Introduction:

The Pakistan Institute for palmistry affairs (PIPS) organized one month extensive workshop for the IT and other officer of National Assemblies Staff. The training workshop on Koha & DSpace was started from April 02 to 06, 2018 at PIPS Islamabad. There were 45 sessions in totality and each session lasted for 60 minutes. This was the 1^st ever comprehensive workshop on Koha & DSpace in Pakistan. Mr. Sher Afzal Khan lead trainer of Open Source was the key resource person of the one month long Koha & DSpace training.

Miss Irum Deputy Director training and coordinator of the workshop delivered the welcome address highlighting the objectives of this workshop. The Executive Director PIPS Mr Zafrullah Khan highlighted in the inaugural address emphasized the need to organize such IT training  activities for professional development of IT and librarians working in different department in Assemblies. He further highlighted that organizing such like comprehensive hands on training workshop for the IT and Library professional will improve the status of adopting new technologies in all type of organizations.

The workshop was attended by IT and library professionals working in different sections of parliamentary affairs departments. Different modules of the training were briefly discussed. The training was start from the basic modules of Linux, Installations of Koha, DSpace.

The LIBSOL Package, were introduce to the participants which contain a complete library solutions Koha and DSpace Latest and updated version.  The others modules were comprehensively discussed and hands on training sessions were given to all the participants. The Complete Knowledge on MARC 21, OAI-PMH, Dublin Core Metadata, Different modules of was discussed with practical demonstration. Basics of DSpace software were demonstrated and explained as to how this software could be applied for building of databases and creation of digital repositories.  The Resource Person Mr Sher Afzal explains that software development and computer technology are shifting and developing at an incredibly rapid pace. The library automations and digitation has become a bare necessity for all kind of libraries. Koha has the distinction of being the first open source integrated library management system, which includes all the main functions related to library management. It is web-based open source software distributed under the general public license. Koha supports windows as well as Linux platform. The first version of it was released in year 2000. The ‘KOHA Development Team’ offers to host the website for KOHA library system on its server. KOHA also has the capacity to manage digital libraries and online and offline electronic resources. KOHA is web-based Integrated Library Management System (ILS), with a SQL database (My SQL preferred) backend with cataloguing data stored in MARC and accessible via Z39.50. The user interface is very configurable and adaptable and has been translated into many languages.

He further explains that DSpace is an open source software package that provides the tools for management of digital assets, and is commonly used as the basis for an institutional repository. It supports a wide variety of data, including books, theses, and 3D digital scans of objects, photographs, film, video, research data sets and other forms of content. The data is arranged as community collections of items, which bundle bit streams together. D-Space is also intended as a platform for digital preservation activities.

  D-

DSpace was released by HP-MIT Alliance in 2002 and since its release is very popular open source software. It has been installed and successfully working extensively and widely in universities, higher education colleges, cultural organizations, and research centers etc. It is shared under a Berkeley Software Distribution license, which enables users to customize or extend the software as needed.

Scope of the Training:

This one month long advance level training workshop address the issues being facing by the IT and Library Professionals in various Government organization especially National Assemblies during day to day library operations. The hands on training provide a platform to implement both the software in their libraries.

Rationale:

Open Source Software is an effective way to automate library operations without undertaking substantial financial investment. Libraries are taking up Open Source Software as a way to reduce the costs of expensive commercial products and as a viable alternative to the often expensive proprietary library automation systems. “The benefits of Open Source Software can potentially reduce costs; give users more control and increase software performance” (Courant and Griffiths, 2006). Librarians need to understand open source license for promotion the use of Open Source Software. This is the only way to face the challenges posed by commercial software in the market. It will also increase the autonomy and control of the professional over software solutions. In conclusion, the advent of open source library software has ushered in a revolution in the field of library and information resources management, and has become popular choice for most library and information professionals.

Objectives of Workshop:

 This long workshop was planning to provide the best source of implantations of Koha and DSpace Software in all Parliamentary Assemblies Libraries of Pakistan and to make the Union Catalogue of all Parliamentary libraries. The key objectives were:

1. To develop a strategy of advance feature of Koha and DSpace for the IT professionals.
2. To introduce the LINUX operating system to the IT and library professionals
3. To acquaint the participants with the installation of Koha & DSpace
4. Provides tremendous freedom for customization of all modules of LMS including Acquisition, Cataloguing, Circulation, OPAC, Membership Management, System, Administration, Serial Control, etc are available
5. Help participants to develop necessary skills in installation, server and client configuration, system parameter setting, MARC 21 cataloguing and DMA (Digital Media Archiving) management
6. Ability to cope up with any number of Branches, Patrons, Patron Categories, Item Categories, Currencies and other data

Training Outcomes:

 After successful completion of this training the participants will be able to:

1. This training will enable IT and LIS professional to implement Koha and DSpace in their respective libraries.
2. Train the trainees in the use of Koha and DSpace Digital Library (GSDL) Software
3. Deploy / Install Koha & DSpace on your own computer /server Learn basic commands of Linux which may be helpful to use and customize Koha and other FOSS software more effectively Configure / customize Koha and DSpace according to your needs Learn the advanced features of Koha, GSDL and DSpace

Content of the Training Programme “Koha”

• Module 1 – Introduction to Information and Communication Technologies
• Module 2 – Introduction to Library Automation
• Module 2 – Digital Libraries and Open Access
• Module 4 – Introductions to Linux with Important Commands

Module 5 – Introduction to LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl)

• Module 6 – Koha Architecture
  • Staff Client, User Interface, Core Code, Templates and Design, Intranet
• Module 7 – Koha Installation, Configurations, <koha Upgradition, Customizations, Live DVDs of FullStack Solation “LIBSOL Complete Library Solation’s.
• Module 8 – Installations on Server, downloading the DVD, Deployment on Server. PC and Laptop etc.

Module 9-      Setting Global System Preferences Module

Module 10-    Koha Basic Operating Parameters Module

Module 11-    Patron and Circulation Parameters Module

Module 12 –   Catalog Parameters Module

Module 13-    Acquisition parameters Module

• Module 14 – Koha Circulation module
• Module 15 – Koha Serials Module
• Module 16 – Koha Tools   Module
• Module17 – Koha Reports Module
• Module 18 – OPAC Module
• Module19 – Staff Client
• Module 20 – Backups/ Through command and Manual ,  Koha Support, Data migrations to Koha , Import data to koha, export data from koha , Cron Jobs

Module 21- Digitization of Parliamentary Libraries- ideas and Technologies , Parliamentary research and library services Challenges, Parliamentary Library Clients/Users, Useful Research databases, websites etc., taking the next steps for Parliamentary Libraries:

• New technology for parliamentary library
• Digitization, Automations and ICT
• 21^st Century Preliminary library services

Content of the Training Programme DSpace Modules

Module 1       An introduction to DSpace

Module 2       What can DSpace be used for

Module 3       What does DSpace look like

Module 4       Customizing the Dspae item submission

Module 5       Overview of import and export functionally

Module 6       Introductions to community

Module 7       How to create Dspace User

Module 8       Important command of DSpace

Module 9       Backup and Restorations of Dspace

Module 10     Data management and entry of different type of items

Module 11    Instructions to Data Management

Module 12    DSpace Administrator introductions

Module 13     E User Management

Module 14    Introductions to different file and entry

About the Trainer:

 Mr Sher Afzal Khan is a key resource person for Koha and DSpace in Pakistan and organized 86 workshops in Pakistan. He is also the approved trainer of Higher Education Commission Pakistan on Open Source Software and pioneer country Ambassador for Pakistan. He successfully implanted Koha and DSpace in 43 plus organization/Universities within Pakistan. He is also running the official blogs and Facebook page and provides free assistance and gaudiness to koha and DSpace users in Pakistan as well as globally. He also participate activity in kohacon 16 and kohacon 17 conference as speaker and represent Pakistan. He also organized Pakistan Open Sauce Summit in which a large number of people participated.  Free and Open Source Software is his area of expertise/research. He is also the founder of LIBSOL (Complete Library Solution) packages which is available free of cost for everyone. The LIBSOL can be found at the following link:

http://blog.fullstack.com.pk/latest-version-of-koha-dspace-live-dvd-libsol-version-3-2-1-pakistan/

The link of his blogs and other voluntary Facebook page are as follows:

1. The Link of Official Blogs of Koha and Dspace Pakistan
   http://blog.fullstack.com.pk/
   The link of Facebook page for Koha and Dspace Pakistan
   https://www.facebook.com/groups/965873873493081/
2. https://www.facebook.com/sher.a.yousafzai
3. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sher-afzal-13647248/
4. http://opensourcesummit.pk/