On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 5:01 PM, Karen Coyle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Joshua Ferraro wrote:
>
>
> > 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 ;-)
> >
> >
>
>  I would love to recommend Koha, and I will definitely include Koha in my
> talk about current ILS's. However, 1) I do not know how much technical
> expertise they have and 2) I do not know how much technical expertise it
> takes to install Koha. I actually tried installing it from the instructions
> on the Koha site and failed, so I *do* know they need more Unix chops than
> I've got. Not sayin' much.
>
>  I suspect that no matter what system they use, they will at least initially
> need quite a bit of hand-holding. That's a bit hard to do considering both
> the geographical and language barriers. But I  hope to come back with more
> of an idea of what they can do. I fear that I may not be leaving them with
> any solutions, just more complex questions.
Fair enough on all points. One thing I'll add is that questions about how to
install Koha are generally received with plenty of answers on the koha
mailing lists, sometimes even to the point of *nix instruction :-) (also, there
are Koha packages for Windows, though not for 3.0 yet). One of the
things I've really loved about the Koha community since I got involved is
that there's a very low barrier to entry, the developers and users tend to
be pretty friendly, not so much snobby; if they do decide to look at Koha,
I'd encourage them to get connected with the community.

Also, if they can afford commercial support, there are quite a few Koha
companies out there, with various hand-holding services :) --  some are
based in Europe (http://koha.org/support/pay.html).

Have a great trip!

Cheers,

--
Joshua Ferraro SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE
CEO migration, training, maintenance, support
LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS
[log in to unmask] |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS