LibLime Upgrades "Koha with Class" to 3.0

Josh Hadro -- Library Journal, 10/14/2008

• New installations to be Koha 3.0, existing installations upgraded upon request
• LIS programs can receive up to five freely hosted installations
• Participating students gain access to hands-on ILS training

Many LIS students complain they don’t get enough hands-on experience while in school, especially with library-specific software like ILS systems. To remedy this, open source development and support vendor LibLime offers a program to LIS schools called “Koha with Class,” designed to provide up to five installations of the Koha ILS, hosted by the company free of charge. Any college or university that offers “a program in Library and Information Studies/Technology” is eligible, according to the company, and every new request will include the latest 3.0 version of Koha, released in August, featuring improvements such as batch MARC imports as well as improved searching and indexing capabilities. Schools already participating in the program can request to upgrade their installations of  Koha 2.2 to the new 3.0.

“Proprietary ILS systems are black boxes…. It’s time to break open that black box and let library students play,” said LibLime CEO Joshua Ferraro of program’s initial release in January 2007. Since then, more than 50 library classrooms worldwide have requested installations said LibLime.

Diane Neal, now assistant professor of North Carolina Central University, was one of the first to use Koha in the classroom as an instructor at Texas Woman’s University, and told LJ that it gives her students an advantage she didn’t have in library school: “Working in groups, with each student assigned a role of either Head of Acquisitions, Head of Cataloging, Head of Circulation, Systems Administrator, or OPAC designer, they configured a Koha installation based on a library scenario I provided to them. They learned an incredible amount through the project, and I have heard from some of them that the experience truly benefited them both in their job interview efforts and after landing their first professional position.”

As with any open-source product, the Koha software is openly available, meaning that there is nothing explicitly preventing any LIS school from downloading the software, installing it, and hosting it themselves. But the “Koha with Class” program removes the burden of staff time and effort generally required for local ILS installations by hosting and maintaining the software remotely, allowing instructors to integrate hands-on ILS instruction into their curriculae quickly and easily.