Koha ILS

I helped a community library to upgrade from a physical system to an electronic one. KOJA ILS enabled us to incorporate all facets of the physical system into separate electronic modules that work together as one ILS.

KOHA ILS' online public access catalogue (OPAC) serves as a platform in which patrons engage the library. Besides search for information, the community members, on their own, reserve books and suggest new Library materials to be acquired.

The acquisition module, on the other hand, enables the technical service department to be efficient in selecting, evaluating, budgeting and ordering resources. COHA ILS alerts staff about arrival of new resources.

Catalogue module assists catalogers to publish accurate records in a time-saving manner. KOHA ILS' is MARC compliant, the community library simply imports bibliographic information of new additions from external databases.

COHA ILS' circulation module provides collaboration between readers service personnel and patrons in order to achieve an efficient, equitable and effective circulation of library resources among the community library users. Checking-in and checking-out tasks are integrated with the OPAC such that borrowers are able to identify which resources are due for return. In addition, automatic alerts remind patrons about overdue resources.

I notice that sometimes staff with appropriate access rights unscrupulously settle patrons' fines. I wish the system is tighten enough to foil such malpractices

The main advantages of Koha ILS are :Koha facilitates several functional necessities of a library management system. It offers the following acquisition, cataloguing, OPAC (online public access catalogue), circulation, and serial control. With rapid technological changes, Koha Integrated library management systems minimizes expenditure or costs and improve the efficiency of library facilities and functions. Koha implies computerization of the library which helps to reduce workload library staff and results in quick serving of clients and library users through the use of machine-readable cataloging. Koha ILS facilitates easy and quick access to books, journals and other publications and automation helps the library to be more flexible even when there is an increase in demand

The cons of Koha ILS are training costs because library workers must be trained to know how to use the software. Another disadvantage is that there is no offline access thus there is need for internet to access it.