Best software for academic libraries

[Satya P Shetty]

I am librarian with a 5 year old college which has jr. college, degree college, hospitality college and management college in its complex with only one library catering to all the institutes. Now we are planning to go for library automation. Following table was provided to me as comparision of library softwares. I would like to know the institutes that are similar to where I am placed what softwares they are using and whether this comparision is ok.

Sr. No	Features	Koha	Egranthalaya	SLIM	Libsys
1	Webbased	Yes	Not	Not	Yes
2	Marc 21	Yes	No	No	No
3	Modules	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
4	Opensource	Yes	No	No	No
5	Cloud based	Yes	No	No	No
6	Price	Tailormade	3-11,000/-	125,000	150.000
7	Maintenance	As per requirements	500/- per visit	15% of first year	15% of first year
8	Data Security	Yes	No	No	No
9	Revision of version	Every 6th Months	Four to Five year	Four to Five year	Four to Five year
10	Modular/Customisable	Yes	No	No	No
11	Local Support	AMC	per visit	AMC	AMC
12	Manual	Yes	No	No	No
13	Community Groups	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
14	NCP 2 for RFID	Yes	No	No	No
15	Vendor Lock	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
16	International Standards	Yes	No	No	No
17	Cost of Hardware and Software	Lowest	Highest	Highest	Highest
18	Z3950 Protocol	Yes	No	No	No
19	Unicode Support	Yes	No	No	No
20	Company Ownership Type	OpenSource	Central Government NIC	Private	Private
21	Union catalogue of Branch Libraries	Yes	No	No	No

Thank you

[Satya P Shetty]

I have a concerned staff of informatics in my organisation itself for KOHA. He is the one who gave me the comparative figures. What I would like to know is, if it is as popular in an academic institution like the one I have mentioned? Any academic users who can comment on this please?

[Satya P Shetty]

thank you Mr.Pushparaj Naik will check SOUL too . Is it free?

[SHISHUPAL SINGH]

Dear Ma'am

Koha is a  Best software for academic libraries.............

[Ganesh Singh]

NewGenLib is the best. 

1. Open source and free

2. Meets all standards

3. All facilities of koha

4. Support

5. Can run on windows as well as on linux

6. Has librarian's interface (Koha does not have - the biggest drawback of koha)

7. Easy installation and maintenance (I will be available)

[Satya P Shetty]

explain librarian's interface please. Also give me your contact details too with mail id plz

[X]

Library staff members carry out library operations in librarian's interface whereas users will access library catalogue and see their accounts through web based OPAC. In Koha only web-based HTML interface is given both for library staff members as well as for users.

Ganesh Singh Kushwah

09425120618

[e-mail]

[Naurin Ashraf]

Thank you Mr. Kushwah

[Ajit P]

Dear Ganesh Singh,

I agree that NewGenLib is open source but the migration of data from one platform to other is not possible.

[Ajit P]

Dear  Ms. Satya P Shetty,

As you said that you have a good IT backup for koha and this is very must for KOHA s/w to run on linux platform and we people are also migrating the Alice backup to koha and its almost done in our library and very soon we will be having a union catalogue on this koha s/w. In the coming years we will be  shifting ourselves to open sources as the license fees for these properity software(s) are increasing every year.

I will suggest you to go for koha and every day u will learn a new feature in it.

SOUL is a software of inflibnet and is not free of cost. They have a demo version available on their website for nearly housekeeping operation of 250-300 books only. 

[Ganesh Singh]

Dear Ajit

You agree only upon open source feature of newgenlib and ignored other features.

Does koha have a single click to migrate other software's data into it or according to koha various formats of data in excel sheets have to be prepared ?

Migration of data is possible in newgenlib too.

Does koha have librarian's interface ?

I would like to suggest Ms shetty to have some work experience in koha as well as in newgenlib and only on the basis of convenience of operation take unbiased decision.

[Ajit P]

Dear Ganesh,

Pl read

Parameter	Koha	NewGenLib	Remarks/Differences
System preferences	Provides links to set-up global parameters as well as those specific to functional modules.	Provides tabs in the librarians interface to set up global (general system) parameters and those specific to functional modules	Both Koha and NewGenLib allows only system administrators to set-up parameters.   (See  also remarks under different  modules)
Global system parameters	Defines these under several tabs which includes both the functional modules as well as specific headings such as Patrons, OAI-PMH, I18/L1ON (internationalization), z39.50 targets etc.	Defines these under several tabs which include both the functional modules as well as specific headings, patrons, z39.50 targets.	NewGenLib allows the set up of some unique parameters: Acquisitions order time (the time in days that a firm order should wait before claims/reminders are sent), Reservation (or hold ) queue factor,  This is to ensure a maximum number for patron holds based on number of copies of an item held by the library,  customizable data to be added to  holdings records, customized fields that should occur in patron records, the maximum duration in days until which holds can be claimed by patrons after which the item passes to the next in the queue, etc. Koha allows the set up of enhanced content preferences which includes the use of Amazon Web Services, e.g., Amazon content in the OPAC, querying of FRBRized web services, Google jackets, Amazon similar items. In this respect Koha does provide for mash-ups that are typical of web 2.0 (library 2.0) applications.  Internationalization (date format, OPAC language, client-side language is also easier with Koha as compared to NewGenLib. NewGenLib allows the configuration of form letters typically used in libraries.
Cataloguing	Authority values, types, MARC templates	Authority values, types, MARC templates	Koha allows the definition of record matching rules when MARC records are imported.  NewGenLib does not have this feature. Classification filing rules based on standard schemes is allowed by Koha. NewGenLib does not provide this feature. Both allow the creation of cataloguing templates using MARC fields and subfields. Koha allows ab initio definition of stop words. NewGenLib builds stop words progressively and only if the keyword index is generated for entered and/or imported records. Stop words have to be specifically marked as such by the cataloger. NewGenLib allows an item to be designated to all material types and physical/presentation forms permitted by the MARC standard. Shelving locations and sub-locations (e.g., General reading, Reference) can be defined in Koha and NewGenLib. Shelving locations show up in the OPAC and a library floor map if configured. NewGenLib allows custom indexes to be built. The fields to be added to the index are identified by their MARC tag. RSS feeds can be configured in NewGenLib. The feeds are then visible via the OPAC
Patrons and Circulation	Patron categories and types, circulation privileges and fine rules with respect to item types.	Patron categories and types, circulation privileges and fine rules with respect to item types, departments and courses	NewGenLib and Koha both allow the setting up of maximum fines (over dues) and also a default check-in date for long-term loans, e.g., to faculty members. NewGenLib allows module and sub -module specific privileges to patrons. It is possible to ensure a high level of security in the use of functional modules, based on privileges for library staff. NewGenLib allows the definition of patron categories and types to as fine a granularity as may be required by a library. This was not seen in Koha. NewGenLib allows also the definition of current and permanent addresses of patrons. NewGenLib also allows patron category-based  renewal privileges NewGenLib allows the setting of communication options for a patron. The options are: as an instant message when the patron logs-in to the OPAC, as printed output, as email, none of the above.  More than one of these can also be setup for a patron. NewGenLib also allows the setting up of binders, binding types, costs and binding specifications for serial bound volumes. Departments and Courses can be defined in NewGenLib. Such a feature would be needed in academic environments. Koha does not have this feature.
Acquisitions (books and serials)	Funds, budgets, vendors, currencies and exchange rates	Funds, budgets, vendors, currencies and exchange rates, fiscal year, fund allocations.	NewGenLib distinguishes between funding source and funds (or budget heads). More than one funding source may be defined and each of these may fund the same or different budget heads. NewGenLib allows a library to define a fiscal or financial year in which budgets are allocated and spent. Koha does not seem to have this feature. Allocated funds in NewGenLib could be defined as possible to carry forward (to the next fiscal year) or restricted to a fiscal year.  NewGenLib allows the set up customized shelving locations. A unique parameter called Accession Series is possible to be set in NewGenLib. An accession series makes it possible to uniquely accession different kinds of materials, e.g., theses, CDs, DVDs, etc. NewGenLib uses the unique accession number also as the bar code (or RFID tag) for an item.

[Tara Singh Danu]

nice intellectual reply