Staffordshire University’s Koha journey: taking an integrated approach to supporting an open source library management system

Abstract

In recent years universities have had to make challenging decisions with respect to the choice of their library management system (LMS), and the best support framework required. With demands on return on investment and systematic organizational changes, leading in some circumstances to leaner approaches to library workflows, some universities are deciding to move away from on-site hosted proprietary LMSs to open source (OS) solutions. This article provides an overview of Staffordshire University’s development of an integrated support framework for Koha, an off-site hosted OS LMS, which the University implemented in 2011. Beginning with the history of the development of Koha, it will go on to describe the cultural and organizational changes Staffordshire underwent post implementation to provide an integrative support model, which includes its vendor, the OS community, staff at the University and the evolving role of the systems librarian.

Keywords

• Koha
• library management systems
• LMS
• open source
• OS
• OSS