Powhiri at Kawiu Marae

Koha Conference attendees are invited to Levin on the 28th October for a very special event.

The Library Trust is honoured that Muaupoko, the tangata whenua or people of the land, are hosting us at Kawiu Marae following the Mayoral reception in Council chambers. This is a first for the Library Trust and the purpose of this post is to encourage Conference attendees to join us for what will be a very special evening.

We will be welcomed onto the Marae in a traditional manner. This will include the karanga where we are called on the Marae, a wero or taiaha challenge (to see if we come in peace), the laying down of koha, speeches, waiata (songs) a hakari or meal and kapa haka entertainment (singing, poi, haka). Information about the various components of the powhiri and what to expect can be found here.

There are also a few basic rules or tikanga which visitors will need to beaware of:

1. Do not sit on the tables ANYWHERE,
2. Do not smoke or drink alcohol,
3. Do not throw food AT ALL,
4. Do not pass food over anyones head.

The cost of the trip is $75 per person which includes return travel between Wellington and Levin, plus koha for our hosts and the entertainers. Partners and children are very welcome to join us (no charge for kids). Prepayment and bookings are essential so we can confirm arrangements with our hosts. To book and pay online click here.

KohaCon10 : the World comes down under

Our baby is grown up and out there doing its thing in the world, so it is with real pleasure that HLT welcome the 3rd International Koha Conference to NZ this October.

Koha is now used by hundreds of libraries around the world and supported by many international vendors. This year, to mark the 10th anniversary of its release, the conference is will be held in Wellington from Monday 25th October - Wednesday 27th October. Previous conferences have been in Marseilles and Texas.

The conference speakers are a veritable United Nations: UK, France, Nigeria, Taiwan, Pakistan, Malaysia, USA, Australia and NZ - and conference attendees hail from more countries than I care to list. The full programme can be found here.

This is an amazing opportunity for NZ librarians to see what all the fuss around Koha is about and mix with a truly international bunch of people who love Koha and have made it so successful overseas. It is somewhat odd that NZ, its country of origin, has been so reluctant to support this home grown product. A prophet is indeed a stranger in is own land.

The conference is free so there really is no excuse not to come and find out more. Registrations are open now on the conference website.

Personal highlights for me are:

George Oates - Integration with Open Library
A big success at NDF where she talked about her work with Flickr, George now works with Open Library team. She was responsible for creating the Flickr Commons (flickr.com/commons) and was the award-winning lead designer of Flickr itself.

Nicole Engard - How you can help
Nicole is a human dynamo and I have no idea how she squeezes so much into her life. She is the Director of Open Source Education at ByWater Solutions in the States, she is a prolific writer being published in several library journals and keeps the library community up to date on web technologies via her website "What I Learned Today...". In 2007, Nicole was named one of Library Journal's Movers & Shakers and in 2009 she was the editor of “Library Mashups,” a book published by Information Today, Inc. and in 2010 she will publish “Practical Open Source Software for Libraries” with Chandos Inc.

Mark Osborne - Koha in schools
Albany Senior High School is New Zealand's first open source high school, and Koha is one their key online environments. This session will be about how Albany is using Koha to promote literacy, community and high achievement.

Lee Phillips - Ask a librarian : Why I love Koha
Lee is the director of the Butte Silver Bow Public Library (BSB) in Montana, the first open source public library in Montana. The library runs Ubuntu OS on the public PCs and Open Office suite on both the public and staff client servers.

As an alumna of the University of Washington's Information School, Lee's MLIS focus was on human and computer interface, consortia culture and open source applications in public libraries. Her collection development plan was featured in the Spring 2010 OCLC newsletter.

Currently Lee is serving as a Montana State Library Commissioner by appointment of the governor of Montana. In the past year she has secured 150,000 dollars in grant funding for her library to develop programming that puts technology in the hands of library patrons.

Francois Marier - Freedom in the library: Convincing your boss that sharing is good
I hear "We can't use Koha because Council IT dept won't let us" far too often and this presentation is just for those people. Francois will show how the concepts of sharing, freedom and public domain are embodied by the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) community. After describing what is meant by FOSS, we will look at how fairness is promoted through the choice of copyright licenses. Then we will examine the benefits of this freedom and of the related communities (for example, Creative Commons) it has inspired.

Mark Piper - Risk, considerations and realities of running a public access network
Mark is an independent hacker and will talk at the bigger picture of providing network & end-user systems for library membership to access Koha & the internet. He will explore the risks & mitigations of real world attacks.

Interested in Koha as your LMS?

Koha Con 2009

Press release from the Koha list:

"February 3, 2009.

The creators and developers of Koha, the first open source Integrated Library System (ILS), today announced that KohaCon 2009 - a conference for current and interested users of the Koha Integrated Library System - will be held in Plano, Texas, April 16 &17, 2009.

KohaCon 2009 is the sequel to the first ever KohaCon - held in Paris, France in 2006 - which brought together users and developers worldwide.

KohaCon 2009 will feature an international slate of speakers (both Koha users and active Koha contributors) conducting presentations and workshops on a diverse range of topics. Topics will include technical information on how to develop for the various modules of Koha, support options, and even panel discussions featuring users of Koha talking about their experiences with the software.

"We expect this event to have wide appeal," said Paul Poulain, BibLibre, CEO and Release Manager of Koha 2.x "The conference is for both techies and non-techies. In addition to presentations on the technical side of Koha, the conference will serve
as a hands-on introduction to how users and developers around the world collaborate to make the Koha open-source software possible," Poulain explained.

"Kohacon 2009 will be huge, everything is bigger in Texas. Plus you get to hear from some of the veteran Koha developers, complete with funny accents. What more could you want?" said Chris Cormack, one of the original authors of the Koha version 1.0, and current Translation Manager for the Project.

This is a FREE conference. There is no registration fee, but conference organizers are requesting that all attendees pre-register using the registration form found at:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pMSkZuQLLHD_R8MFCGWz4OQ

Details (travel, hotels, tentative agenda, etc) can be found on the Koha wiki at:
http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=kohacon2009


About Koha
Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). Gifted by Horowhenua Library Trust and now in use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. The impressive set of features available in Koha continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. Koha has lived up to its name, which means 'Gift' in the Maori language of New Zealand.

To learn more about the Koha project, visit: http://koha.org


Press Contact:
Paul POULAIN
http://www.biblibre.com
Expert en Logiciels Libres pour l'info-doc
Tel : (33) 4 91 81 35 08