Koha is Chosen by the Guggenheim Museum
Mar 28th, 13:30 UTC
LibLime, the leader in open-source solutions for libraries, announced today that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York has selected LibLime's Koha Classic Hosted package ATHENS, OH -March 27, 2007- LibLime, the leader in open-source solutions for libraries, announced today that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York has selected LibLime's Koha Classic Hosted package. Koha is the first and most mature open-source integrated library system (ILS).
Located in New York City, the Guggenheim Museum is committed to presenting modern and contemporary art, from the late 19th century to the present. Its mission is to promote the understanding and appreciation of art, architecture, and other manifestations of modern and contemporary visual culture; to collect, preserve and research art objects; and to make them accessible to scholars and an increasingly diverse audience through its network of museums, programs, educational initiatives, and publications. The museum's library contains published resources that reflect and inform museum collections and exhibitions-- with particular focus on modern and contemporary art, architecture, and photography. The Library's mission is to support the research endeavors of the Guggenheim staff members, volunteers, and interns.
Like many special collection libraries, the freedom to steer development was central in the Guggenheim's decision to switch to an open-source ILS. "By selecting an open-source ILS, the Guggenheim Library has an opportunity to develop and customize Koha into a library catalog that has the potential to be adopted by other institutions with similar needs," says Francine Snyder, Manager of the museum's Library and Archives. She adds: "Libraries promote access to information; utilizing an ILS that is open source can be seen as an extension of this mission."
The Guggenheim's future development ideas include creating an interface that allows selected library special collections to be searched online as well as creating a bibliographic "crosswalk" between the catalog and the Museum's collection management software. "Expanding on this," says Francine, "the catalog could be linked to other museum resources allowing for a single search to illustrate all resources within the Museum that are available."
The Guggenheim chose LibLime for its open-source expertise, and is confident that the partnership will better enable the museum to achieve its future library automation goals: "Working with LibLime will greatly reduce the learning curve that presents itself in most new projects. As we are undertaking this project with the intent to adapt the system to our needs, rather than implementing a known system, their knowledge is invaluable."
"The Guggenheim is a very welcome addition to the Koha community," says LibLime's President of Technology Joshua Ferraro. "To have an organization as well-respected as the Guggenheim taking the lead with Koha is not only great for museum libraries, but a real testament to the readiness of open source."
About Koha
Since it was first put into production in early 2000, Koha has enabled new realities of open access, affordability, and free innovation for hundreds of libraries around the world. Koha has lived up to its name, which means `Gift' in the Maori language of New Zealand. From the outset, many libraries understood the power of this gift. They downloaded it, they installed it, they changed it, and they contributed their solutions back to the library community.
To learn more about the Koha project, visit:
http://koha.org
To try out Koha for yourself, visit LibLime's demos:
http://liblime.com/demos
About LibLime
As the leader in open-source solutions for libraries, LibLime offers a refreshing alternative to expensive proprietary software. LibLime's mission is to make open-source software accessible to libraries by offering affordable and customizable open-source library technology solutions, such as Koha and Evergreen. LibLime also provides services on these software products including: migration assistance, staff training, and software maintenance, support, and development.
(Submitted by Tina Burger of LibLime)
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