Back in 2001 the SCORM standard played an important role in the rapid adoption of Learning Management Systems. By using SCORM your learning materials could be published just once and be hosted on many different LMS platforms. Today, we see large libraries of live courses published as SCORM that have outlived the authoring tools used to create and maintain them. We’re calling this ‘SCORM Rot’.“Why is engagement on my LMS lower than it should be?”“Why do I have such a large collection of old and uneditable courses in my LMS?”The root cause is often SCORM Rot – where your courses published in SCORM are initially difficult to maintain and after a few years this becomes impossible. In this blog, we’ll explain how to find your SCORM files and how to fix SCORM Rot in your LMS.<h2 data-block-key="di87h">SCORM: before the rot</h2>SCORM stands for &quot;Sharable Content Object Reference Model.&quot; It’s a technical specification for publishing learning content online independent of LMS platform.In 2001 LMS were new and had limited course authoring and assessment options. Essentially, you needed SCORM:<ol><li data-block-key="cmfdf">To have learning that played on different web browsers, where content branched based on learner responses.</li><li data-block-key="ahn8s">To incorporate images and video.</li><li data-block-key="a6f6d">To have drag-and-drop assessment questions.</li></ol>The downside is this was via separate authoring tools, each with their own steep learning curve to use them. Plus, you needed a separate set of files stored independently of your LMS. The output was an uneditable SCORM module to host in your LMS.As any LMS Site Administrator knows, the administrative burden of actually updating a SCORM is so much that no one really bothers. Inevitably, this undermines running regular review cycles of live courses, and keeping your learning up to date.Is there still a place for SCORM?Yes, but it should be considered a ‘niche technology’ for delivering learning content.One area where it is still useful, but perhaps not for long, is enabling offline consumption of courseware. Here a SCORM module is downloaded inside the LMS mobile app and can be accessed even if the device is not connected to the internet. The learning outcome is uploaded to the LMS when the learner is next online. Its worth noting that it is unlikely any of your existing SCORMs are usable on a small screen device.SCORM can also be useful if you need to share your course with another organisation. Again, this is only in the short-term as almost all modern learning management systems support the LTI standard where a course can be published between LMSs directly.LTI also addresses a key SCORM rot problem: when the original course is updated all the other sites that access it via LTI instantly use the updated version.<h2 data-block-key="cpvg">How To Fix SCORM Rot</h2>Firstly, determine if you actually have a SCORM rot problem:<ul><li data-block-key="137do">As a general rule SCORMs that are over 5 years old (so published before 2019) are at risk of not being editable. We can help here, drop us a line and we’ll share the Report settings to determine the ages of your SCORM content in your site.</li><li data-block-key="erqq2">Even if you have newer SCORM files – are you able to find the original source files needed to update the SCORM and do you have the necessary software to do this?</li></ul>Next, triage your old SCORMs – depreciate, re-publish, archive:<ul><li data-block-key="bf22v">Some old courses need to remain live – even if out of date. We would recommend marking these as ‘Depreciated’ and advising learners before they open the SCORM that its not being maintained. You can also point them towards more current learning materials. This way the learner can make their own judgement if the course is right for them. It also means when they access an old SCORM file it doesn’t undermine the credibility of the whole site.</li><li data-block-key="87oe9">Re-publish. Generally old SCORMs are not salvageable, but often can be simply re-created with built-in LMS tools and H5P. In the process you can modernise them and move them into a maintainable state. We can help here, with support, training and even undertaking the work.</li><li data-block-key="cr7e8">Some old courses have completed their purpose and should be archived. </li></ul>Then, move away from SCORM:<ul><li data-block-key="d8opv">Let your procurement team and those implementing business change know SCORM is no longer preferred.</li><li data-block-key="546st">Start building courses in maintainable formats – the aim is to have your learning content directly editable in your LMS by any system-user with appropriate permissions. At Catalyst, we advocate the <a href="https://totara.help/17/docs/course-activity-types" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">built-</a><a href="https://totara.help/15/docs/course-activity-types" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in</a><a href="https://totara.help/15/docs/course-activity-types" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> LMS tools</a> and <a href="https://h5p.org/content-types-and-applications" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">H5P</a>.</li><li data-block-key="7eakv">If you must use external tools to author learning content, try and limit their use to specific learning activities not otherwise possible. A good example is video – linking to YouTube/Vimeo gives you video and audio optimised to the user’s device and bandwidth, along with captions and translations. Embedding the full video inside a SCORM often means compromise – lower quality video for those with fast internet and buffering or failure to play for those with slower internet connections.</li><li data-block-key="5re1q">Implement a course review and update cycle... and stick to it! </li></ul>Lastly, have you thought about letting your organisation’s Subject Matter Experts build their own learning content and share it through the LMS?<a href="https://www.totara.com/resources/totara-engage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tōtara</a> <a href="https://www.totara.com/resources/totara-engage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">E</a><a href="https://www.totara.com/resources/totara-engage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ngage</a> enables your staff to create and share learning resources, including through MS Teams, and includes a <a href="https://totara.help/docs/how-does-the-recommendations-engine-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recommendations engine</a>, which uses machine learning to recommend aligned learning content to your users.Stop the SCORM rotCatalyst have a simple solution to quickly identify SCORM Rot in your LMS. Simply drop us an email at enquiries@catalyst.net.nz if you would like us to send you the report settings for free.We can also support you to:<ul><li data-block-key="ch5kp">Migrate away from SCORM to inbuilt LMS tools and H5P.</li><li data-block-key="8nkj1">Implement a course review and update cycle.</li><li data-block-key="8sl1b">Re-build and update old courses, or build brand new ones. </li></ul>Remember, SCORM Rot gets worse the longer you leave it. The time to act is now.

Bugs and decay cause SCORM rot in learning management systems.

This blog outlines what SCORM rot is and how to fix it in your Learning Management System (LMS).

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Tools in the education and professional growth industry are continually growing. And, rightly so. After all, growth is the goal of education. So, as the learning community needs change, the tools have to keep up at a minimum and stay a step ahead at best. Learning Management System’s (LMS) in particular play an important role in learner’s development. And organisations like yours, committed to a development strategy deserve a solution that helps you achieve your goals. Totara’s Talent Experience Platform consisting of Totara Learn, Totara Perform and and Tōtara Engage and meet your current and future needs. This Totara ecosystem is also widely adopted across more than 19 million users because of its commitment to stay ahead of the learning community needs. So, in this blog, we’re getting back to basics and exploring: what is Tōtara? Where did it start? And where is it heading?<h2 data-block-key="bh355">What Is Tōtara LMS?</h2><a href="tōtara">Tōtara</a> was founded in New Zealand in 2010 with a goal to transform learning management systems. Built on open-source software and the foundation of <a href="moodle">Moodle&#x27;s LMS</a>, it provides flexible customisation for organisations professional development. All the way from on-boarding, to certification, peer-to-peer learning, to compliance, and even performance management.Totara Learn provides a functionally rich eLearning platform which can be implemented quickly and on Catalyst Cloud as a SaaS solution. Tōtara is supported by Totara HQ, Tōtara Partners like <a href="home">Catalyst</a>, and a strong global community continually helping the platform to grow through users and features.Tōtara allows learning providers to adapt the platform exactly as they need to help get the best out of their learners journey. Since day one, our dedicated Catalyst Tōtara team have helped pioneer custom solutions and integrations for organisations globally. Today, Tōtara stands as a testament to its evolution with over 19 million users worldwide.As Tōtara grew with the learning community’s needs at its core, so too did its offerings. Now organisations have more tailor-made options than ever with the Totara Talent Experience Platform consisting of Totara Learn, Totara Perform and and Tōtara Engage. These are designed to cater to specific aspects of organisational learning and development. Here&#x27;s a breakdown of what they have to offer;<h3 data-block-key="7apuv">Tōtara Learn</h3>Tōtara Learn is a learning management system designed to manage, deliver, and track eLearning content and courses. It serves as a central hub for training and development and is suitable for organisations aiming to deliver structured and formal training programs. For example, compliance training, on-boarding, certifications, and skill development.<h4 data-block-key="3huvg">Tōtara Learn Features:</h4><ul><li data-block-key="nj44">Course management - Courses are key for learning delivery, featuring activities and resources. Configure criteria for activities and courses, enrol learners and organise courses into categories for better access. </li><li data-block-key="asbcj">Personalised learning plans - Learners and managers collaborate, designing plans with courses, competencies, objectives, and programs. Admins establish templates, assigned to learners with content aligning with their goals. </li><li data-block-key="45t09">Programs and certifications - Arrange courses in a specific order for enrolled learners. And, leverage features that support certifications requiring periodic re-completion. Optionally, set up a distinct recertification pathway to avoid redoing initial course work. </li><li data-block-key="7rgje">Content marketplaces - Expand your Totara Learn instance with external content. Default options include GO1 and LinkedIn Learning. You can also create custom marketplaces to offer additional content sources. </li></ul><h3 data-block-key="avgac">Totara Engage</h3>Tōtara Engage is a Learning Experience Platform (LXP), focused on informal and social learning. It&#x27;s tailored towards organisations nurturing continuous learning, peer knowledge exchange, and self-directed exploration.<h4 data-block-key="52tj3">Tōtara Engage Features:</h4><ol><li data-block-key="k9ec">Content Curation - Empower users to curate and generate content, from videos to surveys. Sharing relevant information becomes seamless and efficient. </li><li data-block-key="9t7ai">Social Learning - Encourage teamwork through private or public workspaces, offering real-time discussions and information exchange in a single location. </li><li data-block-key="9v7qj">User-Generated Content - Users create public or private playlists, curating content for themselves or as experts to share with others. </li><li data-block-key="dc26e">Personalized recommendations - Personalized content recommendations via the &quot;Recommended for You&quot; block enrich the learning experience. </li><li data-block-key="e46vg">Integrations - Tōtara Engage also integrates with Microsoft Teams, enabling learning within the flow of work, meeting users where they are. </li></ol><h3 data-block-key="7mjmn">Totara Perform</h3>Tōtara Perform is a Performance Management System (PMS), supporting traditional and continuous performance management processes.<h4 data-block-key="9ti9d">Tōtara Perform Features:</h4><ol><li data-block-key="chv17">Supports with flexibility the annual performance appraisal cycle. </li><li data-block-key="fmdok">Supports continuous performance management processes – often based on employee start date. </li><li data-block-key="aeic9">Ties in direct support from people leaders through Check-ins </li><li data-block-key="a930n">Collects performance insight and evidence through open 360 degree feedback </li><li data-block-key="6mjsf">Enhances the connection to both learning and recognition of skills through Competencies. </li></ol><h2 data-block-key="5i56">The Tōtara Ecosystem</h2>Whilst Tōtara offers tailored offerings by mixing Learn, Engage &amp; Perform, at it’s core, the proposition remains the same. It&#x27;s a powerful platform designed to address diverse learning needs.<h3 data-block-key="e44n7">Top 10 Benefits Of Tōtara LMS:</h3><ol><li data-block-key="4dk01">Customisation: Tailor the platform exactly to your needs, branding, and learning objectives. Additionally, you can also refine learning paths for strategic alignment. </li><li data-block-key="amv7n">Adaptive Learning: Deliver personalised content and experiences catering to individual learning styles and abilities. </li><li data-block-key="rsbq">Performance Enhancement: Integrate performance management tools to monitor and enhance student, or employee performance, within the same platform. </li><li data-block-key="7qasv">Streamlined Compliance: Tōtara ensures regulatory adherence with comprehensive tracking and reporting tools. </li><li data-block-key="ed10f">Collaboration Tools: Includes discussion forums, chat features, and collaborative projects. This fosters interaction and engagement among learners, and ultimately a sense of community. </li><li data-block-key="bvoao">Mobile Accessibility: With a mobile-responsive design, Tōtara backs learning-on-the-go. It also means learners can access content and engage in learning activities across their preferred device. </li><li data-block-key="8l225">Rich Content Diversity: Tōtara supports various content formats including videos, documents, quizzes, and interactive elements. This helps you enrich learning experiences. </li><li data-block-key="6mp50">Seamless Integration: Integrates with other systems and tools, like Moodle, if needed to create a cohesive learning ecosystem and user experience. </li><li data-block-key="9k02e">Data-Driven Insights: With data analytics and reporting features, it provides insights into learner progress and engagement. Ultimately better enabling informed decision-making. </li><li data-block-key="856ne">Cultivating Lifelong Learning: Tōtara promotes continuous learning by offering resources, skill-building modules, and avenues for learners to engage beyond formal courses. </li></ol>Tōtara is a tool to help you nurture the growth and success of your students or employees.<h2 data-block-key="e6jor">Getting Tōŧara Fit To Your Business Needs</h2>At Catalyst, we are Platinum Certified Partners for Tōtara. And, we have dedicated Tōtara LMS teams based in New Zealand, the UK and Australia. We’ve been collaborating with businesses like yours for over 20 years to match, design and develop eLearning solutions fit for your strategy. As open-source experts, we can also support you with the ongoing maintenance and build features into your LMS that work exactly as you need.<a href="mailto:enquiries@catalyst.net.nz">If you’re ready to discuss how you can maximise your eLearning strategy, contact us.</a>

Blue background image with a white lightning bolt and text what is Totara LMS with supporting copy learn the basics of the Totara Learning Management ecosystem with Catalyst. Includes Catalyst and Totara logos.

Learn the basics of the Tōtara Learning Management ecosystem with this blog from Catalyst.

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This year, our Catalyst Koha team had the pleasure of meeting the wider Koha community and sharing the knowledge at KohaCon 2023. From guest speakers, to networking opportunities and even a chance to learn about the local Helsinki culture, there was a lot to enjoy.So, we’re wrapping up the full coverage of the event and getting you excited to be involved in KohaCon 2024.<h2 data-block-key="uko2">KohaCon 2023 Highlights: Wrapped Up</h2>Day one:Day one saw engaging discussions on open-source library solutions, the evolution of metadata standards, and the role of AI in reshaping patron experiences.Additionally, the National Library of Finland, where the event was hosted, shared their own experience of using Koha – and it was jaw-dropping. They have one of the largest known Koha collections in the world, and they’ve found a pretty clever way of using Koha to keep their ship in shape. We’ve detailed more about it in the full day one highlights. <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/kohacon-2023-day-one-highlights" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read all about it here.</a>Day two:Day two went deeper into the heart of Koha&#x27;s impact on libraries worldwide. Presentations explored the power of community collaboration in refining the Koha library management system. Discussions covered topics ranging from enhancing user interfaces to innovative approaches for resource sharing among libraries. Guest speakers also shared information on how to report bugs in BugZilla, plus some of the background development processes involved with it.Alex Buckley, our Catalyst Koha Developer, also gave a fantastic presentation on his top training tips for Koha. <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/kohacon-2023-day-two-highlights" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read more on that here.</a>Day three:The concluding day of the conference proved to be truly inspirational. We learned about the role of digital libraries for the future, online privacy and the preservation of cultural heritage. Notably, Chris Cormack, Koha founder and a member of our Catalyst Koha team, detailed how Koha champions the safeguarding indigenous data sovereignty.There were also helpful demonstrations on how to manage pages in Koha, HTML customisation ideas and feature releases. <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/kohacon-2023-day-three-highlights" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out the full day three highlights in more depth here.</a>Rating KohaCon 2023If you missed out on attending KohaCon this year, or you want to re-indulge in the learnings, you can catch all of the presentation recordings and questions on the Youtube <a href="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa9kvrI3VLf7ZvLvJk9EtlnF2OVETvddm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">PerlKohaCon 2023 playlist.</a>The conference consisted of three-days worth of presentations, and a two-day long hackfest and bug squashing sessions. For Alex Buckley, our Koha Developer, it was his first international conference. Here’s what he had to say about his overall experience at KohaCon 2023:“The Koha community is like a family. Having the opportunity to meet, for the first-time in person, community members I have been working with remotely for 6.5 years has been a game-changer, as well as making lots of new Koha friends. I’m convinced that sharing ideas about possible improvements to Koha, and learning how libraries are using it, really helps us all make Koha an even better system!”We highly recommend KohaCon as a place to connect with the Koha community and can’t wait to see what’s lined up for 2024.<h2 data-block-key="4afli">Get Support For Koha In Your Library</h2>If you need support with Koha, our dedicated Catalyst Koha team can help. We support libraries world-wide to get the best out of (and troubleshoot) their Koha instance.So, whether you need some expert developers for a new idea, a bit of Koha training, or an extra pair of hands to maintain your Koha LMS, you can <a href="mailto:enquiries@catalyst.net.nz">connect with us here.</a><h2 data-block-key="6l79n">What Is Koha?</h2>If you’re in need of a new library management system, and haven’t used Koha before, this section is for you.Koha is an open-source library management system, aiding libraries in automating tasks. It encompasses cataloging, circulation, acquisitions, and serials management. Additionally, it features an online catalog for patrons, generates reports, and offers customization options.It’s important to note that Koha is not a product. It’s a project built on open source software and continually growing through libraries all over the world submitting what changes they want to see included. Then, a global community of Koha developers support designing, testing and implementing the code needed to include the changes. Once the code is approved, any other library wishing to add that new functionality has the ability to do so (or not to). That’s the beauty of open-source solutions like Koha.And, because Koha is open source:<ul><li data-block-key="f8cf3">It’s completely free for libraries to use – there are no licensing fees. </li><li data-block-key="5kf04">It can be built and customised exactly as libraries need it.</li></ul>With a supportive global community, it&#x27;s adaptable, multilingual, and encourages integration.To date, there are a over 66 million library users globally – it’s the most widely used library management system in the world.Community is core to Koha. It’s one of the reasons KohaCon takes place annually.<h2 data-block-key="5r8fg">What Is KohaCon?</h2>One of the great things about any open source project is that it’s built on the ethos of collaboration. KohaCon is the epitome of this. KohaCon is the chance for the global community of Koha users to get together and:<ul><li data-block-key="49r4e">Share experiences. </li><li data-block-key="2qfaq">Discuss developments. </li><li data-block-key="70dhn">Contribute to the future direction of the Koha project.</li></ul>And anyone already involved or interested in using Koha can attend - from librarians to developers, and other stakeholders.The conference typically features presentations, workshops, discussions, and networking opportunities related to Koha and open-source library technologies. Additionally, the KohaCon organisers are committed to helping attendees from all over the globe to learn about the event host city. That means attendees at this years conference also got to indulge in the local architecture, sight seeing and boat trips.In 2023, KohaCon was held in Helsinki and was attended by people all over the world from the Koha community.

Image with a green background and Koha logo with three people in Koha capes from the Catalyst Koha team

Here is the full wrap up of KohaCon 2023, brought to you from our Catalyst Koha team attending the event in Helsinki.

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Alex Buckley, Catalyst Koha Developer, is back to bring you a final update of day three - the last day of talks - at <a href="https://perlkohacon.fi/?utm_source=catalystnz&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=kohacon-2023-day-two-highlights&amp;utm_content=link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KohaCon 2023</a> held in Helsinki. Missed the highlights from day two? <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/kohacon-2023-day-two-highlights" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">C</a><a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/kohacon-2023-day-two-highlights" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heck it out here.</a><h2 data-block-key="f94f9">KohaCon 2023: Day Three Highlights</h2><h3 data-block-key="ch2ku">1.Manage pages in Koha OPAC - Gladys Cathelain - BibLibre</h3>BibLibre is a French Koha support vendor. Gladys explained how BibLibre discovered libraries can add custom content to their OPAC’s using HTML customisations and the Pages tool. The combination of HTML customisations and the Pages tool empowers libraries to craft tailored experiences, share crucial information, and present resources efficiently – without running another website.Gladys kindly gave a shout-out to Aleisha Amohia, the Catalyst Koha Technical Lead. The reason was that Aleisha, with sponsorship from Region Halland, Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand and Horowhenua District Libraries, wrote the Pages tool.<img alt="Gladys Cathelain (BibLibre) giving a shoutout to our team for upstreaming the Pages feature" class="richtext-image left" height="375" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/Gladys_Cathelain_BibLibre_giving_a_shoutout_to.width-500.jpg" width="500"><h3 data-block-key="3745s">Koha HTML:</h3>The Tools module in the Koha staff client enables libraries to enhance the OPAC by adding custom content to specific regions, like the OpacMainUserBlock on the home page. Additionally, the module includes the Pages tool, allowing librarians to create new editable pages for the OPAC and staff client. Links to these pages can be seamlessly integrated into HTML customisations, offering patrons direct navigation.The Pages tool is particularly useful for creating dedicated pages, facilitating the transfer of custom content from OPAC HTML customisations to organised, separate pages. This streamlines the OPAC home page, providing a cleaner user experience while ensuring easy access to personalised content.<h4 data-block-key="f8a5e">Koha HTML customisation ideas:</h4><ul><li data-block-key="d9g9l">OpacCustomSearch system preference: Libraries favoring a discovery layer over the Koha OPAC search can use the OpacCustomSearch system preference. By embedding HTML code into this preference, the default search box transforms into a tailored search box that leads to the chosen discovery layer. Patrons retain access the Koha account management features while seamlessly transitioning to the preferred discovery interface for searching. This approach optimizes user experience by merging the strengths of both systems. </li><li data-block-key="24i4l">OpacLibraryInfo system preference: Libraries can showcase third-party service opening hours through the OpacLibraryInfo system preference. By incorporating a widget—a tool for presenting external HTML code—libraries can effectively present accurate opening times. This information becomes visible in the OPAC, enabling patrons to access essential service details. Then that content will be displayed on the OPAC. </li><li data-block-key="2vpaj">OpacMoreSearches system preferences: This can be useful to increase the number of links visible beneath the OPAC search box. Many libraries utilise this preference to include links to custom content webpages generated using the Pages tool, as described earlier. This enhances accessibility of tailored information and optimises the userexperience by providing direct access to pertinent resources from the OPAC search interface. </li></ul><h3 data-block-key="dkfrt">The Koha Pages Tool:</h3>This feature facilitates the creation of custom content pages not only in the staff client but also in the OPAC. Examples include dedicated pages for accessing library documentation or displaying librarians&#x27; work schedules. This tool maximises communication and accessibility by tailoring information to users across different languages and interfaces.Because Koha has always been a translatable software, the Pages tool is set up so libraries can translate content for each language used within their Koha instance.It was wonderful to see libraries picking up this feature and running with it, so soon after release last November. Thank you Gladys!For those looking for some “how to” instructions for setting up Pages, try this <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/koha-cms-add-content-pages" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">blogpost</a>.<h2 data-block-key="ahumq">2. Koha Cypress: Automated Screenshots For The Manual, Jonathan Druart</h2>Documentation plays an important role in software projects. That’s why the Koha community produces an updated manual with each 6-monthly major release. The manual incorporates around 1635 screenshots from Koha user interfaces (UI). When significant UI changes occur, such as the case with <a href="https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=30952" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bug 30952</a>, updating numerous screenshots becomes essential. A dedicated team of volunteers oversees the Koha manual publication and maintenance.Jonathan&#x27;s presentation highlighted the potential of Cypress, a tool capable of automating screenshot capture for the manual. The Koha community could leverage Cypress to achieve two main objectives:<ol><li data-block-key="37sh7">Regression Tests: By scripting an inspection of web page elements, tests can identify missing elements, indicating potential bugs that need investigation. This technique enhances quality assurance by alerting the community to deviations from expected UI elements. </li><li data-block-key="fu2eg">Automated Screenshots: Cypress can simulate user inputs, interacting with the browser to capture screenshots of specified elements on a page. This streamlines the process of generating updated screenshots for the manual, particularly useful when UI changes necessitate multiple updates. </li></ol>Cypress offers the Koha community efficient solutions for both quality assurance and streamlined documentation maintenance, contributing to a more robust and user-friendly software experience.<h3 data-block-key="fkuqu">Jonathan proposed a possible approach for implementing Cypress:</h3><ol><li data-block-key="15ecv">List screenshots that need to be taken (dev). </li><li data-block-key="bl02n">Group by how difficult to capture using Cypress (anyone). </li><li data-block-key="2c32d">Add info on does the screenshot take the page, and element/ID. </li></ol>You can track how this important automation work is progressing on <a href="https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=34076" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bug 34076</a> .<h2 data-block-key="436so">3. Making The Most Of Koha Features To Protect Citizens, Aude Charillon – PTFS Europe</h2>As we all know, user privacy is an important concern. Aude from PTFS Europe delivered an insightful talk emphasising the Koha system preferences for:<ul><li data-block-key="bmbqg">Safeguarding user privacy. </li><li data-block-key="c46u3">Providing transparency regarding stored user data. </li></ul>Aude&#x27;s presentation discussed how libraries are accountable for collected patron data. Koha tools facilitate responsible data management, cultivating a culture of data stewardship that ensures user privacy, and compliance with best practices.<img alt="Aude Charillon (PTFS Europe) speaking on how retaining patron data that is no longer used is not something libraries should be doing due to their responsibilities towards their patron’s privacy" class="richtext-image right" height="375" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/Aude_Charillon_PTFS_Europe_speaking_on_how_ret.width-500.jpg" width="500">Here are a few steps your library may find beneficial to follow:<ol><li data-block-key="6s3am">Review Collected Personal Data: Assess the personal data collected and make fields optional or hidden in the borrower editor form if unnecessary for your library&#x27;s operation. </li><li data-block-key="eh1b9">Implement AnonymousPatron Preference: Decouple historical circulation data from borrower information by configuring the AnonymousPatron preference. Automate data anonymisation by setting up the batch_anonymise.pl cronjob, which replaces the borrower information with a &#x27;fake&#x27; anonymous patron&#x27;s identifier after a set period. </li><li data-block-key="3dv2c">Consider Pseudonymization: If libraries enable the Pseudonymization preference Koha will retain historical circulation history data for reporting purposes, while detaching it from data specific patrons. This replaces borrowernumbers with hashed values, permitting reporting on patron activity without direct identification. </li><li data-block-key="deo0e">Strengthen Password Practices: Enable password-related system preferences like FailedLoginAttempts, NotifyPasswordChange, minPasswordLength, and RequireStrongPassword. These practices enforce stronger password security, inform users of changes to their accounts, and encourage prompt response if unauthorised changes occur. </li></ol><h3 data-block-key="btg9g">Community Driving Further Security and Privacy Improvements In Koha</h3>Aude finished with a suggestion for enhancement the Koha community could support: the introduction of varying anonymisation periods for distinct borrower categories.This feature would allow libraries to maintain circulation history for specific patron types for longer durations as required. For instance, maintaining the circulation history is more critical for housebound patrons, for whom the libraries make a reading selection, and can do a better job of that by checking the item hasn’t been selected before. Aude hopes to see this features supported for a future release of Koha.You can join Aude on the discussion about this enhancement on <a href="https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=34534" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bug 34534.</a><h2 data-block-key="7g5lk">4. Five Years And One Feature Later, Alex Buckley – Catalyst IT</h2>Then, I had the pleasure of presenting my second conference talk. It covered the journey of integrating the recalls feature into Koha. This was a process spanning over five years, which was led by Aleisha. We expressed our gratitude for the community&#x27;s collaborative efforts and contributions during this period, and shared the challenges we encountered.For those interested in how to use the recalls feature, <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/how-to-do-recalls-with-koha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this blogpost</a> will give you a start.While I am here, thank you so much to everyone who had kind feedback for me, especially Arthur Suzuki from BibLibre who recommend my <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/kohacon-2023-day-two-highlights" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Day 2</a> talk &#x27;Tip Top Training Tips&#x27; during his lightning talk. The exchange of ideas and support within the community throughout Kohacon made the experience truly rewarding.<h2 data-block-key="a8346">5. Libraries And Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Chris Cormack – Catalyst IT</h2>Chris Cormack gave a talk on Indigenous data sovereignty for libraries from a Māori perspective. His presentation underlined the critical impact of data storage location on its usage. Storing Māori data within Aotearoa New Zealand subjects it to local law, while overseas storage is governed by foreign regulations. This usage has tangible consequences, particularly for indigenous communities facing discrimination through data misuse.For example:<ul><li data-block-key="12gsd">New Zealand&#x27;s data on higher Māori incarceration rates perpetuates discriminatory legal systems. </li><li data-block-key="d57av">Predictive models for &quot;potential criminal behavior&quot; could misuse library data, revealing resources accessed. </li><li data-block-key="6vso1">In repressive regimes, LGBTQIA+ resource history might lead to arrests. Hence, data storage significantly affects patron welfare, making it a paramount consideration for libraries. </li></ul>So Chris asked libraries to consider the following questions:<ul><li data-block-key="17loq">Do we know where our data is stored? </li><li data-block-key="d5s1f">Can we get all of it out at any time? </li><li data-block-key="gs01">Can we identify indigenous data? </li><li data-block-key="cop7b">Sometimes are we not collecting enough data or the right data? </li><li data-block-key="9n487">What access do we provide for indigenous people to get their data? </li><li data-block-key="ag43t">Should we be holding this data?</li></ul>Koha does quite well on a couple of these questions, we do we know where data is stored and we can get data out easily. But improvements are necessary and libraries should also consider if they should collect, aggregate and use data about patrons.<img alt="Chris Cormack (Catalyst IT) posing questions for libraries to consider around the storage of data about indigenous library patrons." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/Chris_Cormack_Catalyst_IT_posing_questions_for.width-800.jpg" width="800"><h2 data-block-key="7cuje">6. Wrapping Up KohaCon Talks 2023</h2>As the third day of the conference concluded, the presentations wrapped up, paving the way for the upcoming two days of the hackathon. During the hackathon, members of both the Koha and Perl communities unite to work on Koha bugs and new features for Koha. It is also a time when new contributors are guided through their first contributions to Koha.Before the day ended, I had a chance to let the community know about the upcoming Catalyst Open Source Academy, set for January 2024. I called upon the Koha community to maintain their impressive record of supporting the high-school students who participate in Koha development. The community have been wonderfully supportive over the years by tagging bugs for academy students to fix, and working on testing and sign-offs so the students patchesee their patches make it in to Koha during intensive academy period.Lastly, the community received an official invitation to the next Kohacon, scheduled to coincide with the Perl conference in Montreal next September. The event will be hosted by InLibro, a prominent Canadian Koha support vendor. The anticipation for the next KohaCon was palpable, and the community is eagerly looking forward to returning next year .We can’t wait for next KohaCon 2024!<img alt="Formal invitation to KohaCon24 in Montreal, Canada in September next year by InLibro, at the closing of the talks for KohaCon23" class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/Formal_invitation_to_KohaCon24_in_Montreal_Can.width-800.jpg" width="800">

Here are the highlights from KohaCon 2023, day three, brought to you from our team attending the event in Helsinki.

kohacon-2023-day-three-highlights

Alex Buckley, Catalyst Koha Developer, is back to bring you the latest updates from day two <a href="https://perlkohacon.fi/?utm_source=catalystnz&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=kohacon-2023-day-two-highlights&amp;utm_content=link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KohaCon 2023</a> held in Helsinki. Missed the highlights from day one? <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/kohacon-2023-day-one-highlights?utm_source=catalystnz&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=kohacon-2023-day-two-highlights&amp;utm_content=link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check them out here.</a><h2 data-block-key="7rgsj">KohaCon 2023: Day Two Highlights</h2><h3 data-block-key="dj5nc">1. The Daily (Coffee) Grind</h3>Attending KohaCon yesterday, with my colleague Chris Cormack was fantastic. I woke up ready for day two feeling inspired and started with a morning networking session. Over coffee, I met some of the other great Koha community members I have worked with remotely for years. I also managed to meet others from the Perl community and even some Koha end-users. Meeting such a broad range of people with an interest in Koha is one of my favourite things about KohaCon.From there, we moved into some of the sessions for day two. Here were my highlights for the day...<h3 data-block-key="2jsq5">2. Katrin Fischer - How To Kill A Bug</h3>Katrin continued her mission inspiring new people to contribute to Koha. Yesterday she detailed the various ways non-technical people could contribute to Koha. Today she provided an example of how someone would actually resolve a problem (bug) in Koha by writing a code fix.Katrin demonstrated that code fixes don’t require coding knowledge. In fact, for this example, she wrote a fix for a typo in the database files that Koha uses for generating Koha notices. Essentially changing the incorrect wording ‘thankyou’ to ‘thank you’. Simple enough that anyone non-technical could make the change.She explained to get her fix added to the Koha codebase she would need to:<ul><li data-block-key="1k47r">Create a bug report in BugZilla. </li><li data-block-key="639c6">Attach the new code fix to it. </li><li data-block-key="12bbc">Change the status of the bug report to ‘Needs sign off’.</li></ul>Next, two other people from the Koha community (they cannot be from within your organisation) must test your fix. This is to ensure it meets the Koha coding guidelines prior to sign off. Once this is completed, it can be merged into the Koha codebase by the community appointed release maintainer.This process of getting your code fix added to the Koha codebase is called upstreaming.Katrin also reminded the community that a helpful title and bug description should be included in the bug report. And, in my experience as a Koha Developer, these definitely maximise your chance for getting your code change upstreamed.It was really nice seeing a number of librarians and Perl (but not yet Koha) developers attend Katrin’s talk. Hopefully there will be some inspired newbies ready to make their first Koha contribution soon.<h3 data-block-key="emgpt">3. Tarja Mäkinen - Holdings – why items are not enough</h3>I always find it fascinating to hear the different ways libraries use Koha. Particularly given I come to Koha from a technical, versus a library background. And this talk by Tarja who works at the National Library of Finland definitely delivered on that.Firstly, Tarja explained how the National Library of Finland chose storage for holdings records during their Voyager to Koha migration.Typically in Koha there are two types of catalogue record:<ul><li data-block-key="2c3po">Bibliographic records which store key information about a title. For example, the name, author, publication date, ISBN, ISSN, and so on. </li><li data-block-key="c9ded">Item records which store information about each copy of the bibliographic record the library catalogue holds. Often these are data values including: <ul><li data-block-key="d5p0c">The usual home library of the item. </li><li data-block-key="e0o0b">Where is the item currently located (holding branch). </li><li data-block-key="1fa3l">Barcode. </li><li data-block-key="c3era">Call number. </li><li data-block-key="d4t19">Replacement cost of the item.</li></ul></li></ul>However, Tarja highlighted that Koha item records have data fields focussed around circulation details, not the comprehensive collection descriptions that holding records require. For example, there is no appropriate field in Koha item records for storing conservation information about items. This information is especially important for libraries with old and rare collections to track and manage.Tarja explained how the National Library of Finland chose to use the 8XX MARC data fields for storing their holdings information. However, she suggested some improvements to Koha that would better support holdings records for other libraries in the future. One suggestion was implementing a better connection to the bibliographic record making it easier for libraries to define the information needed to be in the holding record.<img alt="" class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/Tarja_Makinen_suggesting_improvements_to_Koha_.width-800.jpg" width="800"><h3 data-block-key="copd7">4. Alex Buckley - Tip Top Training Tips</h3>I was also delighted to be able to present ‘Tip Top Training Tips’ - the first of my two KohaCon talks. I covered the tips and tricks I’ve learnt coming from a developer background to training librarians on how to use Koha both at in-person and on remote training sessions.One of the messages of my talk was that the flow of knowledge at a Koha training session is not just from the trainer to trainee. But, also visa versa. As a trainer you learn so much from your trainees about how they use their Koha instance. And also about real-life applications for new feature requests they would like added to Koha.It was such a treat presenting the talk in person. I loved interacting with the audience through the Q&amp;A session, the excellent questions and lovely feedback about my session at morning tea.<h3 data-block-key="46fc">5. Helsinki harbour sea cruise</h3>The day finished with a gorgeous sea cruise for 1.5 hours in Helsinki harbour. A small cruise ship carrying the conference attendees weaved it’s way through the beautiful forested, rocky islets.We were, again, incredibly lucky with the weather having blue sky and moderate temperatures for this sunset cruise. The end to another great conference day. We’re looking forward to day three.<img alt="Chris Cormack and Alex Buckley on their way to the Helsinki harbour sea cruise with the white and green doomed Helsinki Cathedral in the background" class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/KohaCon_Day_2_Helsinki.width-800.jpg" width="800"><img alt="One of the rocky, forested islands in the Helsinki harbour taken from the sea cruise taken by the Kohacon attendees" class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/Helsinki_harbour.width-800.jpg" width="800">

Catalyst Koha team attend KohaCon Day Two 2023 in Helsinki

Here are the highlights from KohaCon 2023, day two, brought to you from our team attending the event in Helsinki.

kohacon-2023-day-two-highlights

This year, <a href="https://perlkohacon.fi/?utm_source=catalystnz&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=kohacon-2023-day-one-highlights&amp;utm_content=link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KohaCon</a> is being hosted in Helsinki, Finland. And, the event is off to a great start! KohaCon 2023 is a combined showcase of <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/koha-library-management?utm_source=catakystnz&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=kohacon-2023-day-one-highlights&amp;utm_content=link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Koha</a> and <a href="https://www.perl.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Perl</a>. The reason being that Koha is primarily written in the Perl programming language. Additionally, Koha is now one of the world’s largest Perl systems. Our expert Catalyst Koha team are joining this year and sharing the highlights each day. So, if you didn’t manage to make it to Helsinki, keep tuned for daily coverage from our team Chris Cormack and Alex Buckley.<h2 data-block-key="3utmj">Meet Alex and Chris</h2>Chris Cormack and I, Alex Buckley, have been supporting our partner libraries to get the most out of Koha for a number of years. In fact, whilst my role is a Developer in the Catalyst Koha team, Chris is one of the original developers of the Koha project. And, one of the things we enjoy the most is seeing how Koha has evolved, and is still evolving for libraries globally. It’s equally fantastic to meet Koha users and our clients at the conference.And, given the conference is in Helsinki....I obviously had to squeezer in a bit of sight-seeing ahead of the event. So, after arriving mid-day on Sunday I went on a 5-hour bike, BBQ and sauna tour. Helsinki really is a beautiful, very green and definitely a park-filled city.<img alt="Old buildings in Helsinki" class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/KohaCon_2023_Helsinki_Houses.width-800.jpg" width="800">Some highlights from today that stand out to me are:<h2 data-block-key="a7ndf">KohaCon 2023: Day One Highlights</h2>Here are my highlights from KohaCon 2023, day one:<h3 data-block-key="1o2qm">1. Katrin Fischer - Gifting Back</h3>Katrin Fischer, long standing QA manager for Koha, hosted a talk detailing ‘how to bring your Koha to Koha’. In other words, how anyone, not just developers, can give back to the Koha community. After all, Koha means a reciprocal gift in Te Reo Māori.Katrin discussed how gifting can be done via working through:<ul><li data-block-key="e2bi4">Koha documentation: For example, writing and reviewing content for the Koha manual, or fixing typos and grammar. </li><li data-block-key="e3egd">Translations: A big job given the size of Koha! But, as Katrin said as you do your bit in translating, it also becomes easier for everyone after you.</li></ul>A real stand-out from this talk was that Katrin could only recommend being part of the community: You give something back. and the community gives you something much more in return. So true.Katrin also reminded the attendees to be unafraid of using <a href="https://koha-community.org/tag/bugzilla/?utm_source=catakystnz&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=kohacon-2023-day-one-highlights&amp;utm_content=link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bugzilla</a>, the Koha bug tracking platform. Essentially, Bugzilla is a system where anyone can:<ul><li data-block-key="6n21e">Create an account. </li><li data-block-key="9n2uq">File bug reports (a page describing a problem that needs fixing, or requesting a new feature). </li><li data-block-key="d5uja">Submit code.</li></ul>But, there might be hesitation for users – “what if someone has already submitted the bug?” But, basically, nothing can go wrong. For example, if you do report a bug that is already logged, a member of the friendly Koha community will let you know. Then, you would be able to switch to using the existing bug report instead.<h3 data-block-key="3h9su">2. National Library Of Finland Take The Koha Stage</h3>The second highlight for me were the two talks from staff at <a href="https://www.kansalliskirjasto.fi/en?utm_source=catakystnz&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=kohacon-2023-day-one-highlights&amp;utm_content=link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Library of Finland</a>. Sometimes, there is a false misconception that Koha isn’t suitable for a large library. So, these two talks set the record straight.Inkeri Hakulinen, Information Specialist at the National Library of Finland, covered how the National Library has one of the largest known Koha collections. It includes a staggering 3.78 million bibliographic records, 2.3 million holdings records, and 2.3 million item records!And, even though they are held in one physical building they use Koha in a unique way. Essentially they create different library branches for each room in the library. In contrast, it’s more typical for Koha libraries to create a different branch for each separate physical building in their library. For example a different branch for each town or suburb.But, the rationale for separate branches for each room was to enable easier rule definition for managing how resources within those rooms would be made available - a super innovative approach.<img alt="Inkeri Hakulinen from the National Library of Finland speaking on the huge Koha database that their Koha instance has." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/KohaCon_2023_National_Library_of_FInland.width-800.jpg" width="800">The day concluded with a reception at the main hall of National Library of Finland - a beautiful 1830’s library with very nice Finnish accordion music and singing. Plus, I got to the chance to meet other members in the Koha community that I have communicated with over email and chat for years. Stay tuned for the highlights from day two!

Catalyst Koha team attend KohaCon 2023 in Helsinki

Here are the highlights from KohaCon 2023, day one, brought to you from our team attending the event in Helsinki.

kohacon-2023-day-one-highlights

Wainui Witika-Park, a developer in the Catalyst Koha team, recently spent a week in China touring a range of businesses and making connections. The trip was organised by the North Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence (CAPE) which is a government funded entity that aims to bridge the gap between New Zealanders and the North Asia area, particularly in terms of trade and business opportunities. The trip Wainui took part in was specifically for technology.Wainui was contacted by Lee Timutimu from Te Matarau (Māori Tech Association) who recommended she apply for the trip. From first hearing about it, to applying, to being accepted, all happened in the space of a week. “I was quite nervous to travel overseas because of my low vision,” Wainui says. “I&#x27;ve only been to Australia to see my Dad and so I initially asked if I could take a support person with me on the trip.” However, due to the rapid pace in which the trip was being organised and the additional complication of visas, Wainui decided not to take a support person with her, and just went for it.“Going by myself was a really, really cool experience, and I&#x27;m very glad that I did do it by myself. I was supported by Rachel [Kingi, from CAPE], who came as a cultural safety person for us on the trip, and I was supported by the rest of the group and I think my independence and my outlook on it is a lot better. I learned how to be by myself a little bit, even though it was quick and I can take those independent skills and incorporate that back into my daily life.”<img alt="Wainui standing next to a sign for Cyberport Center of Global FinTech Innovation." class="richtext-image full-width" height="1067" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/cyberport.width-800.jpg" width="800">The Tech Study Tour was a week long in total and included time spent in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Nansha and Guangzhou. The group was made up of people who work in or are associated with the tech industry. Wainui was the only developer; she says many of them were CEOs or had their own start-up companies. “It was quite cool to have such a diverse range of people to talk to about things,” she says. “I really learnt a lot from the cohort itself.” One of her main takeaways from the trip was the career aspect of it; developing skills and making connections.“We got told &#x27;take your expectations and your biases away first and just see what it&#x27;s like&#x27;. I don&#x27;t think I had a full cultural experience,” Wainui says. “I didn&#x27;t see really any poverty or anything and everything was really clean, it was the very cherry coated version of it, which I&#x27;m very aware of. That culture and experience, to try and do shopping and things with the language barrier, which I&#x27;ve never experienced before, was really, really cool.” The language barrier meant that one of the main reasons they were there, the ARVR Fair, was hard to engage with.<img alt="Wainui stands in front of a large sign at the ARVR fair in China." class="richtext-image full-width" height="1067" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/arvrfair.width-800.jpg" width="800">One of the things Wainui learned was about opportunities to take a technology business over to that part of the world. “I&#x27;ve learned about how Hong Kong is a bridging country between the rest of the world and China, as it was a British colony. So they have a lot of laws that are more similar to the outside world and so things can go and get set up in Hong Kong and then easily shift to China from there.”“That&#x27;s something I had never had any idea or understanding about as I have not generally been interested in business before. But talking to people who have lived experience and who have a passion for these things is making me think about it in a different light. Also thinking about the why behind your business. A lot of them are to make money, but there are other opportunities out there that can make an impact.”The group visited a range of different tech businesses in each location. In Hong Kong they saw how cheaply you can set up a company in Hong Kong and China by renting a desk in a co-working space, such as Cyberport, Bee Plus, and Innovation Bay, which meant businesses had a physical office location with a low entry cost.One of the businesses that sparked Wainui’s interest was iFlyTek in Guangzhou, which has technology that instantaneously translates from one language to another. Their main product translates from English to Chinese and vice versa, with various different options between speech and text.<img alt="A group of 9 smiling people are standing by a sign for iFLYTEK." class="richtext-image full-width" height="599" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/iflytek.width-800.jpg" width="800">The Baidu Apollo Park was another highlight; they have autonomous driver-less vehicles that are already deployed on the roads in Guangzhou, and are being tested around Beijing. Different technologies are combined, including radar, lidar, and image recognition to drive the cars autonomously, as well as implementing Internet of Things devices. “So they&#x27;re using sensors on the roads, they&#x27;re using cameras on the roads, everything&#x27;s just deployed into the car as well as on the roads to make an as seamless as possible autonomous experience,” says Wainui. “This works well because they work with the Chinese government to be allowed to monitor these things.”<img alt="A group of people standing outside the Baidu Apollo park in China." class="richtext-image full-width" height="599" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/baidu.width-800.jpg" width="800">A visit to the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise offices in Guangzhou led to meeting user experience designer Peter Reid, who works with accessibility, in particular accessibility for intellectually disabled people. “He was such a pleasure to meet and probably one of the biggest highlights of my trip,” Wainui says. “He said that he came particularly because he saw that I was interested in accessibility and and we had a lovely korero where one of our other cohort members said that she has a daughter who is non verbal and really appreciates the work that people such as Peter and myself are advocating and doing and that was really, really humbling. Awesome just to know that all my forcing people to think about accessibility is actually helping people.”<img alt="A group of people standing and sitting in front of a red wall with art on it at the NZTE office in Guangzhou." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/NZTEguangzhou.width-800.jpg" width="800">“One other highlight of my trip was going to Chali. It&#x27;s a tea factory and so it was a little bit less tech based, but it was still very cool because we saw some incredible machinery that helps them to produce their products and some of them have strengths in some areas and weaknesses in some areas. So they use a combination of different machinery and humans to create and package up the products. We also saw people that were studying their masters in tea and I think this was a really cool place to go because it touched on some historical culture of China as tea as comes from China and the British stole it from them. It was lovely experience. Got to do some tea sampling, buy some gifts for back home, and it was just a really cute thing to add in.”“They also had a tea library where they used a cataloguing system which was very exciting for me as I work on <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/koha-library-management" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Koha</a> which is a library system!”<img alt="A group of people are sitting and standing in front of a row of boxes at the Chali tea factory." class="richtext-image full-width" height="599" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/chali.width-800.jpg" width="800">

A group of people standing outside the BeePlus building.

Wainui Witika-Park, a developer in the Catalyst Koha team, recently spent a week in China touring a range of businesses and making connections.

technology-and-connections-week-in-china

In this edition of &quot;A Day in the Life at Catalyst&quot; we meet Haajar Pengelly, Delivery Lead<h2 data-block-key="e6cae">What does your role involve?</h2>As a Delivery Lead, my goal is to deliver my clients’ requirements on time and within budget. The only constant is change! Whether it is doing regular maintenance or a major transformational project, private or public sector, Python or Java based applications, I support a range of clients across different types of systems - what remains the same though is that they are mission critical systems to our clients and to New Zealanders. I work closely with our internal team and clients to keep systems operating at their optimal level, supported and secure. Having this assurance provides our clients with a great base to think about the type of transformational improvements they want to make. I then manage these as projects and work to deliver them on time, within budget and up to the high standards that our clients expect from us. It is a never ending cycle – we just want to make these systems better and better!<h2 data-block-key="5m8k2">What does your typical day look like?</h2>I am an early bird and I start by doing a mental scan of all my clients and what will be top of mind today. Mornings are usually filled with stand ups with the different teams that I work with - so that everyone knows the priorities for the day. As a Project Manager by trade, my schedules, budgets, risk and action registers are my bread and butter – so it is important that I spend time to keep them current. They are how I track what’s going on, whether things are going according to plan or if there is an indication that a risk is about to be realised. I hold regular catch ups with clients throughout the day too so that they know what’s going on, and how we are tracking against our timeline and budget. <img alt="Haajar Pengelly sitting in front of a computer with the Catalyst logo" class="richtext-image full-width" height="1066" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/HaajarPengelly_blogphoto.width-800.jpg" width="800"><h2 data-block-key="3i6pd">Tell us about a recent problem you helped solve?</h2>We all know that sometimes there are just not enough time in the day to do the things we want – the same with our clients as well. I recently helped a client to prioritise their workstreams and then streamlined our delivery approach so that we can help them meet their milestones within a very tight timeframe. There was a bit of wrangling at our end to be honest but everyone stepped up – it is just what we do here at Catalyst and we do it well! <h2 data-block-key="edjhl">What do you enjoy about working at Catalyst?</h2>I am very lucky to work with so many talented people here at Catalyst – Business Analysts, Developers, Testers and System Administrators to name just a few - who are crucial members of Catalyst without whom I won’t be able to do my job. Catalyst is a very social company as well. I was very excited to experience my first Catathon in late July where everyone got together to learn from each other – I have never experienced such an event in any of my other jobs – how lucky am I!

A headshot of a person with long dark hair sitting in front of a computer. Text reads 'a day in the life of a delivery lead'.

In this edition of &quot;A Day in the Life at Catalyst&quot; we meet Haajar Pengelly, Delivery Lead

day-in-the-life-delivery-lead

June saw an eager team of Catalystas “fight discrimination with perspiration” for the Burnett Foundation’s annual Sweat With Pride fundraiser.With input from various staff members and some eager volunteers, a Catalyst workplace team was registered to sweat 21 minutes a day in support of the Burnett Foundation Aotearoa (formerly the NZ AIDS Foundation), Rainbow Youth, OutLine, and Tīwhanawhana. Why 21 minutes? That’s the minimum amount of activity we need for happy and healthy bodies and minds. It sounds easy, but currently 50% of Kiwis aren’t meeting this goal.<img alt="A list of names of people from Catalyst with the amount they fundraised and the number of minutes they spent exercising." class="richtext-image full-width" height="820" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/sweatybetties.width-800.png" width="733">Our team of Sweaty Betties supported each other throughout the month, and kept motivated with daily photo challenges and weekly group events including:<ul><li data-block-key="5ibos">a dance party in the Catalyst HQ cafeteria </li><li data-block-key="d9la7">a scavenger hunt </li><li data-block-key="fg3bf">yoga </li><li data-block-key="6qi34">frisbee in Civic Square </li><li data-block-key="4g1t0">and finally a waterfront walk followed by lunch at Rosie’s Cantina </li></ul>Thanks to our amazing friends and workmates, and some dollar-matching support days from BNZ and Spark Health, we raised over $5,300 for projects that provide essential physical, mental and sexual health services for Rainbow* New Zealanders and sweated for a combined total of 16,500 minutes!In fact, Team Catalyst worked so hard we finished up #18 on the leaderboard of a hundred-plus workplaces registered with SWP23! This was a fantastic result for us, in a Top 20 made up of large nation-wide organisations and international high-profile high-flyers.In true creative Cata-style, Koha developer and leading Sweaty Betty, Aleisha Amohia used the combined photos from our daily photo challenge to create a rainbow visual summary of our efforts:<img alt="The word Catalyst is spelled out in block letters using photos which form a rainbow collage." class="richtext-image full-width" height="119" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/sweat_with_pride_catalyst1.width-800.png" width="800">By the end of June, Aotearoa’s nearly-450 Sweaty Betties had been active for nearly 1,900,000 minutes and raised over $600,000. It was a fantastic time, a lot of fun, and we’re all very proud of the support Catalyst received.Supporting our Rainbow community is a year-long effort at Catalyst, but we’re looking forward jumping back in to Sweat With Pride 2024. Our thanks to all our donors, friends, family, and fellow Catalystas who supported us this year! * ‘Rainbow’ is a term that can be used to describe the many variations of sexual attraction and sex/gender identity, including intersex, transgender, genderqueer, asexual, takatāpui, fa’afafine, lesbian, bisexual and gay people that make up our community. We know that ‘Rainbow’ is not the preferred term for everybody.Sweat With Pride: <a href="https://sweatwithpride.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://sweatwithpride.com</a>The Burnett Foundation: <a href="https://www.burnettfoundation.org.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.burnettfoundation.org.nz</a> (contains R18 &amp; graphic health content)Rainbow Youth: <a href="http://ry.org.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://ry.org.nz/</a>Outline: <a href="https://outline.org.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://outline.org.nz/</a>Tīwhanawhana: <a href="http://www.tiwhanawhana.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.tiwhanawhana.com/</a>

The word Catalyst is spelled out in block letters using photos which form a rainbow collage.

June saw an eager team of Catalystas “fight discrimination with perspiration” for the Burnett Foundation’s annual Sweat With Pride fundraiser.

catalystas-fight-discrimination-with-perspiration

<h3 data-block-key="pwsv4">In this edition of &quot;A Day in the Life at Catalyst&quot; we meet Evonne Cheung, Senior Visual Designer.</h3><img alt="An illustration of a faceless person with long dark hair wearing a red hoodie with a small unicorn on their shoulder" class="richtext-image left" height="251" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/evonne_cheung.width-500.png" width="251"><h2 data-block-key="ah86t">What does your role involve?</h2>I’m a Senior Visual Designer at Catalyst. My job is to create visually appealing and engaging designs that communicate messages, enhance user experience, and support branding. The value that a good design can add to an experience is often seen only when the design doesn’t exist, when you have to fight through information on a page to get to what you need, and when visual flow is illogical and things are screaming at you visually when they shouldn’t be. Designers take the frustration out of systems by organising the presentation of that information so that you see what we want you to see, using subtle visual cues to guide your eyes without you being aware of it. There’s always a purpose to what we design, right down to the white space on a page.<h2 data-block-key="82r25">What does your typical day look like?</h2>Variety is the spice of life, and as a designer I get to contribute to a lot of different projects within the company across various mediums. One minute I could be designing a logo for a brand, or creating marketing material for them in print and screen; next minute I could be working with BA/UX to create wireframes and designs for a website. My background is in animation and multimedia so I really enjoy when I get to stretch that muscle combining my creative illustration and composition skills with logical technical thinking. Most of my day is slogging away in front of a giant fancy pants monitor, where I can be heard but not seen (’cause of giant monitor), grunting and making weird animal noises while using graphic and layout software trying to action what I see in my head onto the screen.Details of a specific taskI’m blessed in the sense that I’m a unicorn in the design world where I am a fully fledged designer who can also do front end development. Often designers can create wonderful designs but the form overpowers the function when they lack the understanding of how things will be built. It’s about knowing how I can push my designs to still be functional without losing creative flare. You don’t want designs just to be ‘colouring in’; it serves no purpose, and design should always be purposeful and aid the function of the thing you’ve designed for. Otherwise it’s art and caters to your own personal preferences.I get to build some of the things that I design, specifically in Mahara, a project that I’ve worked on since the beginning. I created the brand from ground up, working with the team to fine tune the interface and create extension material for the community. It’s lovely to be able to follow a project through and be involved every step of the way, really building the brand personality up and have that time to see the design mature and change. Also Kristina Hoeppner, who leads the Mahara project, bless her, gives me a lot of creative freedom to really utilise all my creative skills in different ways: we’ve designed characters, merchandise, and even Lego mini-figures for the community!<img alt="A hand holding a stylus is drawing some cartoon line drawings of people." class="richtext-image full-width" height="494" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/evonne_drawing.width-800.png" width="800"><h2 data-block-key="ds9oo">Tell us about a recent problem you helped solve</h2>Design can be very subjective; people can have a dislike towards something for no other reason than “because I don’t like it,” and that can create a problem where we’re chasing personal preferences.The way I approach any project to avoid this happening is to first establish the design objective, or what I call the 3W’s:<ul><li data-block-key="25u2d">What (What are we doing, what is the deliverable at the end of this) </li><li data-block-key="88dqg">Who (Who are we doing it for, establish the brand personality and describe the intended audience) </li><li data-block-key="de011">and Why (Why are we doing this, is there an existing issue we’re trying to resolve). </li></ul>Whenever I hit a blocker I will come back to these 3Ws to check that I am on course with my design. When you have something to measure the success of a project by, you avoid things falling into the personal preference category, and you can justify design choices by the objectives we need to meet. Clients need to be guided through this design journey. I’ve had a client come completely unprepared to a design briefing, and that’s okay because it’s hard to know what you want unless you understand what the issues are with your existing design. That’s when I have to guide them with specific direction reducing questions, or by showing them examples so they have something visual to talk to, to try and really define the creative area that I can work within. An open brief is the worst brief: you want boundaries, you want to know where the limits are. As designers we have to infer the information we get from our clients; a lot of it can be non-verbal and we learn to read between the lines.<h2 data-block-key="bpp4b">What is it like working for Catalyst?</h2>I’ve been working at Catalyst for coming up 17 years, that in itself should be a testimony to what working for the company is like. When I started, we could fit the whole company into a meeting room, and the percentage of people named ‘Andrew’ outnumbered the percentage of females in the company. Now, we have multiple branches across the globe and 300+ employees, so the company culture has definitely evolved, but the main thing that has stuck over the years is that Catalyst takes care of each other. It’s hard to find a company of this size that still displays passion for what they do, like Catalyst does. Even though Catalyst is predominantly a software development company, they appreciate the expertise visual designers can bring to their projects and understand that design is an essential part of any project, and the value we can bring to projects from the perspective of user engagement and brand establishment for the clients.I remember not long after I started at Catalyst, one of the directors asked me how I thought they were doing. It wasn’t just about my performance; they see their performance as an employer as something they need to check up on. That’s very refreshing, to know that we are valued as people and that we’re working together towards a common goal. Our managing director, Don Christie, often uses this Māori proverb: He aha te mea nui? Māku e kii atu, he tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata. (Translation: What is the most important thing in the world? Well, let me tell you, it is people, it is people, it is people.) I think that sums this company up quite well, it is all about the people. The people make the culture. It’s not something that can be generated through social events or company benefits, people naturally gravitate towards like-minded people, people who help each other be the best that they can be.

A black background with the words 'a day in the life' in white and an illustration of a faceless person with long dark hair wearing a red hoodie with a unicorn on their shoulder.

In this edition of &quot;A Day in the Life at Catalyst&quot; we meet Evonne Cheung, Senior Visual Designer.

day-in-the-life-senior-visual-designer

The Catalyst Koha team is delighted to join the Koha community in celebrating the release of Koha 23.05. This release contains 26 new features, 145 enhancements and 701 bug and security fixes.Every six months the Koha community does a major release, such as Koha 23.05. Major releases are when most new features and enhancements are added to Koha, so it’s always interesting to see what’s going to be available to libraries in their next upgrade.The Catalyst Koha team has highlighted some of the new functionality and fixes available to libraries upon upgrading to Koha 23.05.For the full Koha release notes see <a href="https://koha-community.org/koha-23-05-released/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://koha-community.org/koha-23-05-released/</a>If you would like to check out the new version as you read along, see <a href="https://demo.mykoha.co.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://demo.mykoha.co.nz/</a><h2 data-block-key="7g7qk">Acquisitions</h2><h3 data-block-key="5u31f">Receiving multiple order lines at once [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=8179" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">8179</a>]</h3>When receiving basket orders from vendors, Koha libraries now have the ability to select and process multiple at once.Selected orders can be browsed using the added &#x27;Next order&#x27; and &#x27;Previous order&#x27; buttons.<img alt="‘Previous order’ and ‘Next order’ buttons show in the bottom-right of the screen when editing received orders" class="richtext-image full-width" height="345" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha.width-800.png" width="800">After editing each order, without reloading the page or having to search for them again, a convenient &#x27;Confirm&#x27; button allows us to receive all orders at once.This opens the door for new enhancements like adding default actions on all selected orders and more.<h3 data-block-key="8itup">Revert suggestion status to ‘Accepted’ when orders made from a suggestion are cancelled [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=33098" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">33098</a>]</h3>This enhancement was sponsored by Waikato Institute of Technology. When a library user makes a suggestion for the library to purchase, the status of the suggestion may be changed to ‘ORDERED’ once an order is placed for that item.With this enhancement, cancelling an order will automatically change the status of the suggestion back to ‘ACCEPTED’ from ‘ORDERED’.<img alt="Suggestions with a status of ORDERED are reverted to ACCEPTED if the associated order is cancelled, as shown in the suggestions management interface." class="richtext-image full-width" height="192" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha2_kjbGj9O.width-800.png" width="800"><h2 data-block-key="76ead">Cataloguing</h2><h3 data-block-key="mv5u">Add a simple way to add ‘Harmful content warnings’ to catalogue records [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=31123" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">31123</a>]</h3>This new feature allows librarians to pick a note field to use to store &#x27;Content warnings&#x27; about bibliographic records.The feature depends on the new `ContentWarningField` system preference to be set to a MARC field. For Koha libraries using MARC21, it is recommended to use a 59x field.<img alt="MARC fields configured to hold content warnings will display on the record in both the OPAC and staff interface." class="richtext-image full-width" height="326" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha3_ok69rk6.width-800.png" width="800"><h3 data-block-key="60oi2">Strip leading/trailing whitespace characters from input fields when cataloguing [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=30358" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30358</a>]</h3>This is a feature that may be of interest to those who use Koha with a special interest in cataloguing. Sponsored by Educational Services Australia SCIS, this feature adds a new system preference `StripWhitespaceChars` which, when enabled, will strip leading and trailing whitespace characters from all fields when cataloguing both bibliographic records and authority records. Whitespace characters that will be stripped are spaces, newlines, carriage returns, and tabs<img alt="This feature depends on a new StripWhitespaceChars system preference, which is disabled by default." class="richtext-image full-width" height="231" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha4_sR8y69H.width-800.png" width="800"><h3 data-block-key="dhse8">Ability to change authority type while editing record [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=30930" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30930</a>]</h3>This feature, sponsored by Educational Services Australia SCIS, provides the ability to easily change the MARC authority type used while editing an authority record. This means you can easily switch the framework being used, including tags, default values, mandatory fields, and more.<img alt="The authority type can be changed from within the Settings menu while editing an authority record." class="richtext-image full-width" height="430" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha5_9gmCPQY.width-800.png" width="565"><h2 data-block-key="c9e4g">Lists</h2><h3 data-block-key="c4gk3">Add permission and setting for public lists to allow staff with permission to edit contents [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=30418" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30418</a>]</h3>Many Koha libraries were experiencing a problem when staff in control of public lists moved on from the library, and they could no longer make changes to the list. Koha now has an option to allow changes to lists from ‘permitted staff only’.<img alt="Lists can now allow changes from permitted staff." class="richtext-image full-width" height="474" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha6_9vX5a3G.width-800.png" width="642">A permitted staff member requires the ‘catalogue’ permission enabled and the new ‘edit_public_list_contents’ sub-permission enabled. With both of these permissions they will be able to edit all lists that allow changes from ‘permitted staff only’.<img alt="The ‘catalogue’ permission is required to log into the staff interface, and the ‘edit_public_list_contents’ sub-permission is required to make changes to staff-permitted lists." class="richtext-image full-width" height="213" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha7_vxuSSc9.width-800.png" width="800"><h2 data-block-key="2qj2m">Notices</h2><h3 data-block-key="50eus">Move emails for sending cart and list contents into notices tool [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=3150" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">3150</a>]</h3>This enhancement creates notices using Template Toolkit syntax for sending emails containing cart (named CART) and list (named LIST) contents. This provides libraries more flexibility around what the emails contain and means they can be more translatable.<img alt="The CART notice is now available to customise under Tools -&gt; Notices and slips." class="richtext-image full-width" height="442" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha8_5N9Dfmc.width-800.png" width="800"><h2 data-block-key="9dvor">OPAC</h2><h3 data-block-key="36uiq">Add ‘Report a concern’ feature for patrons to report concerns about catalog records [<a href="https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=31028" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">31028</a>]</h3>This brings a new catalogue concerns feature to the OPAC and staff interface, allowing non-cataloguers to report issues with catalogue records from the record details pages.Reported concerns will be visible in the dashboard on the staff interface and available from the cataloguing home page.The feature can be independently enabled for OPAC and staff interface using the `OpacCatalogConcerns` and `CatalogConcerns` system preferences.<img alt="If the OpacCatalogConcerns system preference is enabled, a button will show on a record detail page to ‘Report a concern’." class="richtext-image full-width" height="198" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha9_xqaaliQ.width-800.png" width="546"><img alt="Staff members can view and manage pending concerns via the staff interface." class="richtext-image full-width" height="268" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha10.width-800.png" width="800"><h3 data-block-key="60egn">Show patron’s ‘savings’ on the OPAC [<a href="https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=31051" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">31051</a>]</h3>This is an exciting new feature, sponsored by Horowhenua Libraries Trust, that allows library users to see how much money they have saved by using the library instead of purchasing new books.This feature can be enabled using the OPACShowSavings system preference, which sets where on the OPAC a user may be shown their savings.<img alt="Select where on the OPAC a user may be shown their savings with the OPACShowSavings system preference." class="richtext-image full-width" height="236" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha11.width-800.png" width="800"><img alt="Savings may be shown in the OPACUserSummary." class="richtext-image full-width" height="278" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha12.width-800.png" width="530"><img alt="Savings may be shown on the user’s summary page." class="richtext-image full-width" height="233" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha13.width-800.png" width="800"><img alt="Savings may be shown on the user’s circulation history page." class="richtext-image full-width" height="147" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha14.width-800.png" width="800"><h3 data-block-key="8us8l">Patrons should be able to delete their patron messages [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=12029" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">12029</a>]</h3>This enhancement adds the ability for users to dismiss an OPAC message, marking it as read to remove it from their summary page.<img alt="Users can ‘dismiss’ messages to remove them from their summary page." class="richtext-image full-width" height="297" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha15.width-800.png" width="800"><h2 data-block-key="6q959">Reports</h2><h3 data-block-key="v8ae">Add auto-completion to our SQL reports editor [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=32613" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">32613</a>]</h3>Auto-complete is now available when writing reports using SQL. This makes accessing the database values easier, therefore simplifying the report writing process.<img alt="In order to achieve auto-complete for columns when writing SQL reports, prepend the column name with the table name, followed by a period. For example: &amp;#x27;borrowers.surname&amp;#x27;" class="richtext-image full-width" height="373" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha16.width-800.png" width="653"><h3 data-block-key="3rfji">Tools</h3><h3 data-block-key="d0lb">More visibly highlight records that cannot be batch deleted/modified [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=31611" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">31611</a>]</h3>When batch deleting or modifying, sometimes items or records will not qualify for deletion or modification. For example, items that are currently issued to a user will not be safe to delete.With this enhancement sponsored by Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, Koha libraries can easily see which items are not going to be deleted. Hovering over the ‘X’ in the highlighted row will provide details about why it will not be deleted.<img alt="Items that are not safe to delete are clearly highlighted with an ‘X’ holding more details about why it cannot be deleted." class="richtext-image full-width" height="250" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha17.width-800.png" width="800"><h2 data-block-key="bdopa">Command-line utilities</h2><h3 data-block-key="app18">Specify action of action_logs entries to purge [<a href="http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=32686" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">32686</a>]</h3>Koha comes with a script that can be run daily to ‘cleanup the database’. It can clear out logged in sessions, sent messages, and old action logs, for example. Many libraries use specific action logs in their daily operations and do not want to clear them out, but may be happy to delete other logs.With this enhancement sponsored by Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, Koha administrators can now configure the cleanup_database.pl script to purge logs based on the action, allowing libraries to be more intentional about which logs they store.For example, libraries may be interested in user modification logs but not need to store logs about when a user is added to their system. Koha administrators can now implement this for the cleanup script../cleanup_database.pl --logs 365 --log-module=MEMBERS --log-action=CREATE --confirmRead more about the 872 features, enhancements, and security and bug fixes of the 23.05 Release on the <a href="https://koha-community.org/koha-23-05-released/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Koha Community website</a>.Written by Wainui Witika-Park, Catalyst Koha Developer and Aleisha Amohia, Catalyst Koha Technical Lead.<h3 data-block-key="flq3i">Catalyst Koha</h3>If you have any questions or comments about this News item, or would like some support with your Koha instance, you are welcome to email us at <a href="mailto:koha-support@catalyst.net.nz">koha-support@catalyst.net.nz</a> (New Zealand) or <a href="mailto:koha-support@catalyst-au.net">koha-support@catalyst-au.net</a> (Australia).<a href="https://twitter.com/catalystkoha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Follow Catalyst Koha on Twitter</a>!<a href="https://catalyst.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=62457ff5060d15ee3c07d3fc4&amp;id=b73fbdcac8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Subscribe to our newsletter</a>

‘Previous order’ and ‘Next order’ buttons show in the bottom-right of the screen when editing received orders

The Catalyst Koha team is delighted to join the Koha community in celebrating the release of Koha 23.05. This release contains 26 new features, 145 enhancements and 701 bug and security fixes.

koha-release-2305

In the first of our &quot;A Day in the Life at Catalyst&quot; series, we hear from Connor Adamson, a Python Developer in our Bespoke team.<img alt="Connor Adamson has short dark hair and is wearing glasses and a suit and smiling." class="richtext-image left" height="666" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/connor.width-500.jpg" width="500"><h2 data-block-key="bdb01">What does your role involve?</h2>In the Bespoke team here at Catalyst we focus on unique projects catered to clients rather than providing an existing product. We therefore work closely with clients throughout the development process to establish requirements, test, and iterate on the prototypes using their feedback to ultimately provide a solution that meets their needs and is robust. Even though I am a developer, the nature of our work means I have visibility of the many different areas of the project, not just the source code. I find this interesting because I am able to learn secondary skills that help me become a better developer. The skills I have learned from my Project Manager for example help me better understand the client’s perspective on things and I am able to adjust my mindset to help the client achieve their goals.<h2 data-block-key="8ncos">What does your typical day look like?</h2>I start my day by catching up on emails or messages from other developers. Once my inbox is tidy and everything is squared away I normally continue working on a feature for a client. What I’m doing depends on where I’m at in the development process. I could have just started and need to estimate how long a feature will take and break it down into key tasks. I could be in the middle of developing the feature and writing the code, tweaking the code based on client feedback, or writing release notes in preparation for a release later in the day, it all depends.After a couple of hours I like to stretch my legs and go down to Level 3 with the Tech Lead and Project Manager for a coffee and to do the daily quiz in The Post. Level 3 is the common area in our Wellington office, where people often go when they want to step away from their desk so there is always someone interesting to talk to and the conversations are always varied. One day you could talk with someone about 3D printing, the next a particularly difficult problem they are trying to solve, the next their cat. It’s varied but never boring (unless you’re not a cat person).In the afternoon I will normally catch up with the project Tech Lead regarding the feature I am working on. This is a chance for me to get feedback on how I have implemented something or an aspect I am unsure on. Likewise it is a chance for the Tech Lead to ask me any questions they have. This normally clears a few roadblocks and it’s full steam ahead with feature development. If feature development can’t continue for whatever reason then I will normally spend my time learning about a new framework or contributing to open source projects.<h2 data-block-key="2fcp4">Tell us about a recent problem you helped solve?</h2>One of the projects I was recently on involved expanding a project that was previously managed by an internal development team under the client. The main challenge on this project was the documentation, it was perfect for the internal team as they knew the background but posed quite a challenge for the team here at Catalyst. I spent quite a lot of time reading the documentation, making connections and forming a picture of what the current project did and where the client wanted to go. The next step was sharing my understanding with the rest of the team. It’s one thing to understand something yourself but trying to convey that same information to others can be challenging because everybody has a different thought process and some information is always lost in translation. This was another exercise about shifting my mindset. I had to understand what someone’s current understanding was and what I had said that led them to that conclusion before I could try and correct it. Sometimes my point of view was wrong and they helped me understand what the situation was.Once everybody was on the same page it was time to start development. This was rewarding because we had done the leg work to get on the same page and when someone asked a question during code review we had that shared understanding to fall back on and we could refer back to the documentation which we understood now.<h2 data-block-key="fhmbt">What do you enjoy about working at Catalyst?</h2>Catalyst is a very open and supportive place to work. I believe it is the diversity amongst the people who work here which makes conversations on Level 3 so interesting. If you have a question about something, chances are you can put a question in one of the chat channels and someone will have an answer.Various events are hosted as well, from board games to yoga to kapa haka, there is bound to be something that interests you. People are free to participate as much or as little as they like, Catalyst understands that at the end of the day attending events might simply not be your thing.There are two events that come to mind for me personally. In May 2023 I spoke at the monthly Pizza Thursday Talks about my experiences drawing art. Pizza Thursday is hosted every month and people are free to do a 10-15 minute presentation on whatever they like. I chose to do a Pizza Thursday Talk because I wanted to push myself to overcome my fear of public speaking, plus I thought the progress I was documenting after each session was interesting and thought others might think so too.The second highlight is hosting a Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a few co-workers every second Friday. I’ve enjoyed this because is a very social event where everybody is collaborating on a shared narrative and I as the Dungeon Master have to navigate the flow of events and keep the story going. At the end of the day I’m there to tell stories and have a laugh at the end of the work week, it’s a really nice transition to the weekend.I was new to Python when I first started so there was a bit of a learning curve. Catalyst had a lot of resources I could use to get up to speed. The Tech Lead took their time to explain the project to me and made sure I understood how something worked before moving on. I’m glad they didn’t hand me a 150 page technical document and tell me to read it and come back with any questions. There is also a Python Channel where I could ask questions and someone would answer when they had a moment, even if they weren’t part of my team.I&#x27;ve worked at Catalyst for awhile now and I still have fortnightly catchups with my manager. We sit down and discuss how things are going on the current project, what skills I am interested in developing and where I would like to be in a year’s time. I appreciate these meetings because it allows my manager and I to be on the same page with where things are at. If I’m stressed about a particular issue on a project we can talk through the situation and find a way to manage it.I have learned a lot working at Catalyst and will continue to do so as time goes on. I’m incredibly grateful for the support that people have shown me since I started and I hope to show that same support to people joining the company in the future.

A graphic with a headshot of Connor Adamson who has short dark hair and glasses and is wearing a suit and smiling, with the text "a day in the life"

In the first of our &quot;A Day in the Life at Catalyst&quot; series, we hear from Connor Adamson, a Python Developer in our Bespoke team.

day-in-the-life-bespoke-python-developer

<div>
 <iframe width="200" height="113" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IGeaftdN8aM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen title="Mahara 23.04: Outcomes portfolios"></iframe>
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The Catalyst team released <a href="https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=9296" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mahara 23.04</a> at the end of April 2023. This release of the open source portfolio platform comes with two major changes and numerous usability improvements.Together with Wiltshire College and University Centre in the UK, Catalyst developed the outcomes portfolio suite of features. It makes it possible for colleges working with education, health, and care plans (EHCP) to use a more structured portfolio approach for students with special education needs. A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5lMRzj-BrI" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">detailed walk through</a> shows how to set up outcomes portfolios and use them.Carleton University in Canada funded the work to change the submission workflow in Mahara. Copies of portfolios instead of original portfolios are submitted, giving students more flexibility to continue to develop their portfolios while the copies are being assessed. This process helps in particular organisations connecting Mahara to a learning management system other than Moodle via LTI Advantage.Catalyst has been the primary development company of Mahara since 2006. Together with clients and community contributors, new features are added to the software to enable a diverse range of organisations to use electronic portfolios from school to the workplace.Watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50_p0vJb6do" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feature release video</a> for a quick overview of highlighted new features and get in touch with us if you&#x27;d like to discuss how portfolios can fit into your organisation&#x27;s learning ecosystem and see Mahara in action.If you&#x27;d like to stay up to date on all things Mahara and portfolios, <a href="https://eepurl.com/h_r2Rb" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">subscribe to our monthly Mahara newsletter</a> that is published every first Wednesday of the month.

A green graphic with the outline of a tree and the text Mahara 23.04

The Catalyst team released <a href="https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=9296">Mahara 23.04</a> at the end of April 2023. This release of the open source portfolio platform comes with two major changes and numerous usability improvements.

mahara-2304-outcomes-portfolio-submission-assessment

By Danyon Sewell and Aleisha Amohia, Catalyst Koha developersLibraries are making it easier for users to log in to Koha by implementing single sign-on (SSO). Single sign-on is a method of external authentication that enables users to log in to multiple applications with one set of credentials. This means users could conveniently and securely go through one login portal to access their intranet, email, and other systems, as well as their Koha library system. There are different protocols (agreed set of rules) for implementing SSO. This blog post will cover several authentication options that Koha offers to allow users to log in. <h2 data-block-key="4nmvh">Local login</h2>The basic method of authentication offered by Koha is local login. <img alt="Local login indicated by the yellow box on the Catalyst demo site" class="richtext-image full-width" height="374" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha-1.width-800.png" width="800">All Koha accounts can have their own username and password defined within Koha. Local login still works even if additionally implementing SSO. This can be useful when there are library users from outside of your organisation, or IT vendors, who need access to Koha and do not have SSO accounts. <img alt="Setting local login credentials in the staff interface" class="richtext-image full-width" height="272" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha-2.width-800.png" width="385">However it does mean that users could continue to access Koha using local login credentials even after they leave your organisation and their SSO account is removed, so you should ensure they do not have local login credentials in order to prevent this from occurring.<h2 data-block-key="cs6sj">OAuth 2.0 and OIDC</h2>OpenID Connect (OIDC) is a simple identity layer built on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol. The OIDC layer verifies the identity of the user, and the OAuth protocol authorises their access to Koha.Koha 22.11 introduced a feature that makes it easier than ever to implement SSO using the OAuth and OIDC. Library IT departments can configure much of the SSO setup themselves via the Koha staff interface. Configuration of SSO with OAuth and OIDC can be found in the Koha Administration module of Koha, under ‘Identity providers’. Once configured, the library must ask their Koha vendor to restart services for the changes to take effect.<img alt="Sample configuration for an identity provider" class="richtext-image full-width" height="796" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha-3.width-800.png" width="648">With this feature, it is now possible to integrate with multiple identity providers simultaneously. This means library IT departments can now easily allow both users within their organisation and users from external vendors to be able to SSO authenticate to Koha. They would simply need to add multiple entries in the &#x27;Identity providers&#x27; page for each domain and then ask their Koha vendor to restart services.<img alt="Multiple identity providers shown on the OPAC to select the best option for login" class="richtext-image full-width" height="598" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha-4.width-800.png" width="795">When multiple identity providers are configured, these can show as different login portal options for the user to select.Similarly, multiple email domains can be supplied under a singular identity provider configuration, in case external vendors are included under the same SSO application.<img alt="Configuration for multiple email domains authenticating through the same identity provider" class="richtext-image full-width" height="164" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha-5.width-800.png" width="800"><h2 data-block-key="3frka">SAML</h2>Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is a protocol that allows the exchange of authentication data between a Koha provider and identity providers such as Azure AD or Google. Koha has a built-in integration with Shibboleth, which is an SSO system based on SAML.Shibboleth requires the Koha provider and identity provider to swap metadata. This is the handshake which allows the two parties to establish a ‘trust relationship’.<img alt="Option to log in with Shibboleth or local login" class="richtext-image full-width" height="391" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha-6.width-800.png" width="333">When Shibboleth is enabled, by default users will see both the option to log in with Shibboleth and the option to log in with local login. Local login can be hidden or bypassed easily using Koha system preferences. When logging in via Shibboleth, users will be redirected to the login portal for their identity provider. If the login is successful through the portal, Koha will look for a matching user in the database to authenticate to Koha and redirect back to the library. If user provisioning is configured and a matching user is not found in the Koha database, their account will be automatically created after they authenticate through the portal, and they’ll be successfully logged into Koha.<h2 data-block-key="9ufi7">LDAP</h2>Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a protocol that allows vendors to look up information about users or devices within a network. Organisations would set up an LDAP server (or directory) which contains information about their users.<img alt="Sample LDAP configuration for Koha" class="richtext-image full-width" height="464" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha-7.width-800.png" width="800">When LDAP is enabled, users would log into Koha using the local login form. Koha then uses their credentials to search for and match a user in the LDAP directory, or the Koha database as a fallback. LDAP also provides the ability to provision new users in Koha or update Koha accounts.<h2 data-block-key="dhn1j">Catalyst Koha</h2>All authentication methods other than local login require vendor support to enable and configure.If you have any questions or comments about this News item, or would like some support with your Koha instance, you are welcome to email us at koha-support@catalyst.net.nz (New Zealand) or koha-support@catalyst-au.net (Australia).<a href="https://twitter.com/catalystkoha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Follow Catalyst Koha on Twitter</a> or <a href="https://catalyst.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=62457ff5060d15ee3c07d3fc4&amp;id=b73fbdcac8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sign up to our newsletter</a>!

Local login indicated by the yellow box on the Catalyst demo site

Libraries are making it easier for users to log in to Koha by implementing single sign-on (SSO).

single-signon-for-koha

During the recent devastating floods in Auckland and Cyclone Gabrielle, scientists at NIWA and GNS Science used RiskScape™ to model landslide risks and impacts. RiskScape™ is an open source tool with a flexible modelling engine for processing geospatial data for risk analysis, built by Catalyst in collaboration with <a href="https://niwa.co.nz/natural-hazards/research-projects/riskscape" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NIWA</a>, <a href="https://www.gns.cri.nz/our-science/natural-hazards-and-risks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GNS Science</a>, and <a href="https://www.eqc.govt.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Toka Tū Ake EQC</a>.In the days leading up to the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, <a href="https://riskscape.org.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">RiskScape™</a> was used to plan the response to the events to determine where the impacts would be felt worst. During the events, scientists added rainfall data to give estimates of impacts and highlight areas of particular risk.The models were originally made for Auckland for the heavy rainstorm. The information was used for planning how to respond to the adverse weather events, allowing emergency groups to plan and send people and resources to where they would be needed most.The models were generated twice a day to help guide emergency response. Before RiskScape™ it would have taken a number of days to produce a model, but using RiskScape™ they were able to get information where it was needed as the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle were happening, allowing them to prepare and respond earlier and faster. By inputting various data about the weather and the land, scientists were able to forecast which roads were likely to be damaged or cut off. The information was especially useful for areas where communication was cut off.“We’re stoked that people are using it in action, and during the response to the floods our people were available to help the scientists double check their models,” says Russel Garlick, Catalyst RiskScape™ Delivery Lead. Because of the work already done on the RiskScape™ solution, it was easy for the researchers from GNS Science and NIWA to use it when it was needed.Lots of work is being done to make RiskScape™ available to help people make better decisions about land use based on risk. This has a wide range of uses from insurance to planning.RiskScape™ partners are now looking at ways that RiskScape™ can be used to support recovery. “We have the ability to help quantify the impacts of these events on the current state and future developments,” says Russel.See sample maps and read more about the recent <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/preparing-landslides-ross-roberts/?trackingId=CGeWP61CQseIZPpwoBhdiw%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">use of RiskScape™ in Auckland here</a>Main photo by Alan Tunnell of a slip in Titirangi after the heavy rain in Auckland, from <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/483244/in-pictures-aucklanders-wake-to-destruction-after-severe-thunderstorm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">RNZ</a>.

A wide view of a large landslide showing trees having slipped down a steep cliff and a house perched precariously on top.

During the recent devastating floods in Auckland and Cyclone Gabrielle, scientists at NIWA and GNS Science used RiskScape™ to model landslide risks and impacts.

riskscape-used-to-model-landslide-risk-impacts-auckland-floods

Tōtara Learn v12 was a popular release with our clients and showed its strengths during Covid-related disruptions to learning. However, it’s going out of assured support in October and many of our clients are currently in an upgrade cycle or will be soon. They’ll be upgrading to Tōtara Talent Experience Platform, version 17 (TXP17).The cumulative change between TL12 and TXP17 is significant, yet remains immediately familiar. Learners will notice a cleaner and more modern interface and administrators more options and an increase in functionality. The definitive list of changes is here: <a href="https://totara.help/docs/en/comparing-totara-versions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://totara.help/docs/en/comparing-totara-versions</a>We’d like to highlight the following things that are new:One area of change is how Tōtara Engage works with MS Teams – enabling Teams to be both a dedicated training room and also to show your full learning catalogue. Tōtara Engage enables your learners to easily create and share resources and these can be included in your site’s Catalogue. Engage also has machine learning; it powers a recommendation engine for your learners.Another area of change is the free Totara App, available in both the Google and Apple App stores. Via the App learners can browse the Catalogue, enrol in courses, and can download SCORM modules to access &amp; complete when not connected to the internet. They can also receive alerts and reminders on their mobile through the app.TXP17 also completes the move to centralised notifications. An administrator can set templates and defaults, control how messages are sent (on-screen, email, alerts on site, on the Tōtara App, and/or via MS Teams), report on what was sent and if the send was successful. The notifications functionality also lists the system triggers that can initiate a notification, so it’s now possible to create new types (or new versions of existing) notifications to support your learners.We’re looking forward to seeing how our clients implement these new features!Now as part of a platform, you can also add Totara Engage a social learning (LXP) platform to enable your learners to create and share learning resources alongside the main catalogue of your formal learning. You can also add Totara Perform for talent management, with appraisals, 360 feedback, check-ins, goals, and competencies. <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/t%C5%8Dtara-enquiry-form" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Enquire now to find out how our eLearning experts can help your organisation with these features.</a>

A view of the Tōtara Engage Catalogue showing a banner, links, and catalogue entries with pictures.

Learners will notice a cleaner and more modern interface and administrators more options and an increase in functionality.

totara-2023-year-of-the-upgrade

“There’s just no room in the budget for accessibility.”The next time you hear that sentence, tell that person that they’ve already wasted their money.Ignoring accessibility today will cost dividends tomorrow. Making accessible design and code means making robust and sound design and code. From a design perspective, it means creating designs that follow a logical, thoughtful pattern. For developers, accessible code often means using native HTML. Doing so means that future designers and developers who pick up this project later will have an easier time understanding what decisions were made and how to easily build upon the existing designs or codebase. Technical debt, be gone!Deciding to tack on accessibility later can also mean inflating costs that could have been mitigated early on. Finding out at the end of a build that a component isn’t keyboard accessible can mean a complete re-write of the component. If the layout of a page doesn’t have a logic focus order, it means going back to the drawing board to create new wireframes, which in turn has ripple effects on every part of the development lifecycle. Only found out at the end that colours don’t meet contrast levels? Try having that conversation with the big-wigs to decide on a new colour scheme!Inaccessible sites are costly in other ways, too. If a user can’t access the information they came to your website for, you might end up losing that customer entirely. Worldwide, over a billion people have some form of disability and spend half a trillion dollars annually. That’s a half-a-trillion-dollar-pie that you’re not getting a piece of. If you’re part of a government organisation or at an organisation where a user can’t simply walk away, they might choose to phone, email or turn up in person. Those are the expensive alternatives that websites are designed specifically to minimize.In contrast, implementing accessibility early on is the best way to take care of your budget. We call this concept shifting left – move the onus of accessibility earlier on (left) in the development lifecycle. The earlier accessibility is considered and embedded, the earlier that bugs can be spotted and remediated.So, the next time someone tells you they’re not prioritizing money for accessibility, ask them: when do you want to find your accessibility bugs?<h3 data-block-key="3ajjd"></h3><h3 data-block-key="f6pkk">Catalyst can support you through your entire accessibility journey. Find out more about our accessibility services and get in touch here: <a href="https://accessibility.catalyst.net.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://accessibility.catalyst.net.nz/</a></h3>

Line graph showing cost of remediating bugs increasing at each stage of the development process

Ignoring accessibility today will end up costing more. Making accessible design and code means making robust and sound design and code and saves you money in the long run.

save-money-make-your-website-accessible

Catalyst is pleased to advise that we are now a registered supplier on the DIA Marketplace under the Managed Services catalogue.Our services (as Catalyst.Net Limited) are listed under Application Management and Administration, and Server Management and Administration. This covers fully managed hosting of Catalyst developed applications like Tōtara, Drupal or Silverstripe, as well as managed hosting, services and support to look after your or third party developed applications. Both listings cover work on Catalyst Cloud, AWS and Azure infrastructure.<img alt="A person is sitting at a desk looking at two computer monitors with code on the screens." class="richtext-image full-width" height="307" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/front-end-header_HNtjJGY.width-800.png" width="800">We want to highlight that we have always delivered these services for public sector organisations but the Marketplace listings now provide a low friction way for Government agencies to engage with us under standard terms and conditions. Catalyst has for some time been a registered supplier under the Consultancy and Professional Services catalogue for User Insight, Information Architecture, Visual Design, Front- and Back-end Development, Change Management Services, Application Testing, and Web Accessibility.If you would like to use the Marketplace to contract your existing Catalyst services through, do not hesitate to <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/contact-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">get in touch</a>.

A blue, orange, and white illustration of a phone screen with various icons and things like a cog, ladder, and lightbulb.

Catalyst is pleased to advise that we are now a registered supplier on the DIA Marketplace under the Managed Services catalogue

catalyst-registered-supplier-managed-services

by Aleisha Amohia, Koha Technical LeadThe Koha library software project now has a built-in CMS (content management system) feature which allows libraries to create their own content pages and add them to their online public catalogue (OPAC). This is perfect for those libraries that need a few more web pages to provide information to their members in one place, and don’t want to maintain another website.The Catalyst Koha team was proud to develop this feature, now available in Koha 22.11, with sponsorship from Region Halland in Sweden, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, and Horowhenua Libraries.<h2 data-block-key="13bdi">Tools for custom content</h2>In Koha 22.11 there are a number of tools available for generating custom content for the OPAC. They can be found on the Tools page in the staff interface, under the ‘Additional tools’ heading. These tools all serve different purposes. Take a look at our <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/customising-your-koha-catalogue" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">‘Customising your Koha catalogue</a><a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/customising-your-koha-catalogue" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> blog post</a> which describes how to use the News and HTML customizations tools. This tutorial will describe how to use the Pages tool.<img alt="News, HTML customisations and Pages tools" class="richtext-image full-width" height="213" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha1.width-800.png" width="465"><h2 data-block-key="tgmn">Add a new page</h2>The Pages tool provides the ability to develop custom pages using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor or a text editor. The WYSIWYG editor comes with the functions of word processor, which means there are buttons available to easily format content with fonts and colours, or include headings, lists, hyperlinks, images and tables. For those more comfortable writing source code, the text editor provides the option to develop custom content in HTML.<img alt="The form for adding a new page using the WYSIWYG editor" class="richtext-image full-width" height="458" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha2.width-800.png" width="800">There are a few options available to configure when creating a new page:<ul><li data-block-key="98jhs">Display location – choose whether the page should be accessible on the staff interface, the OPAC, or both </li><li data-block-key="f4b7">Library – choose whether the page should be accessible for patrons at a specific library, or all libraries </li><li data-block-key="7qlmm">Publication date – choose when the page should be published and visible. This can be set to a date in the past, or a date in the future to ‘schedule’ the publication of the page </li><li data-block-key="1329u">Expiration date – choose when the page should be expired and hidden. This can be used to hide a page when it is no longer needed, and can be set to a date in the future </li></ul>Once the key settings for a page are configured, it’s time to start building the custom content. For Koha libraries providing their OPAC translated for other languages, custom content can be built in each of those installed languages too.The content should be built into the Default language tab first, then translated content built into the other language tabs. The default language is used first if Koha has no preferred language information about the patron, but it is also used as a fallback, if there is no custom content developed for the page in the language the patron is using.<h2 data-block-key="cr08f">Use a custom page</h2>Once the page has been developed and saved, you will see a summary table of all custom pages. This table also displays the generated links to access these custom pages. The links will be available in both the default language, and the installed language currently in use by the logged in staff member.<img alt="Summary table of custom pages" class="richtext-image full-width" height="307" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha3.width-800.png" width="800">There is a button to preview the created page. This is helpful to check how the page looks and functions before it is deployed.<img alt="Preview of a custom page" class="richtext-image full-width" height="370" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha4.width-800.png" width="800">Now the page has been created, there are a number of ways to make the page accessible to your patrons in the Koha OPAC. <img alt="Custom page linked on the OPAC in OpacNav and in the #moresearches section" class="richtext-image full-width" height="332" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha5.width-800.png" width="800">One option is to use an HTML customisation to add the link to the page to a section of the OPAC. The page can be added as a navigation link (in OpacNav, OpacNavBottom, or OpacNavRight). Depending on the page, it may be more suitable in the header (opacheader), footer (opaccredits), or main section of the homepage (OpacMainUserBlock). HTML customisations are only displayed on the OPAC, so News items would be the appropriate tool to add the link to the main landing page of the staff interface.<img alt="Example of linking custom page as an OpacNav HTML customisation" class="richtext-image full-width" height="729" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha6.width-800.png" width="800">The benefit of putting the page link in an HTML customisation or News item is that you can use the WYSIWYG editor, instead of writing code. However, there is always the option to write the content in the HTML text editor too, if you prefer.Those more proficient in writing code could use jQuery (Javascript) to insert their page link anywhere in the OPAC or staff interface. <img alt="Example of linking custom page in OPACUserJS system preference." class="richtext-image full-width" height="176" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha7.width-800.png" width="800">Using jQuery, the pages could be added to either interface as simple text links, or as more advanced button links or image links. Add code to the OPACUserJS system preference to apply jQuery to the OPAC, or to the IntranetUserJS system preference to apply jQuery to the staff interface.<h2 data-block-key="6s5he">Clever ways to use custom pages</h2>There are many interesting ways to use custom pages in a Koha library. We’ve heard discussion of pages being used for tables of contents, frequently asked questions pages for the library, and enquiry forms.<img alt="Example of an enquiry form embedded on the OPAC with a custom page" class="richtext-image full-width" height="470" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha8.width-800.png" width="800">Another way to make custom Koha page content accessible for users, would be to catalogue those pages so they pop in in Koha search results, for example library tutorials that patrons may be looking for.<img alt="A custom page, catalogued, and showing in search results" class="richtext-image full-width" height="219" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha9.width-800.png" width="558">Once the page has been created, it can be catalogued in the URI field of a record (856$u). Alternatively, it could be catalogued in the URI field of an item attached to a record (952$u). Both of these fields get converted into hyperlinks by Koha. If catalogued in a record or item, it would then be indexed and become searchable.Once catalogued, these pages could be used in other ways that are typically reserved for books and other records. The records representing pages can be added to lists, or stored in virtual collections or locations that make them easier to find in the catalogue. They could even be captured and displayed in carousels!We’d love to hear about how you would like to use the Koha CMS feature in your library, and if there are any improvements or enhancements we could investigate together.<h2 data-block-key="apd00">Catalyst Koha</h2>If you have any questions or comments about this News item, or would like some support with your Koha instance, you are welcome to email us at koha-support@catalyst.net.nz (New Zealand) or koha-support@catalyst-au.net (Australia).<a href="https://twitter.com/catalystkoha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Follow Catalyst Koha on Twitter</a> or <a href="https://catalyst.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=62457ff5060d15ee3c07d3fc4&amp;id=b73fbdcac8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sign up to our newsletter</a>!

The form for adding a new page using the WYSIWYG editor

The Koha library software project now has a built-in CMS (content management system) feature which allows libraries to create their own content pages and add them to their online public catalogue (OPAC). This is perfect for those libraries that need a few more web pages to provide information to their members in one place, and don’t want to maintain another website.

koha-cms-add-content-pages

The MSD Accessibility Charter is a commitment by government agencies to accessibility. It applies across central and local government, including core public sector agencies, Crown entities, District Health Board’s (DHBs), and local authorities.The Accessibility Charter was launched by MSD on 15 February 2018. As at 16 September 2022, Chief Executives of 40 Government Agencies, four districts and three local government authorities have signed up to the Charter.This probably means you!If you work in a government agency, your organisation has likely committed to the Charter. The Charter outlines a few key things that you need to know:<ul><li data-block-key="afmgf">signing agencies must develop and implement a 5-year plan to make accessibility “business as usual”</li><li data-block-key="4i363">each agency reports their progress to MSD on a six-monthly basis</li></ul>If your organisation signed in 2018 when the charter was launched, it means this is your last year to implement that 5-year plan.What should you do now? Again, it’s likely that your organisation has already signed. Ask around to see what has happened already.<h2 data-block-key="k9bh">Catalyst can help!</h2><ul><li data-block-key="c4eug">we perform an analysis gap to find out where you are and where you need to be</li><li data-block-key="7spjb">we can help you develop an accessibility programme of work, whether that means getting you started or helping you reach your finish line</li><li data-block-key="47c1f">get training, auditing and consulting services to support your accessibility programme of work</li></ul><h2 data-block-key="1chns">Why does it matter?</h2><ul><li data-block-key="7ui6q">In New Zealand, we have 1.1 million disabled people, about one in four of our population.</li><li data-block-key="5dehk">Having accessible information and communications recognises the diversity of New Zealand.</li><li data-block-key="cgs3l">It’s important, for the public sector to be responsive to the needs of our communities. As part of this responsiveness, all New Zealanders should have equal access to information about government’s policies, initiatives, and programmes.</li></ul><a href="https://accessibility.catalyst.net.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Get in touch now for a free consult</a>!

A graphic with coloured squares, with symbols of an eye, hand, ear, brain, and a head talking.

The MSD Accessibility Charter is a commitment by government agencies to accessibility. It applies across central and local government, including core public sector agencies, Crown entities, District Health Board’s (DHBs), and local authorities.

msd-accessibility-charter-does-it-apply-to-me

by Aleisha Amohia, Koha Technical LeadThe Catalyst Koha team is excited that Koha library software project introduced a built-in recalls feature in Koha 22.05, released in May 2022. Catalyst was integral in getting recalls into Koha, developing a first iteration of the feature way back in 2017. Huge thanks must be given to Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, Waikato Institute of Technology, and Auckland University of Technology, for their sponsorship and support of the recalls feature development over the years.The recalls feature, now available for Koha libraries all around the world, requires some configuration before it can be used. This tutorial will cover how to set up recalls in your Koha library, and how recalls can then be placed and filled by your staff and patrons.<h2 data-block-key="6geas">What are recalls?</h2>Recalls can be thought of as high-priority holds, with a few more conditions. Patrons can recall items or records that they need urgently, but are currently checked out or allocated to someone else. When a recall is placed, the patron who currently has borrowed the recalled item will be notified, and their loan period will be adjusted. The due date being changed (ideally brought forward) reflects the urgency of the recall, and is the key difference in behaviour from placing a hold.Recalls are prioritised over holds. This means if an item has both holds and recalls, Koha will offer to fill a recall first.<h2 data-block-key="c78f2">Configuring recalls</h2>There are a few key system preferences to enable or configure when using recalls.<img alt="System preferences relating to recalls" class="richtext-image full-width" height="379" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_1_GYltYVt.width-800.png" width="800"> <ul><li data-block-key="a4t8s">UseRecalls – enable the recalls feature by changing the setting to “use”. This is disabled by default. </li><li data-block-key="fmdbu">RecallsLog – change the setting to “log” to start logging data about actions taken relating to recalls . This is disabled by default. </li><li data-block-key="1iate">RecallsMaxPickUpDelay – set the number of days that a recalled item may be awaiting pickup before it is marked as problematic, or possibly auto-expired. This is set to 7 days by default. </li></ul>Library staff who will be able to cancel or expire recalls must have the manage_recalls user permission.<img alt="Recalls user permission" class="richtext-image full-width" height="77" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_2_UbJXIEk.width-800.png" width="800">How recalls behave in your library system will depend on how your circulation and fines rules are configured. There are six rules to configure specifically for recalls.<img alt="Recalls circulation and fines rules" class="richtext-image full-width" height="156" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_3_uPUtJKa.width-800.png" width="686"> <ul><li data-block-key="9nsvn">Recalls allowed – set the number of total recalls a patron is allowed to place </li><li data-block-key="aegsi">Recalls per record – set the number of recalls a patron is allowed to place on one bibliographic record </li><li data-block-key="a4oe1">On shelf recalls allowed – set to ‘if any unavailable’ if only one item needs to be checked out for patrons to place recalls on the record, or set to ‘if all unavailable’ if all items must be checked out for patrons to place recalls on the record </li><li data-block-key="f8me1">Recall due date interval – set the number of days the patron is given to return their recalled item to the library </li><li data-block-key="dut7q">Recall overdue fine amount – set the fine amount to be charged to the patron if they are overdue to return their item to the library and that item has been recalled </li><li data-block-key="99i0r">Recall pickup period – set the number of days the patron is given to pick up the item they recalled from the library </li></ul>There are a few recalls notices and slips that you may want to customise.<img alt="Notice about recalled item awaiting pickup" class="richtext-image full-width" height="436" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_4_k8Xjekg.width-800.png" width="800"> <ul><li data-block-key="g8bt">RETURN_RECALLED_ITEM – a notice sent to the patron who currently has an item checked out which was recalled by someone else </li><li data-block-key="ev32q">PICKUP_RECALLED_ITEM – a notice sent to the patron who requested the recall, notifying them that the item was returned to the library and is now awaiting pickup </li><li data-block-key="fi73o">RECALL_REQUESTER_DET – a print slip displaying the details of a recalled item and the patron who requested it </li></ul>Finally, there are cronjobs your Koha support provider can schedule to automate some recalls actions.<ul><li data-block-key="e7t60">overdue_recalls.pl – a script to mark recalls as overdue when the recalled item is late to be returned to the library </li><li data-block-key="d30ub">expire_recalls.pl – a script to expire recalls that have either been requested and not fulfilled and their expiration date has since passed, or been awaiting pickup for longer than the allowed pickup period </li></ul><h2 data-block-key="6d82e">Placing recalls</h2>As at Koha 22.05 and 22.11, recalls can be requested by patrons via the public catalogue (OPAC). Work is being done in the Koha Community to enable recalls via the staff interface.<img alt="Place a recall from the search results" class="richtext-image full-width" height="210" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_5_1IjTFet.width-800.png" width="800">To recall an item, it must be checked out to another patron. A recall can either be placed from the search results, or from the detail page of a record.<img alt="Place a recall from the detail page of a record" class="richtext-image full-width" height="349" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_6_B8R3kjx.width-800.png" width="800">Koha will check a few rules before allowing the patron to place a recall. Including the recalls-related circulation and fines rules, patrons must not have checked out or placed a hold on the item in order to place the recall. If it is a valid recall request, the patron will be able to choose a pickup library and optional expiration date. The patron could place a record-level recall if any item under the record could be allocated to fill the recall, or choose a specific item to recall.<img alt="Options when placing a recall" class="richtext-image full-width" height="372" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_7_Ekp0LlA.width-800.png" width="800">Once the recall is confirmed, the patron who currently has the item checked out will be notified and their due date adjusted by the number of days specified in the recall due date interval circulation and fines rule.<img alt="Notification to return a recalled item" class="richtext-image full-width" height="303" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_8_5022a4q.width-800.png" width="598"><h2 data-block-key="cldin">Managing recalls</h2>The patron who placed the recall will be able to see this (and their other recalls) from their account on the OPAC. From here, they’ll also be able to cancel the recall. Note that cancelling the recall will not affect the due date of the checkout; the checkout will keep its adjusted due date, even if it has no longer been recalled.<img alt="Patron’s account on the OPAC, displaying their recall" class="richtext-image full-width" height="308" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_9_awycsid.width-800.png" width="800">Library staff will also be able to manage recalls from a number of places on the staff interface.Specific recalls can be cancelled and expired from the patron’s account, or from the recalls tab on the record detail page.<img alt="Patron’s account on the staff interface displaying their recall" class="richtext-image full-width" height="245" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_10_rjp7eHS.width-800.png" width="800">There are also a number of circulation reports that libraries can use to gain an overview of recall activity.<ul><li data-block-key="f7fh0">Recalls queue – manage all current recalls </li><li data-block-key="306eo">Recalls to pull – manage recalls that could be filled by items currently on the shelves </li><li data-block-key="3n4rn">Overdue recalls – manage recalls that are overdue to be returned </li><li data-block-key="5kon7">Recalls awaiting pickup – manage recalled items that have been allocated to fill a recall, but are waiting to be picked up. Problematic recalls that have been awaiting pickup too long are split out into a different tab. </li><li data-block-key="vj3c">Old recalls – manage all recalls that are expired, cancelled or filled. </li></ul><img alt="Recall reports available in the Circulation module" class="richtext-image full-width" height="298" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_11_lONG8dO.width-800.png" width="301"><h2 data-block-key="514mj">Filling recalls</h2>The process for filling a recall is much the same as filling a hold. When a recalled item is checked in at the library, a recall window will pop up giving the option to fill the recall with that item. The recall can be ignored if the library does not want to fill the recall right away. If the item has been checked in at a different library from the recall’s specified pickup location, confirming the recall will trigger a transfer. When the item is returned at the chosen pickup location and the recall is confirmed, the patron who requested it will be notified that their item is ready to pick up. <img alt="Recall confirmation box that pops up when the item is checked in" class="richtext-image full-width" height="378" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_12_F5wyscK.width-800.png" width="618">When the patron picks up and checks out their item, Koha will mark the recall as filled and the process will be complete!<img alt="Checkout confirmation box that pops up if library staff attempt to check out an item to one patron that has been recalled by another" class="richtext-image full-width" height="241" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/koha_13_sHyTAXl.width-800.png" width="615">Recalled items that have been allocated to fill a recall will block circulation of that item for other patrons. A confirmation box will pop up if library staff attempt to check out an item to one patron that has already been allocated to fill a recall placed by another.<h2 data-block-key="3cj3c">Expanding on recalls functionality</h2>In future versions of Koha, the recalls feature will be enhanced and expanded. Work is being done to allow placing recalls via the staff interface. We also plan to introduce a cronjob which will convert holds to recalls overnight if a certain number of holds have been placed on a record, plus some API endpoints so recalls can be managed through discovery layers or alternative OPACs. The implementation of enhanced messaging preferences for recalls notices is in progress.As work continues on the recalls feature, including fixing any bugs found, we appreciate the sponsorship and support from our partner libraries and the Koha Community. We’d love to hear from you about how recalls are being used in your Koha library, and if there are any improvements or enhancements we could investigate together.<h2 data-block-key="9675f">Catalyst Koha</h2>If you have any questions or comments about this News item, or would like some support with your Koha instance, you are welcome to email us at koha-support@catalyst.net.nz (New Zealand) or koha-support@catalyst-au.net (Australia).<a href="https://twitter.com/catalystkoha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Follow Catalyst Koha on Twitter</a> or <a href="https://catalyst.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=62457ff5060d15ee3c07d3fc4&amp;id=b73fbdcac8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sign up to our newsletter</a>!

Notice about recalled item awaiting pickup

The Catalyst Koha team is excited that Koha library software project introduced a built-in recalls feature in Koha 22.05, released in May 2022. Catalyst was integral in getting recalls into Koha, developing a first iteration of the feature way back in 2017.

how-to-do-recalls-with-koha

<h2 data-block-key="wgrkv">A profile on Maia Miller, Accessibility Manager</h2>by Charlotte WestonMaia Miller’s Canadian accent might be the first thing you notice when you start talking to her about web accessibility, but close behind that is the energy and passion she has for the subject. Maia is the Accessibility Manager at Catalyst in Wellington, and she is passionate about helping people understand the benefits of web accessibility, what it means, and how to do it.“A lot of people have good intentions about making websites accessible, but don’t really know how to do it,” Maia says. This inspired her to create a training course that’s based on WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines, making it practical and applicable. The courses have been running both online and in person for the last two years and feedback has been extremely positive.It can take a lot of reading to understand WCAG, so Maia wanted to translate it into something that is useful for people. “The tricky bit is information overload,” she says. “There’s a lot out there, and so many authors with good intentions wanting to share what they know, and it’s good quality, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed very quickly.” As a developer herself, Maia understands that adding it to the mix of competing priorities on a day-to-day basis at work can be overwhelming when you don’t know where to start, and aren’t sure what’s going to have an impact.<img alt="Head and shoulders portrait of Maia Miller." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/maia.width-800.jpg" width="800">Maia Miller, Catalyst&#x27;s Accessibility ManagerWeb accessibility helps a wide range of people, those with disabilities and those who aren’t disabled. Take captions on videos, for example. They were created for a specific purpose, to help those who are deaf or hard of hearing, but it’s something everyone benefits from. You could be trying to watch something in a shared space where noise from your device could be distracting or unwelcome to others.Being able to modify the screen with things like zooming in, minimising movement on screen, and having good labels on forms makes it easier to understand information, especially for people who are dyslexic. Maia’s twin brother is colourblind, so the importance of accessibility hits close to home in the area of colour and contrast. “When there are dashboards that rely heavily on red and green, he can’t see that, through no fault of his own,” she says. That makes some websites unusable for him.“I like when the dime drops and it clicks for people,” says Maia. “When people realise it’s not a barrier, but rather it’s an opportunity. It can flow really seamlessly into their work rather than be difficult.” To support organisations and business with making their websites more accessible for their users, Maia conducts system audits and creates bug reports, to impart that knowledge and understanding and help clients reach their goals of having websites that are usable by more people.An audit report contains actionable steps of how clients can make things more accessible, which is especially vital for government departments needing to meet the requirements of the MSD Accessibility Charter. Improving accessibility for all New Zealanders supports disabled people’s fundamental human rights, and the Accessibility Charter provides a framework to identify, prevent, and remove barriers to participation for disabled people, tāngata whaikaha Māori, and others with accessibility needs. In New Zealand about one in four of our population is disabled. That’s around 1.1 million people.Maia’s previous work in marketing and communications, and her technical knowledge and experience in web development all come together in her accessibility role. Having done over ten years of public speaking and debating in university, Maia brings her passion and skill to the training courses she runs at Catalyst, as well as to the various conference talks and forums she presents. “It’s really important to me that it’s done in a way that is interesting, captivating, and relevant,” she says.“Accessible design is about enforcing good habits rather than limiting you, as developers and designers,” says Maia. “Writing good, clean code reinforces best practice, and making clear designs ensures things are communicated in many ways, not just with colour.” Rather than making it more difficult, accessibility makes designs more robust, and more beautiful, as well as useful to more people.Sign up for one of our upcoming <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/training" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WCAG 2.1 AA Fundamentals courses with Maia here</a>and find out more about <a href="https://accessibility.catalyst.net.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Catalyst&#x27;s Accessibility services here</a>

Maia Miller is standing at the front of a room speaking to a small group of people who are sitting around a table facing her.

Web accessibility helps a wide range of people, those with disabilities and those who aren’t disabled. Maia Miller helps organisations and individuals with training and audits to make websites usable for more people.

making-web-accessibility-engaging

E-resource management module link highlighted yellow on the Koha staff client home page, after the ERMModule system preference is enabled

Libraries can now administer agreements, licenses and electronic holdings from within Koha: one system for both electronic and physical collections.

koha-erm-module

The new Koha staff client home page, with a grey background and green highlights.

The Catalyst Koha team is delighted to join the Koha community in celebrating the release of Koha 22.11 Rosalie. This release contains 13 new features, 351 enhancements, 554 bug and security fixes.

release-of-koha-2211

By Charlotte WestonBeginning in 2017, a special event has been happening during spring and summer at the Wellington Catalyst office. It’s called Lego Build Season and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Building Lego sets in the office. “What we’ve got going here is a bit of a community where people are contributing their time and their skills to a shared goal, which in this case is building a large set,” says Chief Lego Officer and Catalyst Delivery Lead Sanjay D’Souza. Essentially it’s an open source project, but it’s somewhat more tangible than open source software. “It’s very visible what we’re doing and how much progress we’re making,” says Sanjay. This year’s project is a large Star Dreadnought Eclipse, made up of over 10,000 pieces, requiring approximately 2,000 build steps. The set was contributed by Gregorio Narvaez, Catalyst’s Security Manager. Catalyst staff members can sign up for a 20 minute session up to twice a week during the build season, and Sanjay, along with fellow Lego enthusiast, Catalyst developer, and Chief Lego Engineer Liam Sharpe, are around to support those who contribute. “It helps people unwind,” Sanjay says. “I use the term mental yoga. Life’s tough, and here’s a few minutes where you can chill out.”<img alt="Liam Sharpe and Sanjay D&amp;#x27;Souza are sitting on chairs in a brightly lit office with a large, unfinished Star Wars Lego set on the table behind them." class="richtext-image full-width" height="502" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/liam_sanjay_lego1.width-800.jpg" width="800">Liam Sharpe and Sanjay D&#x27;Souza with the (unfinished) Star Dreadnought Eclipse Lego setThe Lego Build Season started in 2017 when Toyworld was having a Labour weekend sale. Sanjay and a couple of other Catalyst Lego enthusiasts, jumped in the car and paid Toyworld a visit. “We went in there, looked around, and when I walked out the door I realised I’d somehow purchased this large set,” says Sanjay. “It was an original Lego super car, and it just fell into my lap, so I had to buy it. I thought it would make a great project so that kicked off the Lego Build Season.” The following year they again went to Toyworld, and according to Sanjay, “another set fell in my lap,” which is an interesting way to shop. In 2019 Andrew Maguire, Senior Catalyst Technical Lead told Sanjay he had a lot of Lego in a bad state. A few days later Sanjay came into the office to find three huge boxes of Lego that Andrew had delivered. “I almost fainted,” Sanjay says, which may or may not be enthusiastic hyperbole. “Because in that box were sets that I wanted as a kid but my parents couldn’t afford.” That summer the Catalyst Lego builders reconstructed Andrew’s entire collection of 24 sets. “It was like 48 Christmas days in a row. It’s like you’ve just won the lottery every day. He had some of the greatest Lego sets that I could imagine.”<img alt="A large cardboard box full of Lego pieces." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/20191125_130946.width-800.jpg" width="800"><img alt="A person is standing in an office holding a Lego helicopter, next to a table with many other Lego sets on it." class="richtext-image full-width" height="612" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/2020_Build_Season.width-800.png" width="800">Andrew Maguire with the results of the 2019-2020 Lego Build SeasonSanjay’s enthusiasm for Lego began, as for many, at around the age or three or four. His neighbours in Singapore had a set, and he was captivated first by the Lego logo, and then by the blocks. A Creator set was the first Lego his parents bought him, and Sanjay remembers his mother saying “this is the last Lego set that we buy.” Lego was expensive in Singapore but his parents supported his interest with small Lego sets, and his collection grew to a little town. When his family moved to New Zealand his mother again said “no more Lego,” but – spoiler alert – there was more Lego. Although he forgot about it during his teenage years, Sanjay came back to it when he worked at Wellington City Council. “I had free time on my hands and we had these news groups dedicated to a particular topic. I discovered a community of Lego enthusiasts and that rekindled my interest, and of course I had a bit more spending money at that point.”The community around Lego, and especially the collaboration of the Catalyst Lego Build Season, aligns with the Catalyst open source ethos. “There’s a sense of satisfaction for those who are involved,” says Sanjay. “They’re playing a part in a much bigger project. And it’s fun!” <img alt="Several completed Lego sets on an office desk." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/20191125_160327.width-800.jpg" width="800">Some of the sets from the 2019-2020 Lego Build Season“Someone asked me do you take pride in building this yourself and I say no, I take more pride in setting it up for other people. For me it’s more about creating the environment and letting people have fun,” says Sanjay, “and I gain so much from having conversations with people I cross paths with. I guess that’s part of the open source ethos, that you’re giving more than receiving.”

Liam Sharpe and Sanjay D'Souza are sitting on chairs in a brightly lit office with a large, unfinished Star Wars Lego set on the table behind them.”

Beginning in 2017, a special event has been happening during spring and summer at the Wellington Catalyst office. It’s called Lego Build Season and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Building Lego sets in the office.

lego-build-season

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At the end of October 2022, the Catalyst team released <a href="https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=9197" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mahara 22.10</a>. Part of Catalyst&#x27;s role as steward and maintainer of this popular open source portfolio platform is the regular release of new and changed features. This latest version focused on usability improvements and technical changes. The implementation of Bootstrap 5, Font Awesome 6 icons, better support for image alt text, and a report for SmartEvidence are but a few of the changes.Catalyst clients made it possible for us to include features created for them into Mahara itself where other organisations can benefit from them, too,. We are proud to partner with clients who value to benefits of open source and support the Mahara community through their contributions.Watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50_p0vJb6do" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feature release video</a> for a quick overview of highlighted new features and get in touch with us if you&#x27;d like to discuss how portfolios can fit into your organisation&#x27;s learning ecosystem and see Mahara in action.If you&#x27;d like to stay up to date on all things Mahara and portfolios, <a href="https://eepurl.com/h_r2Rb" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">subscribe to our monthly Mahara newsletter</a> that is published every first Wednesday of the month.

The latest version of Mahara focused on usability improvements and technical changes. The implementation of Bootstrap 5, Font Awesome 6 icons, better support for image alt text, and a report for SmartEvidence are but a few of the changes.

mahara-2210-usability-technical-changes

Three members of the original Koha project team presenting at KohaCon 2020. Rachel Hamilton-Williams, Chris Cormack, Rosalie BlakeIt is with great sadness that Catalyst acknowledges the passing of Rosalie Blake. Rosalie was the Head of Libraries for Horowhenua Trust in 1999 when the Trust realised it needed a new library system. Investigations found systems that were too expensive, or not suitable for the technology available at the libraries. Bravely, Rosalie decided the libraries would commission existing technology partner, Katipo Communications, to write a new system for them. Then she convinced the Trust that when the system was ‘finished’ they should give it away as free/open source software. The Koha library management system exists today in over 18,000 libraries worldwide, largely due to her tenacity and advocacy. At Kohacon 2020, Rosalie, Rachel Hamilton-Williams (Katipo Communications) and one of the original developers Chris Cormack, came together to present the Koha origin story. There, Rosalie acknowledged that Koha was “rolling along nicely” so gave librarians a new challenge to think about climate action and sustainability.  She also said “What do you do in a library? You should think of the library as the living room of your town...Keep your libraries friendly. Keep friendly yourselves. Do good to each other.” The Koha Library Management System is only one part of her legacy. She is described as innovative, knowledgeable, bold, enthusiastic, a people-person, a gifted artist and someone who wanted the best for the people both in her local community and in the wider library community. Rosalie was awarded a LIANZA (Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) Fellowship in 2008. This is the highest level of professional attainment and is given for outstanding leadership and significant contribution. She received a Queen&#x27;s Service Medal for her services to the library profession in 2010. This is awarded by the New Zealand Government to recognise outstanding contribution to the community. Catalyst, in particular the Catalyst Koha team, send their condolences to Rosalie&#x27;s family and friends. Tiwhatiwha te pō, tiwhatiwha te ao. <ol><li data-block-key="elq4g">Kohacon20: Keynote - The 1999 Koha Project Team</li></ol><div>
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Three members of the original Koha project team presenting at KohaCon 2020. Rachel Hamilton-Williams, Chris Cormack, Rosalie Blake

It is with great sadness that Catalyst acknowledges the passing of Rosalie Blake.

remembering-rosalie-blake

by Charlotte WestonThroughout his various careers as a translator, librarian, journalist, print designer, and now front-end web developer at Catalyst, two things have held steady for Serge Seva. His love for art, and the way his curiosity and interests have led him to many self-taught hobbies and jobs.<img alt="Medieval library in Lithuania" class="richtext-image full-width" height="524" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/university-library.width-800.jpg" width="800">The medieval library at Vilnius University of Lithuania, where Serge worked as a librarian after completing his masters degree in linguistics and philosophy.Originally from Lithuania, Serge landed in Christchurch a few weeks before Christmas sixteen years ago, and began looking for work to meet his visa requirements: anything design-related. Every morning he got up and knocked on doors, sent his CV out. Eventually, he says, “I got an invitation for an interview which was in Timaru, and I thought it was one of the districts of Christchurch.” It took a month before they came back to him with a job offer, during which time he would call almost every day. “I didn’t want to go back to Lithuania,” he says. “I burned all my bridges, deliberately, I gave myself no chances to go back.”<img alt="Outside view of the historic Vilnius University with pink flowers in the foreground and a blue sky with clouds" class="richtext-image full-width" height="417" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/university-panoramic-view.width-800.jpg" width="800">The historic Vilnius University of Lithuania.That job, with the Timaru Herald, was where Serge first started coding. “I was always wondering how UI is rendered on the screen. I understood how it was done in printing, but I didn’t understand how it was done on the screen.” So he asked a friend who was a developer, and this friend showed Serge HTML. Serge’s interest in how the building blocks of the web are laid together continued as he taught himself HTML and CSS, working on small development tasks for the Timaru Herald. He made an app that would respond in email with tick boxes to clients if something had been completed or was still going.<img alt="Portrait of Serge Seva leaning on a railing with trees behind him." class="richtext-image left" height="750" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/ss-bc.width-500.jpg" width="500">Serge Seva Then he decided to leave Timaru. When first deciding which country he would like to move to, Serge had gone through beautiful photos of New Zealand, seen pictures of palm trees, and thought it was a tropical climate. So he was surprised by winter in Timaru. “I didn’t want to live in a crowded place, and wanted a more relaxed lifestyle, with access to the sea. This turned out to be true in lots of aspects, it just wasn’t as warm as I thought. Outside is fine, but Europeans build very warm houses, and I still can’t get used to cold houses.”Serge’s dream was to live in Wellington and work in the web industry, so he left his job in Timaru and moved to Wellington to do a Yoobee course in web development. On the day Serge got his certificate in 2011, he got a job at the Wellington City Council as a coder, and has been doing front-end development since then.<img alt="A black and white photo of a man at a restaurant with a waiter handing him a menu and a glass of water" class="richtext-image full-width" height="528" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/menu_please.width-800.png" width="800">Menu, Please by Serge SevaSerge’s true passion as a teenager was painting, and although he didn’t pursue a career in painting his interest in fine arts remains. These days his medium of choice is the photograph. “I went to Inverlochy classes after work, which was hard because painting is an exhausting practice. I still have an eye for composition, for light, and that’s what I try to mimic, to substitute my painter’s ability with photography. I went from painting on canvas to painting on the sensor.”The self-taught thread that runs through Serge’s life came out to play again with photography. He studied the technicalities of cameras, started experimenting and taking photos. First, he tried to replicate things that fascinated him in other pictures: silky water, micro photography, portraiture, landscape. Eventually he figured out that the most interesting form for him is street photography.“I like wide angle lens. I like getting close to the subject and getting more in the frame than with telephotos. You have to get close with a wide angle lens; it gives you the opportunity to compose, to play a lot with geometry.” Street photography deals with mostly cities and urban life, and Serge captures city scenes at home and while travelling. “I like the intricacies of cities, the game I play with shadows, waiting for people to come into frame.”<img alt="A black and white image of a skater with a facade in the background that has a triangle shape, reflected in the skater&amp;#x27;s posture." class="richtext-image full-width" height="530" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/triangularity.width-800.png" width="800">Triangularity by Serge Seva.Serge talks about two styles of street photography: fishing and hunting. “Fishing is when you find the composition and you wait for someone to enter the frame. You wait for the moment, sometimes successful, sometimes not.” Whereas on the other hand, “hunting is when you just go with your camera, looking and sensing an opportunity for an exclusive shot. You need to have an immediate reaction, because a split second means a lot.” He describes it as an adventure, going through the streets and looking for the moment Henri Cartier-Bresson, pioneer and master of the street photography genre, called the decisive moment.“You develop a different vision, so you’re not just someone wandering and looking for beautiful things. You train yourself to see something, even trivial things, that you don’t see in your ordinary life.” Serge calls it the development of the third eye – without the spiritual aspect. Looking through things, finding the meaning that is hidden. He shoots in black and white, which provides an opportunity to focus on tonality, which is where the light shines. “You eliminate the overload of meanings that colours bring. Less distraction, more concentrated. Lots of things become punchier.”<img alt="Black and white photo of a dimly lit hallway looking out a window at a mural that shows the eyes and top of head of a clown." class="richtext-image full-width" height="534" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/insider.width-800.png" width="800">Insider by Serge Seva.Throughout his career and photography work, open source is a repeating motif. “When you compare to closed systems like corporate culture where everything is sealed and enclosed and enforced, you start understanding the freedom open source brings. You see it is a different way of dealing with the world.”<img alt="A paved street with a woman walking towards the camera and another walking away. A bicycle is leaning against a wall in the right of the image" class="richtext-image full-width" height="530" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/dance_class.width-800.png" width="800">Dance class by Serge Seva.“My photography is also open source; it’s the idea of sharing anything I do for free.” When people ask Serge if they can use his photo, he tells them they can use it for free. “I’ve always thought if I start making photos for the market, that’ll be it. My concentration, my energy would go a different way. I want a niche place, something I do for myself. As soon as you start taking money for photos you lose the magic. I keep it as a sacred thing.” Serge acknowledges that his paid work as a front-end developer supports both the photography itself (“I like Leica, and it is expensive”), and the open sharing of it. “It’s in our human nature to show and share our work. We wouldn’t survive as human beings if we didn’t share.”The Catalyst open source ethos is an ideal fit for Serge’s inclination towards sharing and community. “The open source community is so dynamic, so open. It’s marvellous. From a philosophical point of view I’m totally with open source, and to the scale Catalyst operates with. I’m not a fan of closed systems and imposing things on the client.”Serge’s photographs have multiple times been featured in the Leica Fotografie International gallery, including the two below.<img alt="A black and white landscape photo with a line of black hills in the background and blurry water around rocks in the foreground." class="richtext-image full-width" height="443" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/white-rock-2048x1136.width-800.jpg" width="800">Whiterock by Serge Seva.<img alt="A black and white photo of tall city buildings with reflections in the shiny street below, and in the foreground is a large poster of a ballet dancer in midair." class="richtext-image full-width" height="477" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/icarus-fall-1600px.width-800.jpg" width="800">Fall of Icarus by Serge Seva.View a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFQ7IK28iRc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">slideshow of Serge’s work on YouTube</a>. You can follow him on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/serge.seva/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Instagram</a>, and see more photos on <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeseva/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Flickr</a>.

A black and white photo of tall city buildings with reflections in the shiny street below, and in the foreground is a large poster of a ballet dancer in midair.

It’s in our human nature to show and share our work. We wouldn’t survive as human beings if we didn’t share.

philosophical-intersection-photography-web-development

The <a href="https://mahara.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mahara</a> project has just been selected as one of the 100 innovations to watch out for in 2023 by education specialists amongst over 3,000 innovations. Global education expert <a href="https://hundred.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">HundrED</a> convened 188 educators to review innovations based on their impact and scalability and published its report on 24 October 2022. We are excited that the Mahara project is one of the final selections for the Global Collection 2023.“Innovations highlighted by HundrED are truly moving the needle in education reform around the world. Meeting the needs of students, parents, teachers, and communities, the innovations found in HundrED&#x27;s database are a go-to resource for anyone looking to catch a glimpse of the wealth of possibility in education innovation and transformation.” Mike Dunn, member of the selection committee and Dean of College &amp; Career Counseling, U.S.A.The research that is part of the selection process revealed five common threads amongst the selected innovations:<ol><li data-block-key="2ob73">Teachers and their professional development are vitally important to educational change. </li><li data-block-key="6o30s">Students develop 21st century skills through interactions with peers and teachers in settings that foster students&#x27; holistic development. </li><li data-block-key="cj4p0">Students&#x27; wellbeing is a determining factor of educational outcomes. </li><li data-block-key="5lj1e">Students have agency by being in the driver&#x27;s seat of their own education. </li><li data-block-key="bel2o">Equity, including gender equality, diversity, special needs education, inclusion, access to education, and human rights, is becoming more visible and talked about in education. </li></ol><a href="http://hundred.org/en/collections/hundred-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read the report</a> to find out more about all 100 innovations and <a href="https://hundred.org/summit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sign up</a> to watch the free online livestream of the HundrED Summit between 26 and 28 October 2022.Catalyst has been the primary development company for Mahara from its beginnings in 2006 and has been supporting the worldwide community and its own clients since then. Mahara is more than an open source software product. It is a community of educators and developers who strive to make tools available to support lifelong and lifewide learning. Hear from some of the community members in our podcast <a href="https://podcast.mahara.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">&#x27;Create. Share. Engage.&#x27;</a>

Text on a pink background: Mahara has been selected to HundrED's Global Collection 2023!

The <a href="https://mahara.org/">Mahara</a> project has just been selected as one of the 100 innovations to watch out for in 2023 by education specialists.

mahara-selected-as-impactful-education-innovation

by Liam SharpeWhen most people think of the circus, they picture a big top in a muddy field filled with exotic animals, clumsy clowns, and elegant aerialists. But hidden in a small warehouse complex tucked in between the NZ school of dance and the gymnastics gymnasium sits <a href="https://circus.org.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Circus Hub</a>, a school for aspiring circus performers. This is where I spend a lot of my waking hours when not working my desk job as a front-end developer at Catalyst IT. My name is Liam Sharpe and I’m a circus performer.I’ve been training for almost 5 years now, originally starting on the aerial silks and trapeze before finding my home on corde-lisse (or aerial rope). What’s great about the Circus Hub is they often run shows called RAW which are chances for their students to show off what they’ve learned and get the chance to perform to a paying audience. After performing in a number of these shows, I felt I needed more, so one winter day back in August 2021, I approached the manager of the hub to ask if I could direct the next one. I kind of expected to be told no, or that at the very least I could maybe shadow the organizer as an intern kind of deal. But to my utter disbelief and pleasure I was told “yep, here’s the date for the next one, let me know if you need help, good luck.”<img alt="Liam Sharpe performing aerial rope with dramatic lighting" class="richtext-image full-width" height="1200" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/liam_2.width-800.jpg" width="800">Photo by <a href="https://www.bigmark.co.nz/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Big Mark &amp; Co</a>So what did I learn in the process of putting together a show filled with over an hour of circus acts and at least 15 different acrobats at one point. Well number one: that organizing a public event in the post-Covid age sucks. The show was postponed three times due to Covid alert-level changes and a lockdown.To create the show I needed a few things:<ul><li data-block-key="fjv5k">A date</li><li data-block-key="f278p">Location</li><li data-block-key="o5ra">Theme</li><li data-block-key="49i5i">Performers</li><li data-block-key="3rtaf">And a budget</li></ul>The date and location were already set by the Circus Hub, and the budget was non-existent so that only left me with 2 more challenges. First the theme. This was surprisingly easy. After joking around with some friends we were talking about doing a Disney themed group act except where the guys were the princesses and it was up to the girls to save us. Spoiler alert: this act never made it into the show. We loved the idea but I wanted to open it up a bit more and make it slightly more vague so it turned into “Fairy tales.” My idea was to have an “Author” on stage who was dictating the show as it was happening - where the acts were the stories that she was writing about.Finally, I needed to round up a group of kick-ass performers. That wouldn’t be hard at a literal school for circus. What is hard though is keeping track of everyone and their progress especially when the constantly changing dates due to that pesky pandemic meant some performers couldn&#x27;t make the date any more but also freed up others to join in. By the time the show eventually went ahead, we had 9 acts, 2 stagehands, an emcee and me.<img alt="A group of circus performers standing and sitting together, smiling at the camera" class="richtext-image full-width" height="533" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/liam_3.width-800.jpg" width="800">That&#x27;s me, second from the right with my crew. Photo by <a href="https://www.bigmark.co.nz/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Big Mark &amp; Co</a>At this point you may be wondering why you’re reading a blog post about some random circus show on a website usually filled with tech articles. Well number one I was asked to and who am I to question the higher ups, but more importantly, and probably more relevant: I learnt a lot from directing a show that directly impacts the way I work now.I learnt that keeping everything in my head was a bad idea. Granted this is something I probably should have learnt during my university years but somehow I managed to get through it anyway. But with a constantly changing cast and various show ideas being thrown around I had to quickly learn to keep note of everything. In the same vein I also learnt to plan everything out and have lots of little milestones along the way. I ended up using a checklist with due dates ranging from 2 months before the show all the way down to the night before. This included items such as when the lights needed to be booked by and when the Facebook event page needed to be created. I learned there&#x27;s a lot of paperwork behind a show.I think the most important thing I learned was how important communication is. It was invaluable to be able to communicate with my cast, to let them know when rehearsals were and to figure out what their tech requirements are. It was important to stay calm and collected during the dress rehearsal and the show. It’s stressful performing, especially if it’s your first time so I had to make sure everyone was comfortable and ready.Directing is a fun and rewarding job and I learnt so much from doing so. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to do so and it’s definitely something I’d like to do more of in the future.<img alt="A circus poster for RAW: A Fairy Tale, Saturday 2 July at 7pm at the CIrcus Hub in Newtown, entry by donation" class="richtext-image full-width" height="1131" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/liam_4.width-800.png" width="800">

Liam Sharpe speaking into a microphone on a dimly lit stage

Catalyst developer Liam Sharpe on his experience directing a circus show

how-to-join-the-circus-and-still-keep-your-day-job

Written by Aleisha Amohia and Chris CormackThe Catalyst Koha team is excited to announce that Aleisha Amohia has been named our new Koha Technical Lead, taking over Chris Cormack who will be adopting his Kaihuawaere Matihiko role full-time.<h4 data-block-key="35nsq">Mate atu he tētē kura, ara mai he tētē kura - when one goes, another takes their place.</h4>Aleisha has been in the Catalyst Koha team and contributing to Koha for over 8.5 years. You&#x27;ve no doubt seen her around, whether it was speaking at Kohacon, co-facilitating training, fixing bugs, writing blog posts, or developing new enhancements and features such as recalls for Koha. She started out at the <a href="https://ako.floss.ac.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Catalyst Open Source Academy</a> as a high school student exploring an interest in the technology sector, and has worked her way up from being a part-time intern to the Technical Lead.The Kaihuawaere Matihiko role is one that Chris began on a part-time basis in early 2020. The role allows him to focus on helping to move Catalyst to a place that is better for Māori - Māori employees, and Māori organisations with whom we work. Chris had already been working in this space alongside his work with libraries. The role quickly began requiring more of Chris&#x27; time than we&#x27;d initially planned, and it became clear that it would be better for Catalyst if Chris could give it his full time and energy. It is a testament to Catalyst&#x27;s commitment to becoming a Te Tiriti o Waitangi honouring organisation that they have elevated the role to a senior management position.Being one of the original Koha developers, this is certainly not the end of the Koha journey for Chris! While he&#x27;s no longer in the Catalyst Koha team, he&#x27;s still available via community forums and chat channels. He&#x27;ll always be happy to talk about Koha, in fact the hard part is stopping him.The Catalyst Koha team continues to be a group of capable, hard-working people who champion open source software and strive to ensure Koha is the best system for libraries. Evan, Kathryn, Aleisha, Wainui and Alex look forward to their continued work, helping libraries get the best out of Koha in their organisations, and for their communities.Catalyst KohaIf you have any questions or comments about this News item, or would like some support with your Koha instance, you are welcome to email us at <a href="mailto:koha@catalyst.net.nz">koha@catalyst.net.nz</a> (New Zealand) or <a href="mailto:koha-support@catalyst-au.net">koha-support@catalyst-au.net</a> (Australia).Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/catalystkoha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Catalyst Koha on Twitter</a>!

Aleisha and Chris speaking at Te Tiriti in Tech in 2019

The Catalyst Koha team is excited to announce that Aleisha Amohia has been named our new Koha Technical Lead, taking over Chris Cormack who will be adopting his Kaihuawaere Matihiko role full-time. Mate atu he tētē kura, ara mai he tētē kura - when one goes, another takes their place.

koha-changes

by Billy HendryVirtual reality is a technology that allows you to be anyone, do anything, or go anywhere you can possibly imagine without ever needing to leave the room. It&#x27;s a digital technology that will enable you to step inside a piece of content, inside of a video game, or be part of a film.If you have ever seen Ready Player One then you probably know what virtual reality is already or at least the dystopian future of virtual reality.During the last two Catathon days at Catalyst I hosted a virtual reality event, giving people an opportunity to experience virtual reality (VR) for the first time.<img alt="A collection of three photos of people standing in a room wearing virtual reality headsets." class="richtext-image full-width" height="1054" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/vr_4.width-800.jpg" width="800">Catalystas try out VR at Catathon<h2 data-block-key="8g72h">What is Virtual Reality?</h2>There are three key components that are required to create a good VR experience:<ol><li data-block-key="2ps28">Hardware</li><li data-block-key="7r8ko">Trackability</li><li data-block-key="ed33k">Interactivity</li></ol>The hardware part is pretty straightforward. Most VR headsets have two lenses and a digital screen inside that that completely covers the eyes for an immersive 3D experience.The second part is trackability. You have to be able to move around in the VR experience, which makes it an immersive experience compared to a video game or film. VR headsets use some combination of accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and proximity sensor to detect the user&#x27;s motion.Quick side note: early VR headsets had a delay in the tracking of the headset which caused nausea. So if you haven&#x27;t tried VR in a while or the first time you tried it, it made you sick, I recommend you try it because technology has advanced and no longer causes nausea.The third component is interactivity. Using controllers or even your hands in some fancier systems, you have the ability to do things inside of a VR experience. That interactivity is key in helping create a sense of immersion inside of a VR experience.<h2 data-block-key="cnjlh">Virtual Reality Timeline</h2>Virtual reality has been around since the 1940s, believe it or not. People have been working on this technology for a really long time.However, it wasn’t until 2012, that a (at that time) little company called Oculus turned to crowdfunding to finance their developer kit, which would give the technology to developers who could integrate VR into their games.However, just in the last half a decade the technology has improved massively! You don&#x27;t need a big heavy-duty computer any more or hang a bunch of crazy sensors around your room.All you need is a headset, a couple of controllers, and plenty of time to lose yourself in the amazing experiences that are available on these headsets.<h2 data-block-key="eas01">Use Cases for the Technology</h2>The first one that most people think about is gaming. Stepping inside of a video game is a pretty cool thing to do.However there are some bigger more important use cases for this technology; we are seeing it save hundreds of thousands of dollars in the real world, in training and simulation.Delivery companies are using this technology to train their drivers. The military has been using this for years to train soldiers, pilots, and the like. Training and simulation are great to use cases for this technology.It also has huge benefits as a sales and marketing tool. Let&#x27;s say you&#x27;re an architect and you want to show someone what the inside of your new building looks like. Well, that’s hard to do until you actually build the building. With VR you can now do that.<h2 data-block-key="8465c">Open Source Virtual Reality</h2>Open Source has been a major part of Virtual Reality since the beginning and while lately lots of the bigger names in VR have been moving away from open source sadly.There are still lots of frameworks, libraries, and tools that are Open Source which lowers the cost for developers and startups. Some of them are backed by companies like Google, and Mozilla, and supported by powerful communities.In my opinion, one of the coolest Open-Source projects in VR is Relativty. It is an Open-source project helping developers to build their own VR hardware for less than $200. The project is providing 3D model sets, schematic, and instructions to assemble a VR headset.Relativty uses Arduino, among many other open-source tools and libraries like OSVR to build high-quality low-cost headsets.

A cartoon illustration of a person wearing a blue shirt and black trousers wearing headphones and a virtual reality headset, standing side on looking at a screen.

Virtual reality is a technology that allows you to be anyone, do anything or go anywhere you can possibly imagine without ever needing to leave the room.

open-source-virtual-reality

The <a href="https://mahara.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mahara</a> Project Team is excited to announce its podcast &#x27;<a href="https://podcast.mahara.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Create. Share. Engage.</a>&#x27; which is dedicated to showcasing practises around portfolios for learning and more. &#x27;<a href="https://podcast.mahara.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Create. Share. Engage.</a>&#x27; is aimed at educators, learning designers, and managers keen on integrating portfolios with their education and professional development practices.Mahara Project Lead Kristina Hoeppner talks with researchers, practitioners, learning designers, students, and others involved in portfolio work at a diverse range of organisations to find out why they are using portfolios, what has influenced their practice, and what tips they would like to share.A new episode will be released every two weeks on Wednesdays, New Zealand time. Lisa Donaldson, who was critical in starting and scaling the portfolio initiative at Dublin City University in Ireland, is our guest for the first episode on 28 September 2022.Subscribe to &#x27;<a href="https://podcast.mahara.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Create. Share. Engage.</a>&#x27; on your favourite podcast app. If you would like to share your organisation&#x27;s portfolio journey, get in touch. We&#x27;d love to chat about your experiences and journey working with portfolios.Catalyst is the main development company of the open source Mahara software and offers the <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/mahara" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">full range of support services</a> for organisations keen on implementing portfolios in formal education and the workplace.

Logo for Create. Share. Engage podcast on a green background. Tagline reads: Portfolio for learning and more.

The Mahara Project Team is excited to announce its podcast &#x27;Create. Share. Engage.&#x27; which is dedicated to showcasing practises around portfolios for learning and more.

sharing-portfolio-stories-with-the-world

by Charlotte WestonPhotos are by Kristina Hoeppner, except the sourdough one. Catathon began in 2017 as a way of celebrating Catalyst&#x27;s 20th birthday, and in July, five years later, we celebrated <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/blog/25-years-of-catalyst" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">25 years of Catalyst</a> with another fun-filled day long event.During Catathon, staff members run workshops introducing colleagues to their hobbies and interests. There are opportunities to work on software projects (like a more traditional hackathon) as well as things unrelated to software, such as dancing, painting, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.Below are some photos of a few of the activities that happened, with some accompanying tips and info!<img alt="A handful of people are standing in an office talking, and holding various things to juggle." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/juggling.width-800.png" width="800">Liam Sharpe (wearing black) giving a workshop on juggling in Wellington. Liam says &quot;juggling is a long game, but something as simple as trying for 10 minutes a day will make a massive difference. One day it just &#x27;clicks&#x27; and all of a sudden you can juggle.&quot; He says &quot;don&#x27;t be afraid to practice with just two, or even one ball when you&#x27;re learning.&quot;<img alt="Two people are sitting at a table with various paper and craft supplies making greeting cards." class="richtext-image full-width" height="534" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/cardmaking.width-800.png" width="800">Tish Kirkland holding a card she made at the pop-up greeting card workshop in Wellington. Tish&#x27;s tip is to &quot;make sure you check before you cut! I made the same mistake 3 times in that I forgot to unfold something before I cut it. Check twice, cut once! (There wasn&#x27;t any measuring going on, which is why I changed the saying.)&quot;<img alt="Two people are standing in a kitchen holding mixing bowls and wooden spoons making sourdough." class="richtext-image full-width" height="640" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/sourdough.width-800.jpg" width="480">Mariann Matai (right) and Nicole Illustre making sourdough bread in Christchurch. Here are Mariann&#x27;s tips for making delicious sourdough:<ol><li data-block-key="3ls0f">Dip your hand into flour when doing the folding, this will help with the stickiness.</li><li data-block-key="578f5">Don&#x27;t skip on the folding process! Do it at least 3-4 times with 30 mins in between.</li><li data-block-key="bct1h">Before rising the dough it shouldn&#x27;t be too soft or too dry but should hold it&#x27;s own shape just about.</li><li data-block-key="firbp">Bake at really high temperature 230-250C for 30 mins in fan assisted over covered with a lid (or in a Dutch over if you have one). Then bake it for another 10 mins with the lid off until it&#x27;s nice and brown.</li></ol><img alt="A sheet of paper with braille and translations." class="richtext-image full-width" height="534" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/braille.width-800.png" width="800">Matthew Hunt ran a braille workshop. &quot;We looked at UEB (Unified English Braille) which is now used in most English-speaking countries and has replaced national Braille systems, Matt says. &quot;You can learn to read Braille by sight and can quite quickly pick up what&#x27;s known as Grade 1 UEB, where every Braille character represents a single written character. For Grade 2 UEB, a Braille character may be a single character, a whole word, part of a word and may be different things dependent on context. If you&#x27;re keen to learn more, there&#x27;s an excellent Android app called Braille Tutor.&quot;<img alt="Russel is talking to a group of people, with a CPR mannequin on the floor in front of him." class="richtext-image full-width" height="450" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/cpr.width-800.png" width="800">Russel Garlick gave a talk about CPR in Wellington and ran a competition using a CPR manikin, which can measure the depth and rate of compressions. Russel is a NZ Resuscitation Council Approved New Zealand Emergency Care Instructor. His CPR tips are:<ul><li data-block-key="3q5bd">30:2 - no matter who, as in compressions to breaths.</li><li data-block-key="9fti0">Staying Alive is out! The <a href="http://resus.org.nz" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NZ Resus Council</a> now advises a slightly faster rate of 120 compressions per minute. The research also found that people sing at different rates so weren&#x27;t accurately getting the 100-110 per minute.</li><li data-block-key="cl769">120 per minute is the new guide, so 2 per second.</li></ul><img alt="Chris Cormack is sitting at a table smiling and chopping carrots. On the right is a close up of a hand holding a bowl of boilup." class="richtext-image full-width" height="314" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/boilup_2.width-800.jpg" width="800">As is the Catathon tradition, Chris Cormack made boilup for everyone to share. He&#x27;s still on the hunt for a reliable source of pūhā in Wellington so had to make do with spinach. Te Wainui helped out making doughboys for both the meat and vegan versions which were a big hit.<img alt="A group of people are sitting on couches around a small table making chainmaille." class="richtext-image full-width" height="534" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/chainmaille_3.width-800.png" width="800">Lily Fahey (right) teaching chainmaille making in Wellington. &quot;The big trick to chainmaille is patience,&quot; Lily says. &quot;It takes a while to make, especially when starting out, so don&#x27;t try to make every ring perfect and instead enjoy the process.&quot;<img alt="A training room is laid out with desks in 3 rows and computers set up on the desks. People are working on the computers." class="richtext-image full-width" height="450" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/training_room.width-800.png" width="800">Catalystas from all corners of the building making their contributions to open source library system, Koha, at the Koha bug squashing workshop in Wellington. &quot;For many of the group, this was their first time EVER doing software development,&quot; says Aleisha Amohia, &quot;so it was a real pleasure for the Catalyst Koha team. In just one morning we were able to push 10 patches (which will all be included in the next version of Koha), plus induct 8 new Koha developers.&quot;<img alt="Several people, including one person on a ladder, are painting a mural on a wall in a meeting room with bright blue, green, red, and yellow colours." class="richtext-image full-width" height="534" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/mural_2.width-800.png" width="800">Mural painting in one of the meeting rooms in Catalyst House in Wellington. The mural was designed by Evonne Cheung, and was based around the Korimako (Bellbird) and using the colours of available leftover paints. &quot;We wanted to be able to pass the buck, I mean, share the activity with the rest of the company, by getting everyone to participate in the painting, thus creating a sense of ownership to the mural,&quot; says Evonne. &quot;Not everyone is able to draw freehand, but everyone is able to colour in, hence the design as a large paint-by-numbers. I have come to realise just how much work it was to number each and EVERY section, and not have too many colours to mix but enough to get the painting to not look like a child&#x27;s painting. We&#x27;re going to put the finishing touches on it in the coming weeks, but it was wonderful to see everyone come and get involved in the painting, something that is going to be there for everyone to enjoy every time they use the meeting room.&quot;<img alt="Three people are standing looking intently at a large Lego train set on a table." class="richtext-image full-width" height="450" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/train_3.width-800.png" width="800">A Catathon staple in Wellington, the Lego train event is run by Sanjay D&#x27;Souza, and is an opportunity for people to experience the fun of driving a Lego train. &quot;Attendees worked in pairs to complete a series of tasks during their 14 minute session,&quot; says Sanjay, &quot;taking turns to either drive a train or control the network, i.e. changing track switches, raising or lowering road crossing barrier arms amongst other things. At the end of the session, people were awarded a Lego Train Engineering Certificate upon successful completion of their tasks. By the end of Catathon almost 90 people had taken part and had received a personalised certificate.&quot;<img alt="A lot of cupcakes with blue or white icing and sprinkles and flags saying Catalyst 25." class="richtext-image full-width" height="534" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/cupcakes.width-800.png" width="800">Some of the delicious shared goodies at the end of the day.

A crowd of people standing and sitting in a large room at the end of the day. Someone is talking on a microphone and there are tables of food in the foreground.

During Catathon, staff members run workshops introducing colleagues to their hobbies and interests. There are opportunities to work on software projects as well as things unrelated to software, such as dancing, mural painting, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.

catathon-celebrating-25-years

by Aleisha AmohiaIn June 2022, <a href="https://www.vala.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">VALA</a> returned for its first-ever hybrid in-person and online conference, with the theme &#x27;Bring It On!&#x27;. The Catalyst Koha team was excited to be able to send Aleisha Amohia (Koha Development Lead) and Chris Cormack (Koha Technical Lead and Kaihuawaere Matihiko) to attend VALA in Melbourne.Day 1 of VALA2022 was all about open access and research management. We heard about projects being implemented during the pandemic and how organisations responded to increased requirements for accessibility, openness, and creativity. Aleisha and Chris were joined by Dr Ben Chadwick from Education Services Australia SCIS to present about implementing Koha for SCIS, a cataloguing agency, across international borders, during a global pandemic. Read the paper and <a href="https://www.vala.org.au/vala2022-proceedings/vala2022-onsite-session-2-chadwick/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">watch the session recording here.</a><img alt="Aleisha Amohia, Dr Ben Chadwick, and Chris Cormack presenting together on Day 1 at VALA2022" class="richtext-image full-width" height="640" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/vaka_1.width-800.jpg" width="480">(From left to right) Aleisha Amohia, Dr Ben Chadwick, and Chris Cormack presenting together on Day 1 at VALA2022The VALA2022 Day 2 program held presentations about the applications and responsibilities regarding artificial intelligence and machine learning. There were conversations about our data and the impacts of how it has been collected and used. The key messages included that data collection has hugely increased due to the heightened use of technology during COVID-19, putting our information in the hands of large tech corporations. We need to be aware of the privacy risks from those who profit off our data, as well as the health, economic, environmental and political risks of them using modelling and predictions of our data to make decisions.The final day of VALA2022 was all about the people in our library communities, and crisis management through a pandemic. The message came through loud and clear - tech is people, must not be without humanity, and solutions should be people-centric. We are stronger through collaboration. Aleisha presented again, this time sharing the similarities between libraries and open source software, and the advantage of the Koha community. Read the paper and watch the session recording <a href="https://www.vala.org.au/vala2022-proceedings/vala2022-onsite-session-24-amohia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here.</a><img alt="Aleisha Amohia presenting at VALA2022 on Day 3." class="richtext-image full-width" height="1066" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/vala_2.width-800.jpg" width="800">Aleisha Amohia presenting at VALA2022 on Day 3.On Day 3, we were also given reminders to look after our ourselves and to make it easy for those around us to look after themselves, because we work better when we are happy and healthy. The speakers also shared tips for developing ourselves, including to be consistent, and access our creativity by getting outside of our comfort zones. Finally, we heard from a fantastic panel about leadership, and ended the day feeling connected and uplifted.VALA2022: Bring It On! was a great success, at a lovely venue with delicious catering and a dedicated team keeping everything running smoothly. While the conference itself was interesting and inspiring, everyone agreed that the highlight was being face-to-face with friends and colleagues we hadn&#x27;t seen in years.<img alt="Carmel O’Sullivan, Nicole Kearney, Kim Tairi, Hugh Rundle, and Sae Ra Germaine, sharing the stage to discuss leadership to close out Day 3 of VALA2022." class="richtext-image full-width" height="480" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/vala_3.width-800.jpg" width="640">(From left to right) Carmel O’Sullivan, Nicole Kearney, Kim Tairi, Hugh Rundle, and Sae Ra Germaine, sharing the stage to discuss leadership to close out Day 3 of VALA2022.Aleisha and Chris would also like to acknowledge the VALA Committee. The Catalyst Koha team can appreciate the immense amount of effort that goes into organising an in-person and online event after hosting Kohacon 2020 in Wellington, and the VALA Committee did an excellent job.

Carmel O’Sullivan, Nicole Kearney, Kim Tairi, Hugh Rundle, and Sae Ra Germaine, sharing the stage to discuss leadership to close out Day 3 of VALA2022.

The Catalyst Koha team was excited to be able to send Aleisha Amohia and Chris Cormack to attend VALA in Melbourne.

catalyst-crosses-the-ditch-for-vala

By Dianne TennentThis year’s <a href="https://kawaiicon.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kawaiicon</a>, formerly known as Kiwicon, was indeed the cutest little technical computer security conference in the Australia-Pacific region. Held over two days at the Michael Fowler Centre, the con hosted 27 presentations on a huge range of security related topics. I was proud to learn that 9% of these presentations were by delegates from Catalyst!<img alt="Photo taken from the back of a huge event room where hundreds of people are seated and looking at the stage" class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/52186407525_d80eb125f6_k.width-800.jpg" width="800">Awaiting the Kawaiicon opening, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/4nitsirk/albums/72177720300234763" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">photo by Kristina Hoeppner</a>This year was the 13th conference organised by the Kiwicon “crüe” since their debut in 2007 and they are an extraordinary team. They strike a great balance between serious content and light-heartedness that doesn&#x27;t make you think you are at a two-day conference. When the audience demands crickets, the audio desk delivers within a second, and an uncomfortable silence breaks into laughter. Electronic fireworks, sparkles, and a lock picking competition, as well as the badge challenge, are just some of the extras that attendees can experience, while learning about the various facets of information security.<img alt="A large group of people wearing masks are sitting at tables picking padlocks" class="richtext-image full-width" height="533" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/52184903542_f450c2799a_k.width-800.jpg" width="800">Lock picking, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/4nitsirk/albums/72177720300234763" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">photo by Kristina Hoeppner</a>Being the first conference since the start of the pandemic, the crüe was keenly aware of the precautions needed for running an event of this size, and implemented a range of measures to keep everyone as safe as possible. The conference was opened with a karakia, followed by a Llama in a space helmet, of course. Our host, Metlstorm (most efficiently described as a wizard in cargo pants) was a gracious and hilarious guide to the day.The presentations ranged from practical tools for identifying security issues, to strategic approaches to responding to immediate security threats, through to the endless, bewildering complexity of analysing the state of your system. I won’t pretend to have understood every word that was spoken or every diagram I saw, but I definitely gained a better appreciation of the importance of embedding security awareness in our daily operations.Without listing and summarising all 27 presentations (which would probably fill a weighty textbook), I’d like to share with you some of my main highlights.<img alt="Andrew Barlett on stage giving a talk at Kawaiicon with big screens behind him." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/andrew_kawaiicon.width-800.jpg" width="800">Andrew Bartlett at Kawaiicon, <a href="https://twitter.com/anitsirk/status/1542728653494095872" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">photo by Kristina Hoeppner</a>Did I mention that three of the presenters were from Catalyst? <a href="https://youtu.be/4hBLf2vQc8k?t=30618" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Andrew Bartlett</a>, from the Catalyst Samba team, did us proud sharing his experiences with Active Directory, which could be summarised by, “Oh hai, I found some publicly documented instructions for how to break your stuff, let me help you fix it.”<img alt="Kristina Hoeppner is on stage with someone in a large fuzzy blue creature costume and a line up of (not real) farm animals." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/kristina_and_faily_monster.width-800.jpg" width="800">Photo of Kristina Hoeppner and Faily Monster by <a href="https://twitter.com/jpdanner/status/1543061692640243714" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jason Danner</a><a href="https://youtu.be/IyeDSyvYvZs?t=23791" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kristina Hoeppner</a>, from the Mahara team, stole the show by teaming up with a big fluffy purple creature known as Faily Monster (note: not an actual monster). Together they regaled us with true stories of less-than-ideal communication about security problems, and of course, how to do it better.<img alt="Douglas Bagnall is presenting a talk on stage at Kawaiicon with large screens behind him." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/douglas_kawaiicon.width-800.jpg" width="800">Douglas Bagnall at Kawaiicon, <a href="https://twitter.com/anitsirk/status/1543068542249054208" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">photo by Kristina Hoeppner</a>I’m a bit fuzzy on <a href="https://youtu.be/IyeDSyvYvZs?t=25401" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Douglas Bagnall</a> though... I also make hilarious puns! Key points from Douglas (also from the Catalyst Samba team): get some good quality fuzz into your test data and throw it at your system.<a href="https://youtu.be/4hBLf2vQc8k?t=5229" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Moonshots and Space Debris</a>: Darren Bilby kicked off the con with a review of the past year’s major security incidents, i.e. the Solarwinds Hack, the Log4J Vulnerability, and the Colonial Pipeline Hack. He shared what went well, what didn’t, and what we can learn from it all. He looked closely at the way these incidents feed into establishing new tools and standards at a government and industry level, and how individuals contribute to this process.<a href="https://youtu.be/4hBLf2vQc8k?t=21988" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Malware Analysis when you don&#x27;t have time for Malware Analysis</a>: Adrian Hayes showed us a range of tools and techniques for quickly and safely analysing the contents of any suspected Malware, to help you make decisions about what to do next.<a href="https://youtu.be/4hBLf2vQc8k?t=23674" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Deep breaths and lean the f**k in. A user’s guide to Incident Response:</a> Nadia Yousef shared her experiences leading New Zealand government and industry’s response to several major incidents. Nadia emphasised the importance of timely and clear communication and collaboration during these critical events.<a href="https://youtu.be/IyeDSyvYvZs?t=6125" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SaaS - Security as a Secondthought</a>: I found this talk particularly helpful as a way of understanding, representing, and talking about an organisation’s current status through a security lens. Jeremy Stott showed us an example of using a mapping tool to map out the people in your organisation, which services they’re connected to, and what their relationship is to the organisation and the service. You can then identify your most important information assets and what the impact would be of losing them. Once you’ve identified all these connections in code, using a tool like Grafana shows them graphically. This allows you to easily see your current SaaS relationships, and therefore all the pathways that could lead to a specific impact, e.g. losing the company!<a href="https://youtu.be/IyeDSyvYvZs?t=15991" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Security as a product - A different way of approaching building scalable security systems</a>, and a progressive security culture within an organisation: I was really impressed with this talk because it told the story of how an amazing product owner applied their skills to transform security from ‘that thing we should really do one day’ to ‘that thing we’re doing and have now done.’ Kandice McLean was far too humble about her instrumental role in prioritising and churning through a security backlog.<img alt="A group of people sitting at tables and wearing masks working on a project" class="richtext-image full-width" height="533" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/52185927256_d7bbc6cc58_k.width-800.jpg" width="800">Participating in the Kawaiicon CTF run by HAL, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/4nitsirk/albums/72177720300234763" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">photo by Kristina Hoeppner</a>Prizes for most entertaining go to:<a href="https://youtu.be/4hBLf2vQc8k?t=12250" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dylan, Frenchie &amp; the Chamber of Secrets (Red Teaming in Zero Trust: No Malware Needed):</a> I’m told it was about how API keys and credentials scattered throughout your infrastructure can lead to security holes, but my main memory was two grown men in capes on stage casting spells on each other. Magical.<a href="https://youtu.be/4hBLf2vQc8k?t=14388" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">IoT your Pet, Sure can</a>: After a suspenseful narrative about how this presenter hacked into his SurePetCare IoT Hub, Feeder and Pet Door, we were treated to a REAL LIVE DOG jumping through a dog flap. Cute. There may have been some other point about the relative ease of obtaining the hub’s certificate.<a href="https://youtu.be/4hBLf2vQc8k?t=32448" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hiding Malware in Docker Desktop&#x27;s virtual machine</a>: This by far generated the most laughs per minute of the con. As a security researcher for Atlassian, “Alex” related the relatively simple steps they went through to discover that when you run Docker Desktop on macOS, it actually runs on a Linux virtual machine, and therefore you can hide all sorts of malevolent stuff in this VM which is completely undetectable by your actual machine. Woah.I find it astounding that there is a large community of people, who are incredibly talented and skilled in endlessly complex technologies, dedicated not only to understanding how these technologies could become vulnerable to attacks, but also willing to share and teach ways of preventing these attacks from occurring.I feel a huge sense of gratitude to anyone who specialises in security, allowing me to carry on building things in relative safety. And of course, I’ve taken away a much more heightened awareness of why being security conscious is so important.A big thank you to Catalyst for sponsoring me to attend the conference.<img alt="Ten Catalyst staff members wearing masks are standing in a large even toom." class="richtext-image full-width" height="450" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/catalyst_kawaiicon.width-800.jpg" width="800">Some of the Catalyst staff who were attending Kawaiicon, <a href="https://twitter.com/anitsirk/status/1543431130682122240/photo/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">photo by Kristina Hoeppner</a>

A huge event room with hundreds of people seated looking at a blue lit stage

This year’s Kawaiicon, formerly known as Kiwicon, was indeed the cutest little technical computer security conference in the Australia-Pacific region. Held over two days at the Michael Fowler centre, the con hosted 27 presentations by 27 excellent individuals on a huge range of security related topics.

kawaiicon-2022

By Charlotte WestonIn the late 1990s four friends were working for QED Software in Wellington when a management buyout triggered some changes. You could say it was a catalyst. The new management was Auckland based, and the manager of the Wellington branch, Mike O’Connor, was made redundant. As the Wellington branch disintegrated, Mike, along with colleagues Don Christie, Godfrey Fernandez, and Gavin Thompson, wondered what to do next.None of them had run a business before, but “we did think we could give it a go,” says Mike, and that’s what they did, founding Catalyst IT in 1997, along with another friend, Andrew McMillan.Before founding Catalyst, Don and Gavin were trying to encourage their employer to use the internet, but in those days many were skeptical. In 1995 Bill Gates said the internet was a flash in the pan and wouldn’t amount to anything, and that’s what their bosses felt as well.However, as Catalyst was starting, a man at Wellington City Council named Richard Naylor had just put up the world’s first CBD fibre optic loop, and the Catalyst directors paid around $10,000 to hook into that. “The ability to connect to information anywhere in the world was amazing. It was so open,” Don says. “Nobody controlled it. You could basically have a telephone line and a server, and set yourself up as an ISP, which really broke down a lot of barriers to entry. It really did explode, and the open source movement exploded too.”Andrew was key in promoting open source, encouraging the other directors to go down that path. Their values led them to open source software, and in turn, open source shaped the values of Catalyst. “We looked at the situation our customers were in, and saw them being taken advantage of with contracts for proprietary software, finding themselves trapped into contracts,” says Gavin. Open source software started to flourish in the early days of the internet and Catalyst was aligned with the ethos of freedom and innovation from the beginning. “We always had a philosophy of having fun and making sure that clients&#x27; needs came first. We thought, ‘let’s explore new technologies, and be the best we can possibly be&#x27;,” says Godfrey.<img alt="Seven Catalyst directors standing in a mock cage at the zoo" class="richtext-image full-width" height="557" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/In_the_cage1.width-800.jpg" width="800">L to R: Paul Waite, Srdjan Jankovic, Godfrey Fernandez, Gavin Thompson, Don Christie, Mike O&#x27;Connor, Andrew McMillanThe founding directors started Catalyst during the phase of their lives when they were also starting families, and they went from comfortable salaries to something unknown, with mortgages and children. “It was an adventure, and it was scary at times,” says Godfrey. Sometimes they didn’t have enough to pay themselves: they made sure their staff were paid, and relied on their partners through the early days. “One of the things that kept us humble was scratching around for a couple of years, not sure if it would work,” says Mike.Y2K gave Catalyst the boost it needed to carry on into the new century. With all the concern about how tech systems might not smoothly roll over into the new century, companies were desperate for help to ensure their systems didn’t fail. New contracts with Nelson Bay Meats and Plumbing World not only enabled Catalyst to continue, it meant they were able to employ their first staff member, Alan McNatty. Alan was also heavily involved with Telecom in the early days, back when you couldn’t even text between networks. Catalyst developed systems for Telecom mobile, and did a big launch at the rugby Sevens where you could send a text and it would appear on the big screen. A ringtone system was another thing Catalyst developed for Telecom. It seems strange now that we used to buy ringtones, but back then Telecom was earning a million dollars a month through ringtone sales.Another significant early client was the Electoral Commission. The founders’ personal involvement with the General Elections began before Catalyst and date back to the late 1980s. Catalyst&#x27;s first election was in 1999 when Paul Waite rewrote the Election Results System into a GUI application after it was a strictly character based application. “We’ve never had an election where our systems have let us down,” says Godfrey. “It’s really important to me, because it’s an important democratic system, and if anything failed it would have been a major setback for us.” The Electoral Commission is one of the few projects where each of the directors have had some involvement over the years, and one of many that has remained with Catalyst for a long time. “We don’t lose many customers, which is good,” says Gavin. “Our customers tend to be pretty loyal.”“A lot of the most successful projects in the world are open source ones,” says Gavin. Some international open source projects, like Moodle, Mahara, Koha, and Tōtara, were created by current or former Catalyst staff members, and Catalyst continues to play a significant role in their development, as well as supporting clients in using them for their eLearning and library management needs.One of the ways Catalyst advocates for the use of open source is with the Open Source Academy. The Academy is a two week programme during the summer holidays, where secondary school students learn about open source technologies, and work on real projects. The Academy was founded by Catalyst and has been running for over ten years now, and a number of students have since been given full time permanent jobs at Catalyst, with others participating in paid part time or holiday work. “Our Open Source Academy has seen over 150 people come through since 2011,” says Ian Beardslee, Training Manager. “At Catalyst, we have been lucky enough to see some of those people end up as staff, and making a difference in other parts of the tech sector.” Catalyst also runs a variety of professional development training courses throughout the year, on topics such as JavaScript, web accessibility, Python, and Agile fundamentals.<img alt="Don Christie is talking with students who are working on their laptops in a large office room" class="richtext-image full-width" height="557" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/open_source_academy1.width-800.jpg" width="800">Director Don Christie talks with students at the 2019 Open Source AcademyAnother significant way Catalyst promotes the use of open source technologies is with the New Zealand Open Source Awards. The Open Source Awards is a biennial event, first held in 2007, that recognises and celebrates the outstanding work done with free open source software, across artistic, scientific, and social sectors. The aim of the awards is to raise awareness about the benefits and competitive edge that open source software allows for.<img alt="A crowd of people sitting at tables during an awards presentation at the Te Papa marae" class="richtext-image full-width" height="557" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/nzosa_2018.width-800.jpg" width="800">The NZOSA gala dinner in 2018, at Te Marae, Te PapaThe founders had debates about whether they should have a maximum of 12 or 30 people, but Catalyst has grown from the five founders in Wellington in 1997, to what is now an international company with close to 400 staff. Some staff members have been with Catalyst for decades. “Without any real strategy of growth we’ve managed to align ourselves with good people,” says Mike. “Good staff, who are interested and committed to the open source ethos and the freedoms and opportunities it gives.”<img alt="A large group of people standing outside" class="richtext-image full-width" height="309" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/catalyst1.width-800.jpg" width="800">Most of the Wellington Catalystas, 2017“We don’t consider ourselves anything special, and what made the difference was open source,” says Don. “People coming to work for us were able to be part of and contribute to a global community; that’s an important part of bringing good people into the team.” These days, the Catalyst headquarters are at Catalyst House on Willis Street in the Wellington CBD, with other offices in Auckland, Christchurch, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada. “One of the cool things for me is that we’re still good friends 25 years on,” says Mike. “It’s been laid-back, mostly stress-free. We managed to get through the early times when we were skint, with the family pressures. I’m still enjoying it, still a little bit amazed.”“We’ve been pretty successful in being advocates for open source software, one of our founding ideals,” says Gavin. “One of the things we wanted to do was prove you could run a business with open source software. Everyone told us we were crazy, but the landscape has changed massively, and we’ve been proven right which is satisfying.”

Seven Catalyst directors standing in a mock cage at the zoo

A brief history of Catalyst&#x27;s open source work and advocacy.

25-years-of-catalyst

by Charlotte Weston<h2 data-block-key="5j979">How it all began</h2>Doris Tam’s journey to becoming a full-time <a href="https://mahara.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mahara</a> developer at Catalyst began when she was still attending high school. Her Digital Technologies teacher asked the class if anyone was interested in applying for the <a href="https://catalyst.net.nz/academy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Catalyst Open Source Academy</a>. Doris was among those who were selected to attend.The Academy gave Doris a taste of what it’s like working in the tech industry. During that time she had been working part-time in a retail job, so the comparison between retail and IT wages was an incentive to continue in the IT industry. When she reached the end of high school, Doris enrolled in a Bachelor of Engineering degree at university.<img alt="Three students are looking off camera towards a computer screen or instructor" class="richtext-image full-width" height="533" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/20346415493_5ff3dfbd4d_c.width-800.jpg" width="799">Doris Tam (middle) at the Catalyst Open Source Academy“First year uni was tough,” Doris says, “but there were so few women that you just immediately became friends with them.” The tech industry is still heavily dominated by men, which is something Catalyst is actively working to combat. Doris says women students only made up a small portion of the classes. During one paper, a university staff member told Doris that her report about a networking experience wasn’t good enough because it was about an event organised for women in tech. They told her she “should have gone to a bar and talked to a man about chess.”<h2 data-block-key="bsr2v">Becoming an intern at Catalyst</h2>As part of the requirements for completing her engineering degree, , Doris needed to complete 400 hours of industry experience, and a friend reminded her of Catalyst, where she had participated in the Open Source Academy close to three years prior. She searched through her emails and contacted Kristina Hoeppner, project lead of the Mahara project, who remembered Doris, and told her “we didn&#x27;t plan on taking on an intern this year, but let&#x27;s discuss.” That summer, Doris started as intern in the Mahara team and worked to improve the automation test suite. After her summer internship, Doris continued working part-time until the end of her studies, with support from the Catalyst team.Working part-time as a student at Catalyst typically means up to 10 hours per week during term time, if the student wishes to work. During term breaks, students then work closer to full-time. That allows them to make bigger progress in their learning, be involved more easily in projects with deadlines, and get to know Catalyst staff and work culture more through daily interactions.<h2 data-block-key="2pk56">Balancing university and work</h2>At one point during university when Doris asked for help, she was told she couldn’t get a job as she didn’t have the foundational skills, yet she’d already been working at Catalyst for two years. Doris says the things she learned in her first two years at Catalyst were more fun and more useful than what she learned at university, and even helped with her studies. “Catalyst taught me how to use the version control system Git. Before that, when I did my assignments at uni I would make changes and screw it up and couldn’t get the code back. Learning how to use the Linux terminal and Git were the most fundamental things that just saved me at uni.”She often studied at the office as it was a more peaceful and ergonomic environment than university as she could focus more easily. The team structured Doris&#x27; work to fit work around her study obligations.<h2 data-block-key="32n53"></h2><h2 data-block-key="btelo">Working full-time at Catalyst</h2><img alt="A headshot of Doris Tam who is looking at the camera and smiling" class="richtext-image left" height="533" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/doris_tam1.width-500.jpg" width="400">After Doris finished her studies, she transitioned seamlessly into a full-time position in the Mahara team. She has been working on a range of different projects, including leading a small team of developers to re-write Mahara Mobile, the cross-platform mobile app for Mahara in React Native. Through the client and community work that Catalyst does for Mahara, Doris is exposed to different clients, is involved in the twice yearly releases of new versions, and also already managed the release of a security release across all supported versions of Mahara.In early 2022, Doris became an approved Mahara developer, which is a badge of honour as it indicates that the developer knows the Mahara code base well and makes changes and additions that fit into it. Approved developers also know the community&#x27;s coding guidelines well to provide sound peer reviews and spot potential issues, suggest better ways of coding things, and generally have a good understanding of the technical side of the project.Kristina says, “Applying to become an approved developer was the next natural step for Doris to progress in her career as developer on the Mahara team and take on more responsibility in her coding. Robert Lyon, our tech lead of the project, and I asked Doris to apply because we had confidence in her that she would do well with the added responsibility. We could see that she was ready to be more proactive. She had also demonstrated that she could give good feedback to other developers, which is a large part of our peer review process.”“I like the open source part of Mahara,” Doris says. “Because we support the entire community as maintainers of the software rather than only do client work, we work with people from around the world and learn how they are using the software, which helps us in developing new features on our own and not just through our clients. Being able to engage with the Mahara community is great, knowing it’s not just a one-off six-month client project. That means we are able to plan ahead for new features, though we do balance it with our obligations towards our clients. We are in the great position that the majority of our clients here in Aotearoa and also abroad are happy for us to contribute changes and new features back to the community to enhance the software for all.”

Doris Tam’s journey to becoming a full-time Mahara developer at Catalyst began when she was still attending high school.

doris-tams-journey-in-tech

The Catalyst Koha team was honoured to participate in Ko Māui Hangarau – Porirua, Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) on 17 May 2022.Ko Māui Hangarau is a high-powered summit featuring some of the best Māori tech innovators and entrepreneurs from around the country. Their aim is to inspire and ignite rangatahi Māori (young Māori) into pathways in tech, innovation and entrepreneurship. In 2022, Ko Māui Hangarau is touring the country, also holding events in Rotorua and Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland).The Porirua event was attended by approximately 200 young people from nearby kura kaupapa Māori (Māori-language immersion schools, guided by Māori values and practices) and mainstream schools. There were four kaikōrero (speakers), followed by a provided lunch, then dedicated time in the ‘Activation Zone’ - an exhibition area for Māori tech entrepreneurs and organisations to showcase their mahi (work) to the students.<img alt="Te Wainui, Aleisha and Chris standing in front of Ko Māui Hangarau banner." class="richtext-image full-width" height="600" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/wainui_aleisha_chris1.width-800.jpg" width="800">Aleisha Amohia, Te Wainui Witika-Park and Chris Cormack attended Ko Māui Hangarau on behalf of the Catalyst Koha team, which involved looking after a stall in the Activation Zone. The team trained students to be Koha librarians and issue and return books using Koha.The Catalyst Koha team also asked students to write answers in their own words to a Big Question: How can Māori help technology? They were impressed and inspired by the answers, which included:<ul><li data-block-key="3lff4">Māori can bring our culture, knowledge and traditions to the industry </li><li data-block-key="1vmhr">Māori will bring inter-generational thinking </li><li data-block-key="6hd9u">Māori can include Te Reo Māori (Māori language) in technology, and in doing so, ensure everyone is heard </li><li data-block-key="6bgvv">Tech is all about evolving, and Māori have always been capable of expanding our minds in order to adapt to different situations </li><li data-block-key="92tbb">Māori can help with anything!</li></ul><img alt="Aleisha speaking on stage at Ko Māui Hangarau." class="richtext-image full-width" height="533" src="https://object-storage.nz-hlz-1.catalystcloud.io:443/v1/AUTH_3458c7e192ac4b5880c337b21b3c06fb/catweb_prod/images/aleisha_speaking.width-800.jpg" width="800">Aleisha was also a kaikōrero (speaker) for the keynote section of the event, alongside Pera Barrett, Katie Brown and Te Awanui Reeder, three incredible Māori tech innovators and entrepreneurs. Aleisha shared her journey into the tech industry – the pathways she took, the milestones and successes, the cultural and systemic challenges she faced as a brown woman in a male-dominated industry, and the importance of finding a support system and holding strong in your beliefs.The Catalyst Koha team had an awesome day at Ko Māui Hangarau, and are excited about the level of self-awareness, intelligence and pure Māori pride coming from these rangatahi. Catalyst plans to use its resources to continue stimulating these students’ interest in tech and innovation, and urges the rest of the New Zealand tech community to invest in the industry’s future and do so too.Written by Aleisha Amohia, Koha Development Lead.Catalyst KohaIf you have any questions or comments about this News item, or would like some support with your Koha instance, you are welcome to email us at koha@catalyst.net.nz (New Zealand) or koha-support@catalyst-au.net (Australia).Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/catalystkoha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Catalyst Koha on Twitter</a>!

Te Wainui, Aleisha and Chris standing in front of Ko Māui Hangarau banner.

The Catalyst Koha team was honoured to participate in Ko Māui Hangarau – Porirua, Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) on 17 May 2022.

catalyst-at-ko-maui-hangarau

Laptop screen on a desk with two hands typing

Here are some of the Catalyst Koha team’s tops picks of new functionality available to libraries upon upgrading to Koha 22.05!

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by Andrew Bartlett In November 2021, Samba and Microsoft did a coordinated release of a <a href="https://www.cert.govt.nz/it-specialists/advisories/critical-vulnerability-in-windows-kerberos-protocol/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">critical security issue</a> that I like to call the “Dollar ticket” attack on Active Directory Kerberos.In this blog I wanted to share some of the lessons from that year that led up to that final release in late 2021.<h3 data-block-key="8j4ia">Staying curious and trusting your gut</h3>My first worries about this issue came about when patches to add support for a curious additional alias were included into Samba’s KDC – the central Kerberos component in our Active Directory. Computers in Active Directory have accounts in the domain, ending with a $. My colleague on the Samba Team Stefan Metzmacher added <a href="https://git.samba.org/?p=samba.git;a=commitdiff;h=61de10240e26f6edf4961841206347d0652c40d9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">support</a> for a Kerberos login with the name computer to match an account with name computer$. This work was done to match Microsoft’s windows and to fix a <a href="https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11130" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bug</a> in Samba.And so it sat, with this feeling of &quot;this is not quite right&quot; but nothing more. Thankfully on the Active Directory side, at the KDC, an exact match always wins.<h3 data-block-key="56gea">The idle mind and turning over rocks</h3>At the end of 2020, a work stream at Catalyst came to an end, and I was helping with the specifications for some testing work that Catalyst was planning, a job we were very pleased to have sponsored by our long-time client LMAX Group. The trailing-$ question came up again, and I started thinking again, this time turning my attention to traditional ‘MIT Style’ Kerberos – a system that has always been well specified in terms of string-based names, not the unique and numeric “SIDs” used in Active Directory.I realised that nothing in Active Directory would prevent an unprivileged user from creating an account called called root$ and to then present a ticket with that name to a traditional MIT style Kerberos-accepting services and have them read as root (the main administrative user on Linux).(The unprivileged bit comes from an Active Directory mis-feature known as MachineAccountQuota. Samba doesn’t implement this.)<h3 data-block-key="31edr">Talk to and listen to experts</h3>I reached out to Microsoft via our good friends at the Protocols Interoperability team, and got a call with Microsoft’s Kerberos Lead after the summer, the agenda of which was to tell me that this was exactly by design, and that nothing would be done.Samba has since <a href="https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2020-25717.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">warned</a>, about this behaviour, as it remains the case that unprivileged users in Active Directory can create such accounts via the MachineAccountQuota feature.However the call did not go as planned – as we continued the call our thought-experiments came to other ways that this issue could cause trouble, and by the end I thought a security process had started.This wasn’t the only time just talking it over mattered, later in the year, as we coordinated with Microsoft, some off-hand remarks alerted me to other critical issues we had missed in Samba, and we are very grateful to have been able to fix them as the same time.<h3 data-block-key="dfbgb">Nothing starts until a case is lodged, with a full scripted exploit</h3>An important lesson I learnt is how to interact professionally with MSRC, the Microsoft Security Response Centre.Busy and stressed as I was, and on the back of a successful call with Microsoft’s engineers, I thought that a simple text-based walk-though and some hand-waving would then get the process started. Instead, it just lead to confused triage engineers and stalled cases.What turned things around was the incredibly fine work of Joseph Sutton, who joined Catalyst in 2022 and quickly became quite skilled at building Kerberos testsuites.Joseph built the infrastructure, and then full working exploits for the issues we knew about, and then was able to explore some new, even more dangerous ideas. At the time we only knew of an exploit via the RODC codepath, but with the tooling we were able to exploit any domain, to the full admin user, via another Kerberos feature S4U2Self, or Kerberos impersonation.Flipping the attack above around, we instead got a ticket for a normal, unprivileged user DC, but were able to get the KDC to treat it as if it was DC$, the deeply trusted account of the domain controller.This, as you might expect, got Microsoft’s attention.<h3 data-block-key="a132i">Who to share with?</h3>Holding in our now literally shaking hands was an exploit that could blow open any default-configuration AD domain currently in deployment, with only a user account.I had tried to keep the issues quiet, even on the Samba Team, due to the concern, but developers who have not been told about the issue, confidentially, can’t fix the issue either. In the end I shared exploits with fellow Samba Team members who needed it, and the details with the broader team in line with our normal security handling.Thankfully a group of developers from a number of Samba supporting companies, Red Hat, SuSE, SerNet and Symas joined Catalyst in the work upstream. I do want to make an extra thanks to Symas, who provided long-time team member Nadezhda Ivanova to the effort, despite not currently having a Samba product under support.Later we would similarly take care in the reveal of the issues first to vendors, and then to the broader public, even then never publishing the full exploit.<h3 data-block-key="8sbpo">Calling on a good friends, and making more.</h3>At this stage we had a big issue, but no funding to fix it. Thankfully a Catalyst client was willing to fund a significant chunk of the work for the AD DC, but their use case didn’t extend to the fileserver, nor to the RODC, where we initially found the issue.For the fileserver issues the broader Samba Team stepped up, but for the RODC issue I needed outside funding assistance. It was at this point when I called on a good friend, Arvid Requate of Univention. Univention was really awesome in supporting the required fixes for Samba’s AD DC at an early stage when we were deliberately vague in describing the full impact, and I greatly appreciate the trust they put in me.Likewise, as mentioned above it looked for a time like we would need to revise the Access Control layer in Samba’s AD DC. This code is complex and while well tested, it hasn’t had a lot of work over the past few years, so few developers understand it really well. I was incredibly appriciative when Nadezhda Ivanova, a good friend and the original author of this feature was supported by her employer to return to Samba development to assist in this area.Friends matter, and in security friends really matter and I thank all my good friends, both old and the new friends I made at Microsoft during the time.<h3 data-block-key="bh77r">The challenge of timing, and not saving the world</h3>As weeks turned to months and deadlines were (thankfully) extended, we all were pretty exhausted. I had esimated the task, but with all the extra issues found along the way, I was incredibly grateful when the October deadline was moved to November. Even so, I’m reminded why my PM always asks me to triple my initial estimates, as we really pushed hard to get the patches all integrated and released.In the end we made it, with less notice to our vendors than we would have liked, but everybody got patches, including back-ported patches for those who had commissioned those, before Microsoft released and the issue was disclosed.But we couldn’t do everything. I mentioned above about a root$ -&gt; root mapping that is still possible particularly in Microsoft Windows Active Directory, and I still wish that there was a practical way we might have been able to do coordinated disclosure and avoid that issue. In the end this has been left for each deployment to address, with few overarching mitigations possible.Sadly as I was told early in 2021, this is pretty much “by design” in the protocols.In the end I had to choose that while the number of deployments mixing Active Directory, MIT-style Kerberos and Linux (but not using Samba) is important, that I held in my hand an exploit all the way to Domain Administrator. We needed to fix that, and to fix that we had to disclose.As someone who likes to ‘solve for everything’ and takes an outlook on life of choosing what is best for others, for the world, this was perhaps the hardest thing.I also knew that after the 2021 we all went though that I couldn’t still be doing this work at this pace in 2022.<h3 data-block-key="3f7pi">Final thoughts</h3>Everything I ‘discovered’ and disclosed in this area is actually in public documentation. There is a great article on MachineAccountQuota at <a href="https://www.netspi.com/blog/technical/network-penetration-testing/machineaccountquota-is-useful-sometimes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NetSPI</a> and the problematic lookup algorithm is public in <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-kile/6435d3fb-8cf6-4df5-a156-1277690ed59c" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MS-ADTS</a>. The default non-canonicalisation feature is standard Kerberos per <a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4120.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">RFC4120</a> and presumably all of this has been this was since Windows 2000 first introduced Active Directory. I wonder how many others found this before me, how many networks were already 0wned.Thankfully it look a full month before security Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/cnotin/status/1468638572781649927?t=ufO8XH9OMLf2jz87b1R7aw&amp;s=19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">joined the dots</a> between the coordinated releases. Hopefully some domains were patched by then. <a href="https://cloudbrothers.info/en/exploit-kerberos-samaccountname-spoofing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Exploits</a> have now been <a href="https://exploit.ph/cve-2021-42287-cve-2021-42278-weaponisation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">written</a>.Find out how Catalyst can help with your <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/samba-and-windows-integration" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Samba support and development needs</a>.

In November 2021, Samba and Microsoft did a coordinated release of a <a href="https://www.cert.govt.nz/it-specialists/advisories/critical-vulnerability-in-windows-kerberos-protocol/">critical security issue</a> that I like to call the “Dollar ticket” attack on Active Directory Kerberos.

stay-curious-dollar-ticket-security-issue

On 27 April 2022, the Catalyst team released <a href="https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=9097" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mahara 22.04</a>, the latest version of the popular open source ePortfolio platform. This version of Mahara contains a variety of new features, in particular around searching for content and supporting learners more efficiently while they create their portfolios and use Mahara sites. For example, organisations can automatically upload files into learner accounts, portfolios submitted to Moodle can be passed to Ouriginal (formerly Urkund) for a similarity check, and accounts can be moved between organisations seamlessly via the SAML authentication option.<div>
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In its capacity as maintainer of the Mahara project, Catalyst publishes a new version of Mahara on behalf of the community every six months, with new features and enhancements to existing features. Catalyst, its clients, and other community members contribute to these new features and enhancements, translate the software into many languages, and support each other in the implementation of ePortfolios using Mahara.The Catalyst Mahara team is proud to work with its clients and the wider community to provide Mahara and improve it continuously to meet the requirements of a diverse group of organisations all using ePortfolios, from schools and tertiary institutions to accreditation organisations and workplaces.Watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR1lx-8zYqA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feature release video</a> for a quick overview of highlighted new features and get in touch with us if you&#x27;d like to discuss how portfolios can fit into your organisation&#x27;s learning ecosystem and see Mahara in action.

Mahara 22.04 was released at the end of April by the Catalyst team. It contains a variety of new features, in particular around searching for content and supporting learners more efficiently

mahara-2204-search-and-support

by Maia MillerThere can be a lot to consider when designing an accessible website. After all, 1.1 million people in New Zealand identify as disabled, so creating experiences to suit their needs requires thoughtful consideration of your designs.But don’t be overwhelmed! While the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) covers a total of 50 criteria to make a website compliant, there are some low-hanging fruit that are easy to implement right away.One of our favourite quick tips: make your designs responsive!Several WCAG criteria cover a user’s ability to zoom in, scroll or change the orientation of a screen. This is to help people with low vision, physical restrictions, dyslexia or other cognitive challenges. For example, being able to change the size of a page’s text (WCAG criteria 1.4.4) means that users with weak vision can magnify text to the point where they can see it.Other criteria relevant to responsive design? 1.4.10 Reflow means there is no horizontal scroll introduced when a screen is zoomed in, something that is automatically achieved when we design mobile-first. 1.3.4 Orientation dictates that a web page shouldn’t be locked to a viewport (ie, portrait view only). This enables people who want or need to see something on a different screen size – like a landscape tablet – to do so without impairing their ability to use the site. Designing responsively can also tick off criteria 1.4.12 Text Spacing and 1.4.5 Images of Text.So, go forth and build responsively – and accessibly!<h3 data-block-key="fpf6v">Catalyst Accessibility Services can support you through your entire web accessibility journey. <a href="https://accessibility.catalyst.net.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here</a> for more information or to request a free consult.</h3>

There can be a lot to consider when designing an accessible website, but there are some low-hanging fruit that are easy to implement right away.

quick-tip-accessible-websites

by Daniel Southward-EllisOver the summer break between 2021 and 2022 I was offered the opportunity to work as a cloud native intern at Catalyst. The position would involve improving Cove, Catalyst&#x27;s platform as a service built on top of Kubernetes. The project was fascinating but I had never worked with Kubernetes before. To make things more challenging, I couldn&#x27;t find a simple explanation of what Kubernetes was or how it worked. Luckily it turned out to be easier to learn than I&#x27;d feared it would be.<h2 data-block-key="36qvc">What I knew going in</h2>Before the job I knew that containers were lightweight virtual machines that programs could be installed into and then run from. This avoids the end user needing to install the program themselves which means less work for them. From my research before starting, I knew that Kubernetes was a system that could organize containers running code seamlessly over several machines. It does this by creating and destroying containers and changing how they are connected to bring the whole cluster towards a desired state. So with this understanding I started working on Cove.<h2 data-block-key="d7cbq">Upgrading an Ingress Controller</h2>After getting settled in at Catalyst my first task was to upgrade the version of the ingress controller installed with Cove. This seemed like a simple task (I just needed to change a version number) but it would help me get to grips with how Kubernetes worked.First I had to figure out how networking works in a Kubernetes cluster and where the ingress controller fit in. I discovered that ingresses are used to direct web traffic to different apps depending on the URL. So if you ran a food blog, you could setup one ingress to send traffic from a recipe page to one service and traffic for the blog list to a different one.In practice the upgrade turned out to involve a lot more than just changing a number. Upgrading the controller required upgrading other programs that used it. One of these programs had hardcoded a change in recent versions that broke in Cove. Fixing it ended up introducing me to another tool in Cove, Kyverno.<h2 data-block-key="2avem">Resources and Kyverno</h2>Everything in Kubernetes, even the machines the cluster runs on, are represented as resources. These describe the state I&#x27;d read about before I started. They&#x27;re written and stored as YAML files which describe a type and all the settings and data needed to create the resource. A big part of getting familiar with Kubernetes was learning all the different resource types and what they did.Kyverno is a tool that runs in the cluster and can automatically validate or modify resources when they&#x27;re created or updated. The rules for this are called policies and are also resources in the cluster. Because Kubernetes uses resources for everything, I could write policies to change the values on resources created by another application.While this turned out to be a less than ideal way to solve the problem, it was a great introduction to how Kubernetes operates. When the state Kubernetes is trying to match changes in quick succession it doesn&#x27;t try to follow through the changes, it only ever tries to match the current state. This makes testing and development far easier, you only have to worry about what the state looks like now.<h2 data-block-key="qk0g">Working at Catalyst</h2>Catalyst was a great introduction to different ways to manage software development. While I&#x27;d heard of Agile before I started, my internship was a great introduction to this style of working. The team would start each day with a short meeting where we&#x27;d share our progress during the previous day and outline our plans for today. These meetings were great to get up to speed on what was happening. While I was working in the office for most of my internship, covid restrictions required that people work from home some days. While this was happening, these meetings and the team&#x27;s willingness to help out made sure I didn&#x27;t get lost or stuck.<h2 data-block-key="d40bv">A different approach to development</h2>Working in the cloud native team was very different to other development work I&#x27;d done in the past. Because I was working on systems meant to operate in a cloud environment nothing could be run or tested locally. Everything needed access to the APIs operated by cloud providers to operate. It took me a while to realize that this is part of what &quot;cloud native&quot; means, software purpose built to run in the cloud.Still there was plenty that I did recognise, Git, merge requests, and tracking down strange bugs. Once I&#x27;d learned how things worked and learned all the different languages I found it wasn&#x27;t so different from the style of programming I was used to. The team were amazing and incredibly helpful as I tried to find my way around the project. Contributing to Cove has been a great experience and I&#x27;ve learned so much from it.

Daniel Southward-Ellis is standing in front of some ferns wearing a blue button up shirt and smiling at the camera.

Daniel&#x27;s experience as a cloud native intern.

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by Maia MillerWeb accessibility is critical for providing users with a robust, complete and usable web experience. Yet according to an accessibility evaluation of one million homepages conducted by the <a href="https://webaim.org/projects/million/2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WebAIM Million Project</a>, 97.4% of homepages had detected accessibility failures!Is your organisation’s homepage one of those 974,000 inaccessible sites?According to the WebAIM Million Project, most conformance failures fall into just a few categories. The most common WCAG failure? Low contrast text.This means that there is not enough contrast between the colour of a given piece of text on a website and its background colour, so people with weak vision can&#x27;t easily read it. This can impact all types of users, too – when we’re outside looking at our phones in the sun, it’s useful to increase the brightness on our phones because it raises the contrast of what’s on screen. Insufficient contrast can make it difficult or impossible for some users to see text on the screen.While this is a pervasive problem, it’s not a hard one to solve. There are lots of free and simple tools out there that allow you to test colour contrast. Just search for “colour contrast checker” and pick the one you like best.Our personal favourite is WebAIM’s <a href="https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">colour contrast checker</a>: it tells us which WCAG levels and criteria pass or fail and has a slider feature to allow us to adjust the colour until we’ve reached compliant contrast levels.The aim is to hit a contrast of at least 3:1 for large text and 4.5:1 for regular text.Of course, it becomes harder to make changes to colours once a design is finalised, so be sure to consider colour contrast as early as possible in your project.Go ahead and test the colours of a recent or current project of yours. If it doesn’t pass the colour contrast test, suggest some changes to your team so your homepage can be one of the few on the right side of accessibility!

A laptop on a desk in front of a white brick wall with a coffee cup next to it, showing the WebAIM colour contrast checker tool.

The most common WCAG failure? Low contrast text.

are-you-making-this-accessibility-mistake

Congratulations to Catalyst’s Andrew Bartlett, who was recently on the <a href="https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2022/02/01/congratulations-to-the-top-msrc-2021-q4-security-researchers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2021 Q4 Security Reseacher Leader-board</a> at Microsoft, for his work with Samba and Microsoft’s Active Directory.Samba is an open source authentication and user management and interoperability suite for Linux and Unix servers. Samba does many things, but at Catalyst we are core developers on the feature that replaces Microsoft Active Directory in Windows environments. Sometimes the Samba team discovers oddities in testing: things that work in ways they shouldn’t.While always working to be compatible, the Samba team also independently decides if something is secure and if it’s not then they report the issue to Microsoft.The Samba team at Catalyst have an excellent relationship with Microsoft and can talk to their engineers about problems they discover, and then go in and patch it at the same time.The issue Andrew found turned out to be a critical vulnerability in the <a href="https://www.cert.govt.nz/it-specialists/advisories/critical-vulnerability-in-windows-kerberos-protocol/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Windows Kerberos protocol</a>, where a normal account was enough to take over the whole domain. The only thing more serious would be if you didn’t need an account at all. The security issue was disclosed to Microsoft around May 2021, the teams both inside Microsoft and from around Samba spent about six months working hard to make sure it all came together.Catalyst took on much of the effort to fix the issue in Samba and in turn Catalyst thanks <a href="https://www.univention.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Univention</a> who helped pay for some of the work to fix this security issue.A particularly important role was taken by Joseph Sutton, another Samba developer here at Catalyst, who built scripts that fully automated the exploitation of the issue, to ease reproduction, as well as following up with the automated testing of the fixes for the issues.This isn’t the first issue Andrew has found in Windows: around six years ago Andrew found another issue with the machine account quota, which is a feature in the Active Directory that allows normal users to create accounts. Andrew found that you could create 10 machine accounts, which could then create 10 machine accounts, and so on. Ideally it shouldn’t be possible to create an account in central trusted database without being administrator but Microsoft’s Windows allowed it. Andrew reported this issue to Microsoft and then worked closely with Microsoft’s engineers to ensure the problem was fixed completely.Likewise on this most recent issue, Andrew worked closely with Microsoft, and even with some of the same engineers, while he coordinated the work to ensure the fixes would be complete and compatible – so they didn’t end up fixing the problem differently.The Catalyst Samba team has a very good ongoing relationship with Microsoft’s engineers and we will continue to work together when we find flaws.The expert Catalyst Samba team provides industry-leading support and development services with a special focus on the Samba Active Directory Domain Controller. We use Samba to integrate our solutions with enterprise networks built on Microsoft&#x27;s Windows to enable seamless interoperability.

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Congratulations to Catalyst’s Andrew Bartlett, who was recently on the 2021 Q4 Security Reseacher Leader-board at Microsoft, for his work with Samba and Microsoft’s Active Directory.

samba-team-fixes-microsoft-security-issue

Since 2016 Catalyst has supported computer science students with Open Source Scholarships, awarding two scholarships each year. This year there was such a fantastic candidate selection, we couldn’t narrow it down to just two, so we have awarded the scholarship to five recipients! The students each receive $6000 over the course of a three year degree.Catalyst believes in supporting juniors and new graduates in the tech industry, and actions this in a variety of ways, such as running the Open Source Academy, hiring juniors, internships, and the Open Source Scholarships. The scholarships team was very impressed with the calibre of applications and is delighted to offer support to five more students starting their university journeys this year.“We have been blown away by the quality of our local students,” says Catalyst managing director Don Christie. “This suggests that the digital future of Aotearoa will be in good hands.”This year&#x27;s successful scholarship recipients are: Hanan Fokkens, Ruby Campbell-Stokes, Niamh Avery, Ocean Steer, and Sophia Halapchuk.Sophia Halapchuk is studying computer science at the University of Auckland, and plans to work as a software developer. Sophia is interested in the fundamentals of computer software, like the mechanisms and processes behind algorithms, programming languages, and software engineering, as well as human-computer interactions and the human behaviour inherent in technology. Sophia attended Catalyst’s 2021 <a href="https://www.catalyst.net.nz/open-source-academy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Open Source Academy</a> and has created <a href="https://mathslog.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://mathslog.nz/</a>, an interactive web app for New Zealand parents and students to locate tailored maths resources, as well as book consultations and lessons with an experienced maths tutor.Hanan Fokkens is studying software engineering at the University of Canterbury, and hopes to contribute to projects that make a positive difference in the world. Hanan loves using programming to help people and to solve real-world problems. Hanan has created two open source projects while at high school, including a Flask image search plugin. This was created to help find images of vintage radios on the website vintageradio.co.nz so that site users can find a radio without having to know a lot about vintage radios.Ruby Campbell-Stokes is also studying software engineering at the University of Canterbury, and hopes to eventually get into the space industry through potential software engineering related roles such as developing flight plans and embedding software systems in missions and satellites. Ruby was awarded the UC Engineering Top Achievers Scholarship for school leavers, placing her in the top 20 engineering students at UoC. She also attended Catalyst’s 2021 Open Source Academy.Niamh Avery is studying data science and finance at the University of Otago, and is interested in working as a data scientist or business analyst in the fields of data science or information security. Niamh is passionate about problem solving and research and development and hopes to use technology to make the world more efficient, equitable, and sustainable. She has volunteered at a primary school code club and was a finalist in a Girlboss NZ competition with her proposal for an investment portfolio app for female investors, and in the future would like to create her own platform to make data science more accessible to young people.Ocean Steer is studying software engineering at Victoria University of Wellington, and plans to work as a software engineer. Ocean enjoys the whole process from planning to developing code to bringing a project to completion. Seeing your own programme working without flaws makes all the work worth it, he says. Ocean was head student at Wainuiomata High School and has received several academic awards.

Since 2016 Catalyst has supported computer science students with Open Source Scholarships, awarding two scholarships each year. This year there was such a fantastic candidate selection, we couldn’t narrow it down to just two, so we have awarded the scholarship to five recipients!

five-recipients-awarded-open-source-scholarships

by Chloe Gunn<h3 data-block-key="8zgz1">Intro</h3>After three years at Catalyst, I have made the tough decision to leave for my dream role. It&#x27;s bittersweet because I was very happy here, but I know the new role is right for me. So I wanted to share my experience here and talk a little about the culture and experiences I had.Catalyst was my first job in a tech environment. I knew nothing – maybe less than nothing – about technology (my A-level in IT did not serve me well). I remember my first week at Catalyst clearly; I got my buddy – who has now been a close friend for three years – and I was welcomed into the Catalyst family. Everyone was lovely, and even the developers were nice enough to look up from their coding to greet me and introduce themselves.<h3 data-block-key="fwmfa"></h3><h3 data-block-key="t40ga">Comms</h3>I joined Catalyst as a Communications Adviser; at that point, the comms team was me and my manager, Jason.Jason took the time to help me grow my skills; his office door was always open (literally and metaphorically). I had all these ideas for campaigns and he gave me free rein to go for them all. Jason gave me complete trust and freedom, allowing me to make the role and my impact my own.After a year, the comms team grew with people joining our comms team in Australia and the UK. It was great to see our presence grow across the globe.<h3 data-block-key="3qq97">Growth</h3>After two years in my comms role, I grew more curious about User Experience consulting. The culture and people at Catalyst meant I was comfortable to voice this, and once I did, I was able to train with the team. When a role came free, I went for it with full support from Jason. I think this speaks volumes to the attitude at Catalyst: encouraging growth and passion – allowing us to thrive and do our best work.<h3 data-block-key="z1b21">BA/UX</h3>So I joined the User Experience team. At Catalyst, we combine Business Analysts and User Experience into one role, allowing us to cover all requirements and design thoroughly.The team was so welcoming, patient, and really supported me in my growth. No question was ever silly, and no interruption was ever met with eye rolls. It felt like a family that I got to work with.Not to mention my manager, Sarah, who has talked me down off many self-doubt ledges, showing compassion and empathy – picking me back up and supporting me going forward. This is priceless to me.<h3 data-block-key="wf57q">Culture</h3>A few things I want to talk frankly about: many companies say they have a good culture but in daily life that doesn&#x27;t pan out. That&#x27;s not the case at Catalyst.I was struggling with my brain at one point and found out I had ADHD at 27 – it was a bit of a shock. I was completely transparent with Sarah and explained I was about to start medication, and it could be a rough ride at first. What is more shocking than finding out you have ADHD at 27? The response from Sarah and my team. I was met with nothing but patience, understanding, and compassion. I was never pressured and was given any flexibility I needed.I also want to highlight that Catalyst is pushing to create a space where we honour and provide a safe place for Māori people. The company is making moves and progressing in a direction that reassures me. Catalyst will continue to thrive.So that&#x27;s it, my love letter to Catalyst. Without the growth I was provided here, I would not have been able to get the role of my dreams, so I am forever grateful.

Chloe holding up t-shirt and saying farewell

by Chloe Gunn: A reflection on my time at Catalyst.

farewell-love-letter-catalyst

by Alex BuckleyKeeping your Koha catalogue up to date with what’s actually on the shelves is easy using the dedicated Inventory tool. As usual with Koha, there are several different ways of using the Inventory tool. The method you choose comes down to whether your library has a portable scanner or not.<h2 data-block-key="fq4uy">Method 1: Create a shelf list</h2>This method is suitable if your library does not have a portable scanner then you can use.This method generates a shelf list, which you can compare against what’s on the library shelves.You can either:<ol><li data-block-key="nwchs">Export shelf list to CSV file. Print the CSV file. Cross out items on the paper list. Return to your desk. Search for items on the list which you could not locate on the library shelves. Mark those items as ‘Missing’.</li><li data-block-key="fp8y5">Use a tablet. Visit the Koha staff client. Navigate to the inventory tool. Enter ‘Item location filters’, but do not click ‘Export to CSV file’. The shelving location will display on the screen. When you see an item on the shelf click the ‘Seen’ checkbox for it. Click the ‘Mark seen and quit’ or ‘Mark seen and continue’ buttons to update the 952$r (Date last seen) for ticked items.</li></ol><a href="https://youtu.be/m_Q8KrhWJiM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Watch a tutorial</a> by Bywater Solutions.<h3 data-block-key="9sz8p">Inventory tool</h3>Navigate to Tools &gt; Inventory, and ignore the ‘Use a barcode file’, ‘Or scan items one by one’ and ‘Parameters’ sections.Set what items you want returned in the ‘Item location filters’ (letters for each input below correspond to the letters in the screenshot):<ul><li data-block-key="4mqdb">A: The ‘Location’ radio buttons allow you to choose if you want to retrieve items based on their home library (952$a) or current library (952$b)</li><li data-block-key="5j4a9">B: Choose a branch in the ‘Library’ dropdown</li><li data-block-key="bfw0l">C: Choose a shelving location in the ‘Shelving location’ dropdown</li><li data-block-key="12vup">D: If you want to get more specific you can enter a callnumber range as well – this is useful if you don’t think you’ll have time to get through a whole shelving location. Note: This needs the whole callnumber in the starting and ending callnumber fields. It does not accept part of a callnumber.</li></ul>‘Optional filters for inventory list or comparing barcodes’These filters will retrieve ONLY the items in Koha that match the filters you’ve set. For example, if you tick the ‘Long Overdue (Lost)’ checkbox then the inventory tool will ONLY return ‘Long Overdue (Lost)’ items for the defined library branch and shelving location. If you do not change the defaults in the ‘Optional filters’ then all items for the defined library and shelving location will be returned.<ul><li data-block-key="hlufa">E: ‘Last inventory date’ – This will not return items marked as seen since a date you specify. This is useful if you’re stocktaking a shelving location over multiple days and only want to fetch items not sighted since starting the stocktake.</li><li data-block-key="3wlpo">F: ‘Skip items on loan’ – This will not return items that Koha records as on loan, as these items should not be on your library shelves</li></ul>You can then choose to ‘Export to a CSV file’ if you want to print out the inventory list from a spreadsheet.After you&#x27;ve completed your selections, click ‘Submit’.<h3 data-block-key="3bhu5">Next page loaded</h3>If you did not click ‘Export to a CSV file’ then the shelving list will be displayed on the screen.<ul><li data-block-key="drb16">Each item has a checkbox next to it. Tick it to mark an item as &#x27;seen&#x27;.</li><li data-block-key="avmx4">There is a search field so you can search for an item you see on your shelf to find it in your inventory list, then mark it as &#x27;seen&#x27;.</li><li data-block-key="6mzuk">‘Mark seen and quit’ – Once you’ve ticked all the items in the shelving location you would click this to update the 952$r (Date last seen) item field.</li><li data-block-key="dggje">‘Mark seen and continue to’ – If you have multiple pages of inventory list to go through, and you’ve marked everything you can see as seen on the current page, and you want to check the next page of inventory list.</li><li data-block-key="zjh7w">‘Continue without marking’ – If you just want to browse through to the next page of inventory list without marking any item as seen.</li></ul><h3 data-block-key="5a7ht">At the end of the stocktake</h3>If you want to view all items not sighted during the stocktake – so you can mark them as ‘Lost’/’Missing’, or change their shelving locations:Navigate to Tools &gt; Inventory, and ignore the ‘Use a barcode file’ and ‘Or scan items one by one’ sections.Select your ‘Item location filters’ criteria, such as a branch and shelving location. Under ‘Optional filters for inventory list or comparing barcodes’, set the ‘Last Inventory date’ to the first date of the stocktake so only items NOT sighted during the whole stocktake will be returned. Tick the &#x27;skip items on loan&#x27; field so checked out items aren’t returned. Ensure you tick the &#x27;Export to CSV file&#x27; option as we’ll want to copy the barcode list in order to modify the items. After you&#x27;ve completed your selections, click ‘Submit’.Once results are returned, download and view the CSV file in a spreadsheet program. Copy up to 1000 values from the ‘barcode’ column.Back in the Koha staff client, navigate to Tools &gt; Batch item modification. Paste the copied barcodes into the ‘Barcode list’ field. Do not tick the ‘Populate fields with default values from default framework’ option, and click ‘Continue’.Koha will display a table of all items matching the barcodes you entered. Change the value in the ‘1 – Lost status’ or ‘c – Shelving location’ to whatever value you want, and click ‘Save’.Repeat this process for the next 1000 barcodes.Note: If you want to mark items as Lost then you should set up the Lost system preferences. <a href="https://bywatersolutions.com/education/an-overview-of-item-statuses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Find out more about item statuses</a>.<h2 data-block-key="ckmgw">Method 2: Scan barcodes and compare to shelf list</h2>This method is suitable if your library does have a portable scanner that you can use.Essentially you go through a specific library shelving location/call number range scanning all the item barcodes into the Koha Inventory tool.You then generate a Koha shelving list, as in method 1, defining the filters for the items that Koha will retrieve.Koha then compares the items you scanned vs. the shelving list of items available in the catalogue. Any discrepancies between the barcode list and the shelf list are flagged.Note: Do not scan more than 1000 item barcodes at a time. Any more than 1000 barcodes may cause the Inventory tool to time out.<a href="https://youtu.be/zwGZ8lUnqdk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Watch a tutorial</a> by Bywater Solutions.<h3 data-block-key="voys6">Inventory tool</h3>Navigate to Tools &gt; Inventory. If you have a file of barcodes, then in the ‘Use a barcode file’ box click ‘Browse...’ to upload your file. Alternatively, you can use your portable scanner to scan barcodes straight into the ‘Or scan items one by one’ section.Under ‘Parameters’ (the letters for each input correspond to letters in the below screenshot):<ul><li data-block-key="3d219">A: ‘Set inventory date to’: This is the date you want to be set in the 952$r (Date last seen) of the scanned items. This defaults to today’s date.</li><li data-block-key="8h24i">B: Tick the ‘Compare barcodes list to results’ checkbox: This is telling Koha that you scanned a specific library shelving location, and that you want to compare the scanned items vs. what Koha shows as available for that shelving location. This is a useful way of quickly identifying items on the shelves which are not listed as available in Koha and visa versa.</li><li data-block-key="dpv6b">C: Tick ‘Do not return items scanned during inventory’: This is to make sure items are not marked as returned by running the inventory tool. It’s recommended that you tick this checkbox otherwise items that have been checked out to patrons, after you scanned the shelves, will then be automatically checked in – creating something of a problem!</li><li data-block-key="tj5i0">D: Tick ‘Check barcodes list for items shelved out of order’: This will make Koha check and flag up if any of the items you scanned were out of order.</li></ul>Under ‘Item location filters’, as with method 1, you need to choose the ‘Location’, ‘Library’, ‘Shelving location’, and call number range to generate a shelving list. Make sure that you set the filters to match the area of the library that you scanned. For example, if you scanned ‘Branch A’, and shelving location ‘Non-Fiction’ then make sure you set the filters to ‘Library’ = ‘Branch A’ and ‘Shelving location’=’Non-Fiction’.Do not click ‘Export to CSV file’. Submit your selection.<h3 data-block-key="q9wkf">Next page loaded</h3>All items that you scanned AND were in the shelving location have had their 952$r (Date last seen) automatically updated to what you set in the ‘Set inventory date to’ field. Koha informs you how many items have been updated on this page – in the blue box in the below screenshot. If you scanned an item with a Lost status in Koha, then that Lost status will be automatically removed and Koha will show the item as available.A table of problematic items will be displayed. There is a ‘Problems’ column on the right hand side of this table explaining the reason why Koha has flagged the item as problematic (highlighted yellow in the below screenshot). These reasons include:<ul><li data-block-key="ykcrd">‘Missing (not scanned)’: The item was in the shelving list, but you did not scan it, i.e. Koha shows it as available, but in reality it was not on the library shelves. If you wish to mark this item as ‘Missing’ or ‘Lost’ in Koha you must click on the record title link in the table and edit the item. The inventory tool does not automatically mark items as ‘Missing’ or ‘Lost’.</li><li data-block-key="yq6gv">‘Found in wrong place’: You scanned the item, but it is not in the shelving list. i.e. Koha does not expect the item to be in the area of the library that you scanned.</li><li data-block-key="wg7x6">‘Still checked out’: You scanned this item, but it was checked out to a patron subsequently. Because you checked the ‘Do not return items scanned during inventory’ checkbox that means the item was not automatically returned by Koha.</li><li data-block-key="svrxh">‘No barcode’: An item in the shelf list does not have a barcode.</li><li data-block-key="3tgwc">‘Unknown not-for-loan status’: If an item has a not for loan status that is not defined in your: Administration &gt; Authorized values &gt; NOT_LOAN</li><li data-block-key="rptr6">‘Item may be shelved out of order’: This may be returned if you selected the ‘Check barcodes list for items shelved out of order’ parameter. It’s a useful tip telling you that you might need to re-shelve the flagged item(s).</li></ul>Written by Alex Buckley, Catalyst Koha Developer.<h3 data-block-key="2bc1n">Catalyst Koha</h3>If you have any questions or comments about this News item, or would like some support with your Koha instance, you are welcome to email us at <a href="mailto:koha@catalyst.net.nz">koha@catalyst.net.nz</a> (New Zealand) or <a href="mailto:koha-support@catalyst-au.net">koha-support@catalyst-au.net</a> (Australia).Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/catalystkoha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Catalyst Koha on Twitter</a>!

by Alex BuckleyKeeping your Koha catalogue up to date with what’s actually on the shelves is easy using the dedicated Inventory tool. There are several different ways of using the tool.

how-do-stocktake-koha

by Alex Buckley and Aleisha AmohiaLibraries have evolved in a big way since their inception. Nowadays, you can access all types of resources through the library – books, magazines, journals, as well as electronic files. Koha provides a useful tool that allows libraries to upload their own electronic files. This tutorial aims to make the process more straightforward so your library can link PDFs and articles easily to your catalogue.<h2 data-block-key="wnbc1">How to upload a file</h2>Step 1: Start by accessing the Upload feature. It can be found in the staff client, under the Additional Tools section of the Tools module.Step 2: When uploading new files, we recommend you select an upload category, otherwise the upload will be marked as temporary. The category dropdown will not show if your Koha has none stored.Upload categories are populated from the UPLOAD authorised value category. New authorised values can be added to the UPLOAD category under Koha Administration &gt; Authorised values.Note: You can still choose to upload a temporary file by leaving the category option empty, however temporary files may be wiped upon server reboot, and automatically cleaned out by the cleanup_database.pl cronjob.Step 3: Browse to select the file you would like to upload, choose an upload category, and tick the &#x27;Allow public downloads&#x27; checkbox. This checkbox must be checked if you’d like the upload to be accessible via the OPAC.Step 4: Once the upload is complete, you’ll see the file has been allocated a hashvalue. This hashvalue is the unique identifier you will use to access the uploaded file around Koha. There will also be a public link that can be used to access the file that looks like /cgi-bin/koha/opac-retrieve-file.pl?id=235782b6aae58d51e3ce61a25cbbd115. This needs to be added onto the end of your OPAC base URL. Clicking ‘Yes’ will copy the link to your clipboard so you can paste it where you need to use it.<h2 data-block-key="ia5sm">Using your upload</h2>If you need to find your upload’s hashvalue or public link again, you can search for the file. Using the search field in the Upload tool, you can search for the file by its filename and its hashvalue.You can use the uploaded file in a news item or HTML customisation which shows on the OPAC homepage. The file can be inserted as an image or a hyperlink.You can catalogue a bibliographic record with your uploaded file linked in the 856$u field. You can also link the uploaded file to a particular item, in the Uniform Resource Identifier field.Koha gives you the flexibility to provide access to your own files in your catalogue and on your homepage.Written by Alex Buckley and Aleisha Amohia, Catalyst Koha Developers.<h3 data-block-key="zce3d">Catalyst Koha</h3>If you have any questions or comments about this News item, or would like some support with your Koha instance, you are welcome to email us at <a href="mailto:koha@catalyst.net.nz">koha@catalyst.net.nz</a> (New Zealand) or <a href="mailto:koha-support@catalyst-au.net">koha-support@catalyst-au.net</a> (Australia).Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/catalystkoha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Catalyst Koha on Twitter</a>!

by Alex Buckley and Aleisha AmohiaYou can access all types of resources through the library – books, magazines, journals, as well as electronic files. Koha provides a useful tool that allows libraries to upload their own electronic files. This tutorial aims to make the process more straightforward so your library can link PDFs and articles easily to your catalogue.

fill-your-koha-your-files

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We are keen advocates of the benefits open source technology can deliver to our clients. Here are a few examples of our favourite projects. <a href="/our-work">View all projects.</a>

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Website redesign for Healthify makes health information easy to access and understand

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The NFWV tool was designed to create a single, integrated view of the recovery works following the Christchurch earthquake in 2011. The original Forward Works Viewer needed an overhaul in terms of performance, functionality, and visuals to make it easier for all agencies and councils to use and navigate.

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Catalyst gave IR the compliance data needed to have conversations on how best to improve their myIR service, making it easier for New Zealanders to pay their taxes and receive their entitlements.

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