Benefits of working as a Library
Consortium:
A Case Study of MALICO on the Use of
KOHA Free Open Source Software
Integrated Library System
eIFL General Assembly
Lund- Sweden, 5-9 August 2010
Lidia C. Chiotha
Country Coordinator
Malawi
Background
o
The University of Malawi (UNIMA) the biggest member
of MALICO with five colleges has been using Library.
Solution a commercial software which the rest of the
members could not afford and were on manual systems
UNIMA has been using Library. Solution (L.S) software
at a cost of US$12,120 and ITS.MARC at US$2, 000 per
annum from The Library Corporation (TLC) of USA since
Feb 2001.
ITS.MARC is a facility within L.S which allows librarians
to get the latest bibliographical details on line
The demise of L.S
o
Library.Solution was part of a package
from a Japanese Aid towards UNIMA’s
Library Automation Project
o
The funding for the Library Automation
project ended in January 2006 and
UNIMA’s five colleges have been
struggling to pay for the subscription of
US$2425 per college per annum
MALICO Technology Research
Group

The story of KOHA FOSS ILS for MALICO
began with the formation of a Technology
Research Group and a sensitization workshop
on open source software in July 2006. The
mandate of the group was to search for
technologies for use by consortium members

At the end of the workshop two Pilot sites
(National Library Service in Lilongwe and
Domasi College of Education in Zomba were
selected to use KOHA on Ubuntu Linux. An
agreement was made to move to other sites
upon evaluation/success.
Why KOHA ILS

Compared to a commercial software there are
no costs to download and install

There are no recurring licence fee therefore
sustainable

Can be customized to suit the user’s
requirements

Can be shared with other small & medium
libraries amongst other advantages
Use of KOHA in MALICO
Libraries

MALICO gathered momentum in its study of
KOHA after attending the Kick off Meeting of
eIFL FOSS Programme in Cupramontana, Italy
in October 2006

From 2007 MALICO intensified training
meetings and workshops that introduced the
library and technical staff to KOHA.

Both Library Staff and their ICT counterparts
would meet regularly to allocate tasks and get
feedback on follow up meetings.
Pilot study sites by region

The members from the Southern Region
met at Chancellor College before
eventually moving to Domasi because of
lack of the appropriate equipment at
Domasi

Kamuzu College Nursing was a meeting
point for those from Mzuzu University in
the North and the Central Region.
Mzuzu University (MZUNI)
Pilot Site



A follow up, eIFL FOSS meeting, on training in
choosing pilot sites held in Yerevan, Armenia
in June 2008 saw MALICO recommending
piloting KOHA ILS at MZUNI in earnest as a
national site
MALICO received a small grant of 3,000 USD
from eIFL under FOSS Skills and Tools
program that was used for two training sessions
on Linux.
Institutions has continued to provide financial
support for the training sessions on KOHA at
MZUNI and other designated places.
Technical and Administrative
Challenges








Library staff learning new IT skills
Lack of thorough knowledge in Linux which is a
good operating system for KOHA
Issues of data migration
Best practices for back up of database
Generation of new barcodes as the existing
ones were not transferable to the new KOHA
Catalogue
Lack of appropriate computers
Network problems between servers and client
workstations
In most cases starting from scratch
Addressing the Challenges
as a consortium






Discussing during meetings the problems
encountered with those who had attempted
installation but failed or visiting them
Having a KOHA email discussion list
Stressing patience and perseverance for retrials
Recommending procurement of appropriate
computers to authorities
Sourcing funds for training and procurement of
hardware (GTZ on KOHA in Teacher Training
Colleges and INASP’s NLS in-house training on
Linux)
Distributing copies of Debian Linux and KOHA
Packages on DVDs/CDs for offline installation.
(This was good for those with internet problems
or little Linux expertise)
Introducing KOHA into the
Library School Curriculum

Coincidentally MZUNI’s Faculty of
Information Science and Communication
runs Diplomas and Bachelor Degrees in
Library and Information Science and has
included hands on training with KOHA ILS.

Students along side the theoretical lessons
also experience real electronic cataloguing
Conclusion

MZUNI has now become a popular training ground for
KOHA ILS and between last year and now it has hosted
over four MALICO training sessions. The National Library
Service (NLS) also had an in house KOHA training for its
staff from 12 branches with funding through MALICO.

The majority institutions have managed to use the
cataloguing module, a few have gone to use the
circulations and OPAC module. MZUNI itself is using the
cataloguing, OPAC, circulations, acquisitions and reports
modules. It is yet to try the serials module

With the success of MZUNI pilot site the ground breaking
work has continued in two other Universities, One
Teacher Training College, 9 Nursing Colleges, 3 Health
Science Colleges and the NLS. THANK YOU!!!!