Sydney

Sydney

As I write this it is Friday night the 27 August and I have been travelling for nearly a week. I flew from Wellington to Sydney last Sunday morning 21st and was hosted by the lovely Bob and Irma Birchall from Calyx Australia.

I had a frantic fortnight before flying out; my kitchen and bathroom are being completely renovated while I am away so decisions, decisions, decisions. I also had the audit and final Annual Report to complete for the Trust. The upshot was that I arrived tired and a bit manic.

Bob and Irma fed me, pampered me, calmed me, gave me 2 nights of glorious sleep-filled bliss and - most importantly - filled me up with lots of Koha talk and helped me focus on the trip ahead. A highlight of my stay was being present when 'the bell' got rung to celebrate the signing of a new client! Anyway I left their little spot of paradise a completely different woman ready for the adventure ahead.

Cool Thing

The night before we left, at the Sydney User Group meeting, I met a lovely librarian called Lesley and she told me about her voluntary work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. She helps young adults get their drivers licences, The wins for this project are immense:

• literacy aspect: learning the road code and sitting the test,
• financial aspect; avoid incurring fines for driving without a licence,
• criminal record avoided,
• social interaction with driving mentors who help with driving practice,
• public safety: less unlicensed drivers on the roads.

I really love the breadth of work that we librarians get involved in.

Koha-Oz Meetup Sydney Aug 22 2016

5.30pm tonight at the Madison Hotel (upstairs)

52 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills (opposite Central Station).

About me

I worked on the original release of Koha and it is a real pleasure to be touring the world as a Koha ambassador. I recently left Horowhenua Library Trust in New Zealand where I had been the boss for the last 6 years. After raising my 4 children I am ready for  fresh challenges starting with 3 months travelling the globe meeting the Koha community members and talking about Koha and Te Takere, Horowhenua's new library, culture and community centre.

About Koha

Koha, the world's first open source library management system, was developed in 1999 by Horowhenua Library Trust in 1999.“Releasing Koha under an open source licence made so much sense to us; we were a public library not a software development company and we needed a much wider pool of librarians to develop the software further”. Today Koha is one of the world’s most widely used library management systems with a strong development community that provides 24/7 support.

I will be attending the Koha-Oz meetup tonight as a guest of Bob and Irma Birchall of Calyx. 

In addition to my work on Koha, which won the 2000 3M Award for Innovation in Libraries, I was the first librarian outside of USA to be named an American Library Journal Mover and Shaker – Tech Leader, largely for my work developing Kete, another open source project that won the 2008 3M Award for Innovation in Libraries and a 2007 World Summit Awards : Special Mention (North America and Oceania) in the e-inclusion section.

The #kohaworldtour includes Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Mumbai, Pune, London, Prague, Olumouc, Vienna, Berlin, Dublin, Norway, Sweden, Marseille, Washington, New York, Vermont, Montreal, Kansas, Oregon and San Francisco.

For further information about the Koha-Oz meetup tonight please contact Irma Birchall, Irma@calyx.net.au