For the 2014-2015 school year, the Southwest Educational Development Center (SEDC) received funding for the “Moving Forward with Koha, an Open-Source Library Management System (LMS)” project. The goal of this project is to continue to develop the regional Koha library system for all the current schools as well as adding schools in Iron and Millard districts. The awarded LSTA funds will be used to purchase additional servers for the SEDC region ensuring we have enough processing power for our Koha system for all participating schools. The target audience will benefit as they will have the technology needed to track, access and use library resources at a significantly reduced cost. As Koha is open-source, there is no annual maintenance contract allowing the school to use this funding to purchase additional books. Through Koha, inter-district library loans can be made available.
The outcome from implementing this grant is to provide an equitable library experience for students in rural Utah by increasing the access and use of library resources for students, teachers, and parents by providing school libraries with a reliable up-to-date union web-based LMS.
- Expand student and teacher research opportunities in the school libraries, improving their research skills and abilities.
- Reallocate current LMS maintenance funding to be used to purchase books and materials for students.
- Allow media specialists more time to focus on helping students rather than technically supporting their library system.
- Develop expertise and a support system in the open-source Koha software community that can be shared and replicated throughout public schools in rural Utah.
