Possibilities for Koha 4

Possibilities for Koha 4.0

Ian Walls

ByWater Solutions

for KohaCon ‘10 hackfest, 10-29-10

Disclaimer

• These are just my ideas

• They are meant to spark discussion

• They may be naïve, ideological, impractical or ridiculous

• But I’m going to share them anyway

Overview

• Module rebuilds: holds, notices, accounts, borrowers

• Cross-wiring modules: borrowers/authorities, borrowers/acq, serials/acq, serials/cataloging

• New features: hourly circ/course reserves, ERM, biblio relationships, arbitrary metadata schemas, widgetized staff client, enhanced circ prefs, mobile interfaces

• Little stuff: ILL, Recalls, more barcode options, OCLC Connexion

Rebuilding Holds

• Primary Key!!!!!

• Multiple holds per title

• Suspension, Netflix-style queue

• “Cost” matrix for branch fulfillment

• Bi-directional linked list v. numeric queue

Rebuilding Notices

• Bring all printed slips under notices templates

• Priority order for notification method• On-demand messages• Librarian can decide which types are

mandatory, and which are user configurable

• Better SMS/IM support

Rebuilding Accounts

• Two tables: accounts and accountlines

• Atomic transactions

• Syspref for grouping transactions by item or by type

• Pay partially on multiple charges

• Multi-currency (real time exchange rates)

Rebuilding Borrowers

• Keep only core library data in borrowers table

• Rest of data user configurable like Extended Attributes

• Hierarchical borrower types• Borrower Preferences• Roles to bundle default preferences and

permissions

Crossing Borrowers/Authorities

• Optional connection of borrower to their authority record

• Optionally allow borrower to update their own authority record

Crossing Borrowers/Acq

• Vendors and Vendor Contacts into borrowers

• Merge accounts and Acq as single money system

• Allow borrowers to follow suggestions through Acq process (auto-hold)

Crossing Serials/Acq

• Manage subscriptions/renewals in Acq module

• EDI / ONIX support

Crossing Serials/Cataloging

• MARC Format for Holdings Data support (UNIMARC equiv?)– Import– Export– Search– Bindery

Hourly Circ/Course Reserves

• Base period of minute

• Connect to calendar, notices

• Course Reserves: a list materials pulled out (temporarily) for special purpose

• Electronic reserves

Electronic Resources Module

• New concept: “package” (from ERMI)

• Import holdings from data source

• Built-in Open Link Resolver

• SUSHI statistics

• Handle usage limitations and access restrictions

Biblio Relationships

• Beyond Analytics

• User-configurable relationships between biblios

• Options Item “pass-through”

• Optional MARC representation

• Could cover FRBR, similar items, and more

Arbitrary Metadata Schemas

• XML-based

• Managed by config file (XML Schema?)

• Mapped to database and index fields by user

• User defines views (XSLT?)

• Initial schemas to config: DC, MODS, METS, EAD…

Widgetized Staff Client

• For each module’s “home” page, define blocks of screen real estate

• Have a directory of widgets (easy to add more)

• Allow staff to drag/drop widgets per module onto page

• Saved as part of their Preferences

Enhanced Circ Prefs

• Like circ rules, but for more things

• Use key/value table; combo of branch,itype,categorycode gives value

• Default values specified like sysprefs

• Tool to show applicable rules for combo of inputs

Mobile Interfaces

• Both OPAC and staff client

• Optimize for various smart devices

• Connect to camera (if possible)

• Use location/compass to point to location on stacks

Little ideas

• Recalls: all current issues with holds on them + button to send message

• ILL: like suggestions to user, but managed in different backend

• More barcode encodings (including QR)• Multiple LDAPs/Shibboleth support• Cron scheduling interface in staff client• OCLC Connexion Gateway

I could ramble on…

• But I’m probably out of time

• Discuss! Let’s come up with some open specifications to work towards

Thanks!

Ian Walls

ByWater Solutions

Ian.Walls@bywatersolutions.com

@sekjal