Galveston College Library and Learning Resources Director, Telishia “Tee” Murray, was among four guest panelists at the 2023 American Library Association conference held at the end of June in Chicago.
Murray discussed how the David Glenn Hunt Memorial Library at Galveston College transitioned to an open-source integrated library system. Jessica Zairo, director of Library Sales and Marketing at ByWater Solutions, moderated the panel which was held on the Tech Talk stage in the conference exhibit hall.
In 2019, the GC Library began the process to transition from a proprietary to the open-source integrated library system, Koha. In the spring of 2020, when the world went into lockdown, the GC Library implemented an integrated library system through Zoom. The implementation included several weeks of online training and testing the system to ensure all data was successfully migrated.
“The biggest factors that led our library to adopt Koha were costs and the technological limitations of our previous integrated library system,” said Murray. “Since implementing Koha, student access to library resources has increased and the library has streamlined processes and projects to continue to provide equitable access to library resources.”
The system GC implemented supports multiple languages, has a powerful text search and enhanced catalog display, uses standard library protocols to ensure interpretability between Koha and other library systems, and web-based user experience.
For more information about the Galveston College David Glenn Hunt Memorial Library, call 409-944-1240, email [email protected], or visit https://library.gc.edu/home.
ABOUT GALVESTON COLLEGE
Galveston College was founded in 1967 and is a comprehensive community college providing the residents of Galveston Island and the surrounding region with academic, workforce development, continuing education and community service programs.