Thursday was a quiet day – we worked on getting Koha sorted out. Osman, the IT guy who’s been working with us, successfully installed the required programs while we were out yesterday, and today we managed to get the actual program up.
He had to completely clear the registry and wipe the computer to get it to work – many people have had this computer, and it was very clogged. It’s notably faster today after he did this. I’ve suggested to Ruth that it might help to acquire more RAM – she only has 512 MG, and Osman says there’s another slot. Really she needs a new machine, but this may help with running software at least, although it can’t do much for the internet’s lack of speed or the Pen 4 processor’s slow clock speed.
Anyway, getting Koha installed is a major achievement – many of the librarians that we met told us that they had tried and failed, and asked to hear what happened when we tried it. Ruth and Osman may end up being the local gurus for it – there’s a large group of librarians in Malawi that want to try switching to Koha, and they even meet regularly, but nobody’s managed it yet with the exception of Uchizi, Ruth’s predecessor. Something went wrong with that install, however, as it was no longer usable shortly after she left – I think possibly the overcrowded registry was the problem, and maybe the fact that we don’t have passwords for any of the things Uchizi installed herself, like some of the required software. Some of that stuff wasn’t installed anyway, so someone must have removed it at some point.
The students from Malawi College of Health Sciences had their turn to use the library this afternoon again, and the room was packed! I watched them – I had wondered if they maybe were checking email or similar things just because they could use our connection for free, unlike in their own library, but they were looking up and asking to have printed school related things. A lot of it seemed to be from Wikipedia or similar sites.
I wonder if it would be helpful for Ruth to create a website that lists freely available sources that they could use? They can’t use the regular databases, as Ruth doesn’t have IP access and they aren’t UNC affiliates. They were also using the books a lot, understandably when considering their own library’s collection. It’s too bad – they use the books the most, but they aren’t who Ruth has to first consider when selecting books – that’s the UNC Project people themselves.
We also talked a bit about that – the collection development policy and what should go into it, and where Ruth can look for examples. We’ll draft out what should go into it, and work on the subject layout together, and then Ruth will create the rest. This is one that can easily be started here and then go up on Google docs when I’m back in the States.
I saw a funny thing – I heard chickens, so I looked out the window (these are open all the time). There were two people selling big red clucking chickens out of the back of their truck down below in the parking lot. Vendors… We were met by a man selling clothes out of a duffle bag yesterday at the hospital, too, and there are people selling fruit and food everywhere.
