January 29, 2009-- The creators and developers of Koha, the first open source Integrated Library System (ILS), today expressed regret that PTFS, Inc has chosen not to follow the Koha ILS free and open source software community guidelines as stated on http://koha.org.

"PTFS' request to be listed on the Pay for Support page of the Koha community's web site (http://koha.org) has been declined due to the failure of PTFS to meet the project guidelines followed by those who are listed," said project founder Rachel Hamilton-Williams of Katipo Communications.

For instance, PTFS is currently operating a web site that uses 'Koha' in its domain name contrary to community guidelines published on the koha.org web site. "I clarified the community guidelines with PTFS over two months ago (on behalf of the Koha Project) and encouraged them to comply, so we're very disappointed there has been no movement on them to date," she said.

The guidelines in question pertain to the usage of the word 'Koha' in a company name, DBA , or domain name. Listed companies are welcome to use the word 'Koha' in a tag line and as part of other statements (in product names, for example). Community guidelines also state that the official Koha logos should not be used as a company logo, or as the favicon on a corporate website. PTFS is currently using the logo as a favicon.

Hamilton-Williams explained: "Use of 'Koha' in company or domain names implies that one company is the 'official' support provider for the project or formally affiliated with the project in some way. We have many companies worldwide actively involved in the Koha Project, but none are 'the' official providers of support. There is general respect for these guidelines from companies actively contributing to the project."

"PTFS has yet to participate in the community or submit a single piece of code or patch to the Project. They have not contributed to or supported the project at all," said Chris Cormack, original author of the Koha version 1.0, and current Translation Manager for the Project.

At this time, PTFS, Inc is not associated with the official Koha Project or the koha.org website in any way.

The Koha project is sustained by the tireless efforts of companies, libraries and individuals around the world who contribute code, documentation and advice. "We welcome to the community new participants
who agree to abide by the community guidelines and who get involved in the collaborative development of the Project," said Joshua Ferraro, CEO of Liblime.

The Koha Project contributors supporting this statement (listed below) urge PTFS to:

• immediately cease use of the word 'Koha' in any domain name of the company;
• immediately cease use of the Koha logo as a web site favicon;
• become involved in the Koha community (in the ways described on koha.org).

"Respect for the community guidelines helps the open source model of the project to be sustained, with benefits for all participants," Rachel Hamilton-Williams said.

Signatories:

• Rachel Hamilton-Williams, Kaitiaki, Katipo Communications Ltd
• Rosalie Blake Head of Libraries, Horowhenua Library Trust
• Irma Birchall, Director, Calyx Group Pty Limited (Australia)
• Paul Poulain, BibLibre, CEO. Release Manager of Koha 2.x
• Henri-Damien LAURENT, BibLibre, CTO, Release Maintainer 3.0
• Galen Charlton, Koha 3.2 Release Manager; VP Research & Development, LibLime
• Joshua Ferraro, CEO, LibLime; Koha 3.0 Release Manager
• Chris Cormack, Release manager 1.2, Current Translation Manager
• MJ Ray, Member of Turo Technology LLP, Release Maintainer 2.0

About Koha

Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha's impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. Koha has lived up to its name, which means 'Gift' in the Maori language of New Zealand.

To learn more about the Koha project, visit: http://koha.org

Looking for a novel that has good writing, well-developed characters and insights about life but isn’t as grim as much serious literature? For the last several years, Chicagoan Marianne Goss has been on a quest to discover such books after realizing that many literary novels were depressing her. Thinking other readers might be interested in her findings, she created a web site named Positively Good Reads (www.positivelygoodreads.com) that now lists more than 100 novels.

After reading a book for the site, Goss writes a brief commentary to help other people decide whether they want to read it. The novels reviewed on the still-growing site are by authors ranging from classic (Dickens, Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Willa Cather, E.M. Forster) to contemporary (Michael Chabon, Barbara Kingsolver, Amy Tan, John Irving, Elinor Lipman). There is about an equal number of American and British writers, and women outnumber men.

"It’s not easy to find upbeat literary novels, but I've discovered I was wrong in thinking they are almost non-existent," Goss says. "Since my reading has benefited from finding these books, I hope the web site can help other people when they're looking for a novel that's worth their time but not somber."

Goss has had conversations with people searching for novels that are both substantive and upbeat. Some just want to read a feel-good book now and then, while others are motivated by more than personal preference. They fight depression and question whether it makes sense to struggle to keep a positive attitude, then turn around and read fiction that presents life as even worse than they feared. With such people in mind — and she counts herself among them — Goss bristles when she gets the reaction that literature isn’t therapy and that happy endings aren't realistic.

"Maybe I shouldn’t have used the words 'happy ending’ on the home page, because people tend to glom on to that," she says. "It’s not that I'm looking for novels without moral dilemmas, loss, struggle and conflict; I'm looking for novels that leave me feeling that there's reason to go on living."

Goss found a fitting quote from British novelist Fay Weldon: "By a happy ending I do not mean mere fortunate events — a marriage or a last-minute rescue from death — but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation." The list on Positively Good Reads speaks for itself, Goss decided; writers such as Wallace Stegner, Eudora Welty and Penelope Fitzgerald don't need to be defended against charges of being lightweight or unrealistic.

So far Goss has written all of the reviews, but she is open to contributions from other readers — provided their selections meet the admittedly subjective criterion of being serious literature.

Now that Positively Good Reads has passed Goss’ initial goal of 100 books reviewed, she may also give some attention to enhancing the site visually. But for now, she expects that true readers won’t be put off by its plain-text appearance.

From The University of California Newsroom
OAKLAND -- The University of California libraries and Springer Science+Business Media (Springer) have concluded a groundbreaking experimental agreement to support open access publishing by UC authors. The arrangement is part of the journals license negotiated by the California Digital Library on behalf of the 10 campuses of the University of California.

Under the terms of the agreement, articles by UC-affiliated authors accepted for publication in a Springer journal beginning in 2009 will be published using Springer Open Choice with full and immediate open access. There will be no separate per-article charges, since costs have been factored into the overall license. Articles will be released under a license compatible with the Creative Commons (by-nc: Attribution, Non-commercial) license. In addition to access via the Springer platform, final published articles will also be deposited in the California Digital Library's eScholarship Repository.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Norcross, GA – January 27, 2009
Three more libraries—Hamilton North, North Webster Community, and Ladoga-Clark Township—have joined the fifteen public libraries now live on Evergreen Indiana, a shared-catalog project of the Indiana State Library. Evergreen Indiana is powered by Evergreen, the consortial-quality open-source library automation software. Equinox Software, Inc., the support and development company established by the original Evergreen developers, provided bumper-to-bumper support for the migrations and is providing round-the-clock ongoing technical support.
Indiana State Librarian Roberta L. Brooker said, "Patrons of Evergreen Indiana member libraries will benefit from expanded library services at no additional cost to taxpayers." Brooker added, "The success of the Evergreen Indiana consortium, currently 37 members strong and growing, has encouraged more public libraries statewide to investigate the benefits of Evergreen."
“Evergreen, built from the ground up to thrive in the most daunting consortial environments, has the resilience and power to keep pace with Indiana’s needs,” said Brad LaJeunesse, Equinox company president. “Not only does this open source software offer many features popular with patrons and library staff, it’s a fiscally-sound product that you know you aren’t going to outgrow. Evergreen is alligator rough and tough.”
Hamilton North Public Library has two branches located in the Indiana towns of Atlanta and Cicero. These branches serve approximately 7,000 patrons and have 74,500 bibliographic records. North Webster Community Public Library has 38,500 bibliographic records and 4,800 patrons. Ladoga-Clark Township Public Library has 17,000 bibliographic records and serves 1,000 patrons.
The Evergreen Indiana shared catalog can be viewed at http://evergreen.lib.in.us.

About Evergreen
Evergreen is consortial-quality, open-source library software initially developed to support Georgia PINES, a resource-sharing consortium with over 270 public libraries. Evergreen was designed from the ground up to be robust, fault-tolerant, service-oriented, and standards-based. Evergreen nimbly evolves to meet the needs of very large, high-transaction, multi-site consortia, while elegantly scaling down to the smallest library sites.
The growing, multinational Evergreen development community has shepherded Evergreen through a series of carefully-planned releases that have further strengthened Evergreen’s consortial capabilities while adding popular and useful functionality. Evergreen 2.0, due out in 2009, will add acquisitions, serials, and reserves to Evergreen’s outstanding functionality.
From its debut in September 2006, Evergreen has earned acclaim and praise from users worldwide, including a Technology Collaboration Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional Evergreen implementations include consortial projects such as Michigan Evergreen and British Columbia SITKA, and libraries such as Kent County Public Library in Maryland, Marshall Public Library in Missouri, and the University of Prince Edward Island. For more information about Evergreen, visit http://evergreen-ils.org

About Equinox Software, Inc.
Founded by the original Evergreen designers and developers, Equinox Software is a growing team of skilled developers and other professionals who provide comprehensive support for Evergreen, the consortial-quality, open source integrated library system (ILS). Equinox develops, supports, trains, migrates, integrates, and consults on Evergreen, and engages with the rapidly expanding Evergreen community. Instead of one-size-fits-all support, Equinox works closely with libraries to ensure Evergreen is implemented in the manner that best fits their individual needs.
In addition to support, custom development and integration services, Equinox offers complete Evergreen hosting packages for libraries wishing to outsource their ILS infrastructure. Equinox also provides consulting services for libraries seeking more insight into the value proposition of open source software.
Press contact: Corinne Hall, corinne@esilibrary.com, 770-709-5571
For more information on Equinox Software, please visit http://www.esilibrary.com.

Evergreen is open source software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL. Evergreen and the Evergreen logo are registered trademarks of the Georgia Public Library Service.

Norcross, Ga. – The Integrated Technology Group (ITG), a division of Vernon Library Supplies, Inc., has joined with NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), to develop and launch the next generation of self-service systems for library patrons.

The solution is designed to give library patrons the choice to check out library items without the assistance of library staff, reducing long waiting lines and providing better privacy during checkout. The innovative new self-checkout design from NCR and ITG aims to enable a friendlier, easier checkout transaction, helping to boost self-service adoption and patron confidence in the service.

Taking the technology to the next level, ITG worked in close collaboration with the NCR Customer Experience Consulting team – an NCR group dedicated to ensuring the best application of human factors engineering – to design a solution that would fit the unique needs of the library environment.

“NCR Customer Experience Consulting provided an enhanced visual design for the user interface including state-of-the-art instructional animations intended to make the library self-service kiosk attractive, easy to learn and easy to use,” said Dr. Marcia Crosland, Director, Customer Experience Consulting, NCR Corporation.

Initial plans call for over 200 kiosks to be deployed in North America throughout 2009. Future plans also include deployments in Latin America.

“We already have the most powerful and user friendly software in the library industry,” said Shai Robkin, president and chief executive officer, Integrated Technology Group. “But with the growth we have seen in our customer base and with our future expansion plans, we decided to seek out the ultimate in reliable and serviceable hardware and user interface solutions designed specifically for self-service. We chose a partner who would approach the customer experience with the same philosophy that we do so that library patrons can fully embrace and experience the benefits of self-checkout. NCR brings its leadership, innovation, experience and much more to the table.”

The Apex XpressCheck™ Medallion Edition includes enhanced Apex XpressCheck™ library self-checkout software running on ultra-compact and reliable NCR EasyPoint™ Advantage kiosk hardware. Bar code and radio frequency identification (RFID) versions are now available, with an electromagnetic (EM) security version coming in the spring of 2009.

The NCR EasyPoint Advantage hardware is built to provide libraries with a versatile, yet ultra-compact, self-service kiosk solution. With its small footprint, flexibility and enhanced serviceability, the kiosk is designed for easy installation in a variety of configurations suited to virtually any library environment.

Apex XpressCheck™ patron self-service kiosks also include the NCR RealPOS™ Two-Sided Thermal Receipt Printer, which enables simultaneous printing on both sides of the receipt with dual print heads. By using NCR's two-sided printing technology, libraries can deliver additional information to patrons while keeping the length of receipts manageable – and reducing paper consumption by up to 45 percent. ITG is currently the only library self-service solution provider to offer this functionality.

“Our collaboration with NCR marries our expertise in the library industry with their market-leading expertise in self-service technology. The combination of our strengths has allowed us to deliver a library self-checkout solution unmatched by our competitors,” added Robkin.

About Integrated Technology Group
Integrated Technology Group (www.integratedtek.com) develops, markets, and supports library automation technologies that empower librarians to make operations more efficient and better serve their patrons. ITG’s products include patron self-checkout, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and Automated Materials Handling (AMH) systems. With over 30 years experience in the library industry, ITG combines smart technology and progressive design to create standard solutions that can be easily customized to meet site-specific requirements. ITG, a division of Vernon Library Supplies, Inc., is headquartered in Norcross, Georgia.

About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a global technology company and leader in automated teller machines, self-checkouts and other self- and assisted-service solutions, serving customers in more than 100 countries. NCR's software, hardware, consulting and support services help organizations in retail, financial, travel, healthcare and other industries interact with consumers across multiple channels.

# # #

NCR is a trademark of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.