Self-reliance of koha cataloguing module for migration from libsys to koha A case study of the library of university of jaffna

Abstract

The present paper is a case study of the migration process from proprietary library automation software LibSys and open source library management software Koha. This paper aims to present a customized procedure flowed by the library University of Jaffna (UOJ) during the bibliographic data migration process. UOJ Library has the different type of resources including books, journals, reports, government documents and the huge number of electronic resources. Migration of bibliographic data from LibSys to Koha flowed a customized procedure according to our collection type. Data were transformed through LibSys Acquisition report and cataloging report, finally two reports were merged to develop a final data sheet in Excel. Different excel functions were followed to extract some field from the developed final sheet. MARC fields were arranged according to our cataloger’s needs, display in the OPAC system and searchable for the users. This migration was carried out by academic librarians using freely available tools: Open Office Calc, Marc Edit and the Koha Integrated Library System. The data migration pathway presented here was developed and successfully used to transfer over 150,000 record in less than two months. This case study presents an original process that is particularly effective for an academic library migrating from LibSys to Koha.