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Kohacon20

2020-09-29

by Tosca Waerea

The following post appeared on the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) on Monday 28 September 2020. It has been cross-posted here with their permission.

Kohacon20

 

group picture of smiling Kohacon attendees

Kohacon16 attendees in Thessaloniki, Greece. Source: KohaCon16 Media page http://kohacon2016.lib.auth.gr/?page_id=2682

 

This year Catalyst is excited to be hosting Kohacon, the annual conference of the Koha community, in Wellington. Koha is a free and open source library system, founded in New Zealand in 1999, initially as a solution for the Y2K bug. In 2014, Turkey implemented Koha in 1100+ of their public libraries, which is the world's biggest Koha install. Today, Koha is used by 15,000+ libraries worldwide and is an international project with thousands of volunteers who contribute to its ongoing development.

Kohacon is free to attend, thanks to our sponsors. The Koha community aims to be as inclusive as possible, and $0 attendance fees is an important part of that kaupapa.

 

Dublin KohaCon

Kohacon19 attendees at the Dublin Business School in Dublin, Ireland. Photo courtesy of Chris Cormack.

Format

Since 2006, Kohacon has provided a chance for the community, who collaborate all year, to put faces to twitter handles, chat nicknames, and email addresses. This year we'll miss the hallway track discussions, but by being online, Kohacon can be accessible to a much wider audience of librarians, developers, and contributors.

Kohacon20 will be a mix of in-person and online presentations, which will all be streamed. NZ speakers will deliver talks at the Tiakiwai Conference Centre at the National Library of New Zealand. Our most recent Koha community webinar had over 10,000 views to date, and we expect that online participation will make this NZ’s biggest library conference this year - maybe the world's biggest.

Register your intention to attend online or in-person https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/registration

 

What you can look forward to

You'll have the opportunity to connect with Kohacon attendees globally, all week. It will be a jam-packed seven days full of learning, networking, skill-building, and professional development, with something for everyone!

19 – 21 October: The first three days of Kohacon are a single-track conference which includes a spectacular lineup of engaging and informative presentations.

22 October: Cultural Day is an excellent chance for visitors to explore Wellington city and get to know each other better.

23 October: We have a series of workshops covering Koha documentation, MarcEdit, linked data, RFID solutions, and design.

24 – 25 October (weekend): Koha DIY (previously a 'hackfest'). This is a great chance for developers to work with librarians who use Koha on a daily basis to discuss and implement improvements.

 

marsh library sign

Kohacon19’s Cultural Day included a visit to Marsh’s Library - Ireland’s first public library (opened 1707). Photo courtesy of Chris Cormack.

Programme

A small selection of highlights from the programme includes linked open data, library website accessibility, documentation, cataloguing plugins, creative problem solving, educating Koha users, website re-design, and marketing tips. You can view the full programme on the website https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/programme/

Kohacon extends a very warm welcome to all who would like to attend. We can’t wait for you to join the Koha community.

To stay updated follow @nzkoha on Twitter, and keep an eye on our website https://2020.kohacon.org/posts/about/

Koha team at Catalyst NZ
 

Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA)

LIANZA is a not-for-profit organisation that supports the library and information sector in Aoteaoroa New Zealand. Visit their website for more information about their history, purpose, events, and resources https://lianza.org.nz/about/what-we-do/