Koha Announces Support and Funding From EBSCO, Will “Ensure Long-Term Viability” of the Open Source ILS

Interesting! We’ve asked for some more details about the following news. If/when we hear back we will update.
From Today’s Announcement:

Together the two [Koha and EBSCO] are working to provide a viable web-based, open source ILS for libraries of all types.
Koha libraries reached out to EBSCO for support of some important projects, and EBSCO agreed to partner to accomplish the following for Koha:

• Strategic upgrade of of Koha’s core full-text search engine technology to ElasticSearch; ensuring long-term viability
• Increased functionality and accuracy of facets
• Development of a browse function (author, title, subject, call number)
• MARC to RDF crosswalk enhancing capability of linking to online data repositories (linked data)
• Greater flexibility in ingesting metadata schemes beyond MARC2
• Improved speed
• Enhanced patron functionality API access

The financial support from EBSCO will be provided via the Koha Gruppo Italiano founded by the American Academy in Rome, American University of Rome, and the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce, which will be assisted in this development and integration by key Koha contributors ByWater Solutions, Catalyst IT, and Cineca.
In keeping with open source tradition, these enhancements to Koha are truly open source and will be available for others to use, modify, and re-distribute.
The two organizations will also be working to ensure full Koha OPAC functionality within EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) at no additional charge for mutual customers.
Work on the enhancements mentioned above are expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

Visit the Koha Gruppo Italiano Web Site

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Data Files, EBSCO, Funding, Libraries, News, Open Access