(Guest blog post report from Mzuzu University Library, Mzuzu, Malawi. This workshop was part of the eIFL-FOSS Skills and Tools Workshops initiative.)

This one day KOHA ILS workshop which took place on 16 October 2009 was a follow up to the Debian GNU/Linux workshop that was previously held on 4–7 August 2009 at the Mzuzu University.  During the first workshop, participants were taught how to install KOHA from the Internet, and its management. Participants were also taught on how to install and manage Debian GNU/Linux as well as the basic Unix commands and MySQl database tools.

This follow-up workshop was an opportunity for participants to meet again and share their experiences.

Activities undertaken during the follow-up workshop:

1. Sharing KOHA installation experiences
   
   It was noted that only three institutions who had attended the first workshop  had attempted to install KOHA.  The rest had not been able, allegedly due to lack of appropriate computers.
   
   
   
2. Installation Problems
   
   We went through and discussed the problems encountered by those who had attempted the installation. It was noted that some did not manage to install KOHA largely due to slow and intermittent Internet connections.
   
   
   
3. Walk-through of KOHA Installation
   
   We started a fresh installation of KOHA for the benefit of those who had forgotten some of the installation steps. Unfortunately we could not complete, again due to Internet outages.
   

Unix Revision

Participants were taken through a revision of the Unix commands which had been covered in the first workshop. Participant were also taught how to  manage and manipulate file permissions in a Unix environment.
 

RECOMMENDATIONS


The following was recommended:

• Participants were asked to try to convince their management to support the KOHA project in their institutions by providing them with appropriate computers.
  
  
• Need to distribute copies of Debian and KOHA packages on DVDs/CDs for off-line   installation.  This is a good and simplified  option for most of those with Internet problems and little Linux expertise.

Mzuzu University Library