On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 11:47 AM, Karen Coyle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm just barely recovered from the Code4lib conference, which was both the
>  best and the most exhausting conference I have ever attended ;-)
>
>  Now I'm preparing for something totally different: I've been invited to
>  spend a week in Kosovo in mid-April giving talks to the libraries there. Not
>  having been there before I'm not sure what to expect, but all evidence
>  points to a lack of library technical infrastructure, not to mention
>  difficulties like almost being in the middle of a civil war.
>
>  They need some quick answers, I believe. Simple things that they can do that
>  will move them forward from where they are. (With a recognition that this
>  may not be a culture that does things quickly -- I don't know yet.) They
>  appear to have good net access, and very very few information resources. In
>  particular, as they are trying to assert themselves as a new country, they
>  need to be able to do so in their own language (Albanian). So I'm looking
>  for ideas. I'll throw out a few scenarios, but if anyone can offer
>  ideas/pointers to code, etc., I'd really appreciate it. The main thing is I
>  don't want to go there with just "how we do it good in the US."
>
>  1. They have digitization projects for their archives, really need software
>  for management, storage and display (and some help with cataloging).
>
>  2. There are digital copies of books in Albanian in OCA and in Google. Can
>  they put a UI of some sort on these and create a library? (Note: all of the
>  national libraries' books in Albanian were destroyed during the war with
>  Serbia; they mainly have books in Serb, which their users can't read.)
>
>  3. They have an Aleph catalog, but it looks like they haven't been able to
>  make it work much beyond the first installation. I doubt if they could run
>  something like Koha (I have no idea what they have in terms of technical
>  staff). They need a catalog, but not circulation, acquisitions, or probably
>  not even serials check-in. And it's got to be very easy, and easy to
>  translate into Albanian.
>
>  Any ideas that you can throw out are welcome. Thanks.
If they got Aleph going, I think getting Koha 3.0 going would be a cinch
by comparison. Also, once installed, the system's really easy to manage as
nearly everything is exposed via the staff client administration and tools
interfaces (everything is web-based, very little command-line knowledge
required). If they want to translate it into Albanian, it's as simple as
emailing the list and asking that Albanian be added to
http://translate.koha.org.
If they hurry, the might be able to get it included before the next release ;-)

Cheers,

--
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