New Koha Laptop
We had been using
Mizstik's Koha Live CD to install Koha to USB sticks. This worked fine for the 32bit version and on my old Eurocom labtop but the new release 8 is 64 bit and that poses a problem. It is harder to create a USB stick in newer versions of Ubuntu as it is now a install with manual partitioning of the USB 'hard disk'. The old version had an install to USB option that was automatic. The other problem is that students may have 32bit systems at home so their USB stick may not work. Finally the Eurocom had a 32bit cpu and only 1 gig or ram so time to upgrade.
The 'new' Koha laptop is a compaq 8510p with 4 gig. I tried installing a mini-pci wireless card but the machine uses a proprietary connector but the wireless USB stick that came with my DVD worked fine. It ran the 64bit liveCD no problem and installed perfectly to the hard drive. This version is 3.2.5, has all the language packs, Zebra support and is a Z39.50 server. There is a Google discussion group at
http://groups.google.com/group/kohalivecd
Next we set up Koha:
- run firefox and go to http://localhost/kohaadmin
- the username is kohaadmin and the password is kohalivecd
- we select en as the language
- the mysql database is koha running on port 3306 under user kohaadmin
The mysql root password is kohasqlpwd, we will install a mySQL client for database admin, although you can also use the web-based phpMyAdmin (http://localhost/phpmyadmin).
The public Z39.50 server uses:
- port 9998 for bibliographic records with a database name of biblios
- port 9999 for authorities with a database name of authorities
No username or password is required to search the Z39.50 databases.
Once the tables are populated it's time to set the configuration for Koha We select the MARC21 format for our records (see:
http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/)
We select the following options:
- Matching Rules for bibliographic records
- Fast Add minimal record format (for ILL)
- Simple MARC format (for multimedia)
- Default values for departments, status etc
- Coded Values
- Z39.50 servers list
- Sample patron types and categories
- Sample Label and Patron Card data
- Item Types
- Sample Libraries
- Sample News
- Default Messages
- Message Transports
- Sample patrons
- Sample Holidays and all the rest
The import process starts at 3:02 and finishes in under a minute. The next question is the indexer/search engine. Koha can use
Zebra but it is a manual process to configure and to update. Since it is only required if you go over about 10,000 records and for doing demos on a laptop we don't need that many records we decided to skip Zebra for now.
Once installed we decide to test it out. Running a terminal and typing ifconfig procides us with the IP address of the koha laptop. First we test out the admin login by goint to http://192.168.1.114:8080/ and the staff client page is displayed.
Next we test out the OPAC by going to http://192.168.1.114/opac (which is running on port 8081) and the OPAC screen is displayed.
If you just go to the default port for the web server you get a message that:
This is the default web page for this server.
The web server software is running but no content has been added, yet.
This means you can create a library portal that incorporates a number of services or apps along with the library catalog in Koha. I've always wanted to show students how to install a CMS and then to create a portal that is linked to Koha.
To test out the Z39.50 we run Greenstone 2.84 and click the Download tab and fill in the z39.50 settings
Only problem is the Greenstone Z39.50 client seems broken again. It was working before as we had downloaded batches of 500 records from the Library of Congress LCDB database server (lx2.loca.gov:210). A search for SQL in the book title would be @attr 1=4 "SQL", a search for books on php and mysql would be @attr 1= 21 @and mysql php and an author search for JK Rowling would be @attr 1 = 1003 Rowling,J.K. I'll have to try this in the lab where i think it was working correctly last term.
See: Library Of Congress Z39.50
We decide to look for a standalone client and end up at
http://www.biblio-tech.com/html/z39_50_clients.html which lists 5 clients and
http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency/resources/software.html which has a lot more information. We hit on the
Mercury Z39.50 freeware client which we download from
http://www.basedowinfosys.com/projects/mzc in ZIP file format. Once installed we click search, database and it has goodly list of servers from Acadia to York. The Add button allows you to add a server. But there is no place to put the 9998 port number. There is a list of port numbers used but no 9998 and no way is indicated of adding a number although we suspect you could edit \Mercury Z39.50 Client\databases\ztargets.xml. We try anyway and as expected:
192.168.1.114
Result Count: 0
Records Returned: 0
Error Message:
Connect failed (10000) 192.168.1.114
Then we try adding the port number to the address and we get:
192.168.1.114:9998
Result Count: 0
Records Returned: 0
Error Message:
Database unavailable (109) Default
Which seems to indicate the connection was successful. We test against LC and it works and we export the results as a MARC file and view the .mrc file in MARCedit and it looks ok:
=LDR 00775nam 22002295a 4500=001 13962025=005 20050511163127.0=008 050511s2006\\\\inu\\\\\\\\\\\000\0\eng\\=906 \\$a0$bibc$corignew$d2$eepcn$f20$gy-gencatlg=925 0\$aacquire$b2 shelf copies$xpolicy default=955 \\$apc03 2005-05-11=010 \\$a 2005927399=020 \\$a0672328429 (pbk.)=040 \\$aDLC$cDLC=042 \\$apcc=100 1\$aFells, David.=245 10$aAdvanced MYSQl database programming /$cDavid Fells; [edited by] Shelley Johnston.=250 \\$a1st ed.=260 \\$aIndianapolis, IN :$bSams Pub.,$c2006.=263 \\$a0602=300 \\$ap. cm.=963 \\$aVanessa Evans; phone: (317) 428.3211; fax: (317) 428.3310; email: vanessa.evans@pearsoned.com; bc: vanessa.evans@pearsoned.com
ToDo:
The thing to do now is to load up Koha with some records which means i'll have to refresh myself on how Koha works. I bought the packt "Koha 3 Library Management" book so will give it a read tonight.
