Analysis done by : Mr. Vivek Pandey - EEE 98
Legend
Y - feature is available
N - feature is not available
X - feature is available but does not meet the requirements properly
| Feature | OpenBiblio | MyLibrary | Koha |
| Book keeping | Y | Y | Y |
| Assign book to user | Y | Y | Y |
| Renew book for a user | X | Y | Y |
| Track/Manage overdue/fine | Y | Y | Y |
| Order tracking (new / re-supply) | N | N | N |
| Generate order request letter | N | N | N |
| Book Update | Y | Y | Y |
| Student Update | Y | Y | Y |
| Linking Book Db and Order Db (i.e.. any book ordered and delivered will be automatically be added to book Db) | Y | Y | Y |
| Report Generation | Y | X | X |
| Search | Y | X | Y |
| Book Location Map | X | X | X |
| Custom User Class (there can be different types of users - Teachers and Students which have different properties like number of books etc. ) | N | N | N |
| Custom Book Class (the library could have different type of books in case if IT-Library it would be general books and TBB books ) | N | N | N |
| Generation of NO DUE certificates | N | N | N |
| Search on various parameters | Y | Y | Y |
| User account status information | X | Y | X |
| Management of user profile | X | X | Y |
| Call Number | Y | Y | N |
Comments of the evaluator
Open Biblio
- Only limited search facility available.
- This software has the capability to support various categories of books ( like TBB )
- Open Biblio supports due date and late fee feature.
- It has following reports available.
- Balance due
- Bibliography checkout list
- Hold request - containing member's contact information
- Label printing query (used by labels)
- Over due list
- Most popular bibliographies
- GUI needs lots of improvement.
My Library
- Very poor GUI
- Poor book database.
- Poor student database.
- It has a separate interface of reference books.
- The report generation facility is not very good.
- This software has a very good search mechanism.
Koha
- It has good Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) support.
- Book procurement is linked to the book database.
- Report generation features are very poor.
- To make it functional code level changes would be required.
- Koha has facility to add book categories.
- The work flow in some parts of the application is much better than other softwares being evaluated.
Summeet:
We are in the process of discussing the mode in which we will raise money in the US. I am still looking for a coordinator in Inida. Can someone (Shiv Shankar Maurya) who has oversight into PRAYAS (the charitable Trust created in India ) elaborate on what and how it can collect funds in India for this project?
Anshuman:
Please add the criteria that Shiv Shankar has highlighted. I am not of the best way to evaluate these features, as they will require hardware. If we have some limitations here, please get in touch with my classmate Pramod Joshi who is the Managing Director for Syncata India pjoshi@netbaseindia.com as they sell retail solutions in India and there MAY be a possiblity that he can test the Bar Code integration etc. in our facilities in NOIDA or help guide student volunteers atIT-BHU through this effort.
Additionally, I would recommend that we do a scoping on-site with the help of students at IT-BHU and get them to do a much deeper evaluation of these software on campus and figure out how to implement in a phased manner. Once a decision is made, we should then start with minimal automation making sure that the processes are realigned to fit automation and then automate in 3-4 phases. I have requested that Pramod Joshi get in touch with the Dr. Lele who is the Dean of IT BHU and get his cooperation to get this project moving to more of a implementation posture.
Additionally, please follow some methodology (like Kepner Tragoe) that assigns weights to each feature and then assigns a 100% ranking to the feature that is ranked #1 amongst the three. So for the "Book Keeping" feature you will have to make a decision whether OpenBiblio or Mylibrary or Koha rank # 1 and where the others rank in terms of features i.e. 70% or 80%. Once these rankings have bee done, the % are multiplied by the weight and we come up with a final score.
I guess I will get back with the group once i have contacted Dr. Lele!
Posted by: Ujj Nath MET79 on August 19, 2003 08:11 AMHi Shiv,
Your points have been added to the evaluation criterion.
Hello Summet,
We will get contact you soon with relevant information.
Hi Ujj,
Thanks for taking the lead on fundraising. I presume that is in the U.S. I would like to pledge and contribute some amount. Pls do let me know the details on sarora@cisco.com
I can also try to mobilize more from my branchmates.
Thanks,
Sumeet Arora ECE95
This is really good analysis. It would be really good if we could add the following criteria also for evaluation:
1)Integrated Barcode Scanning support
2)Integrated Barcode Printing support
3)Importing Bibliographic data from cd ROM's ,existing databases or customer supplied electronic catalogues.
4)Option to generate ID /library card with barcode and/or photograph for members
Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005 INDIA