information to Dan to upload.  If anyone has put Linux on an eMax, I sure would appreciate an email. dgrediagin(at)bssd.org

     I have to admit to getting tired of Marc records.  I worked on records for about ten hours over the weekend.  I am glad that summer is coming and I won’t be sitting in front of my TV because the weather outside is bad.  The goal is still to be able to update the records in a comprehensive format by the end of the summer, but I think I need to take a week and not work on them at all.

I see MARC records as a puzzle.  How do we put it together so that our users get the most from our resources.   Right now I have spend 10 hours a day working on the records to delete unnecessary information, correct the item types, and remove extraneous information.  Last night my problem was that the program I am using wouldn’t make new reports for me.  Without the reports, I couldn’t continue fixing things.

That was a wake up call for me.  I had spent my whole weekend in my house.  The weather outside is above freezing.  It would have been easy to do lots of things, but I chose to work on the records.  If that doesn’t say, you need a life, I don’t know what will.

This morning I answered a phone call and emails from a district that is converting to Koha.  I was trying to explain why I didn’t use LibLime as they are planning on doing.  The best explanation that I could come up with is that I don’t have a life and wanted to learn something new.  LibLime is a great company that has been helpful in answering my questions and would be a good alternative to going it on your own.

I have received an email that says that comments are disabled for my blog, hmmm I thought I had just been lucky and not been receiving the xrated spam that I had been getting.  I do believe that I have comments set back up.  I am using a service to filter out the spam.  22 spam comments from last night.  Hmm, maybe I won’t think so positively about how many times my site has been viewed. I hadn’t thought of the fact that the spammers each count as a view also.

If you have tried to comment on this blog before and not been able to, please try again.

I know I had an entry titled this before, but I do love OSS programs.   Yesterday I mentioned that I would look at Pines because I like the tool it has to merge MARC records.  Today a Koha developer emailed me to let me know that he is working on this for Koha and it should be available soon.  I can’t imagine getting that kind of service from a vendor.

I forgot what it feels like to be back in the school.  There was a lot of work this year in the office.  Last Monday I traveled to Brevig Mission to help the library aide there put together the library.  The library had been a classroom the first half of the school year until elementary wing was finished.

It was nice to work with students.  I gave a lesson to high school students on recognizing hoax Internet sites.  That is always a favorite lesson of mine to give to students.  I had purchased books for the library last year.  The library aide and I were able to process the books and get them on the shelves.  Kindergarten students enjoyed “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” and “Diary of a Worm”.

I am thinking of looking at Pines.  They have a feature that I would love to be able to use in order to merge MARC records together and keep the best record that you have and  integrate the items into that one record.