Nonprofit Brings Open Source ILS to Libraries in Military Installations

The nonprofit Comfort for America's Uniformed Services' (CAUSE) Digital Entertainment Libraries went live last week with an open source Koha integrated library system following a year-long migration with support by ByWater Solutions. The libraries, which provide videogames and DVDs to injured veterans on military bases, switched to Koha for several reasons, including cost effectiveness, ease of use, and customizability, according to CAUSE executive director Pam Derrow. But there were also technical reasons, as Koha uses standard computer-network ports—a military requirement that Derrow told LJ was "an issue" with a previous software provider, which she declined to name.

Many ports, used for particular network functions, are standard in computer networking—such as port 80, used for the web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)—but some companies also use nonstandard ports that are specific to their own software. But military installations, CAUSE's volunteer IT lead Scott Merrill told LJ, do not allow the use of nonstandard ports due to firewall policies and security concerns. Such restrictions could provide an opening for ILS companies that utilize only standard ports.

The migration to Koha took about a year from Merrill's initial research into Koha. Data preparation, including associating UPC codes with some 6000 bibliographic records, was the most time-consuming part of the process, according to Derrow. ByWater Solutions provided assistance with mapping data to MARC record fields along with other customizations, she said.

CAUSE is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting wounded veterans recuperating from injuries sustained in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. It provides massage and yoga programs, meals, and gift packs, and organizes sporting event broadcasts at six U.S. military installations and one in Germany (see below). It also provides libraries at each base that offer video games, game systems, DVDs, and DVD players. The "branches" are staffed by volunteers, with branch coordinators providing day-to-day management. Each is open for about two to three hours daily, handling between 50 and 125 transactions apiece, with TV-show seasons on DVD and Xbox and PlayStation 3 games being the most popular items. (The CAUSE Digital Entertainment Libraries [C-DELs] are separate from the military libraries already at the installations, and don't directly coordinate with them.)

C-DELs are currently located at:

• Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC
• Balboa Naval Medical Center San Diego, CA
• Fort Riley, KS
• Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, NC
• Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, TX
• Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, Fort Hood, TX
• Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany
  

Three more C-DELs are planned to open next month in Fort Stewart, GA; Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD; and Fort Belvoir, VA.