Through the grapevine I learned of the following announcement regarding Koha and EBSCO:
Rome --February 11, 2015. Koha is an ILS created by librarians
for librarians. EBSCO Information Services is a family-owned
company dedicated to solutions that bring real improvements to
libraries. Together, the two are working to provide a viable
web-based, open source ILS for libraries of all types. Koha
libraries reached out to EBSCO for support of some important
projects, and EBSCO agreed to partner to accomplish the following
for Koha:
* Strategic upgrade of of Koha's core full-text search engine
technology to ElasticSearch; ensuring long-term viability
* Increased functionality and accuracy of facets
* Development of a browse function (author, title, subject,
call number)
* MARC to RDF crosswalk enhancing capability of linking to
online data repositories (linked data)
* Greater flexibility in ingesting metadata schemes beyond MARC21
* Improved speed
* Enhanced patron functionality API access
The financial support from EBSCO will be provided via the Koha
Gruppo Italiano founded by the American Academy in Rome, American
University of Rome, and the Pontificia Università della Santa
Croce which will be assisted in this development and integration
by key Koha contributors ByWater Solutions, Catalyst IT, and
Cineca. In keeping with open source tradition, these enhancements
to Koha are truly open source and will be available for others to
use, modify, and re-distribute.
http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=20347
Last year I had the wonderful opportunity of working with the Italian-based Koha community, and I respect their forethought and insight. Kudos. [1]
[1] Koha Italy - https://www.facebook.com/KohaGruppoItaliano
—
Eric Lease Morgan
|