10 years of Koha in Greece: from solitude to solidarity?

Georgia Katsarou - Librarian, International Center for Hellenic and Mediterranean Studies / College Year in Athens, Greece

Abstract

10 years have passed since Koha was first installed in Greece, in the small, specialized, one-person library of College Year in Athens. This was also the beginning of a personal initiative and effort, later named as Koha Project GR, to spread the word to the local library community about the existence of such a software, translate the system in to Greek and offer as much information as possible in order to help other librarians.

Today, many libraries have migrated to Koha, many librarians have volunteered by translating the system or by writing manuals, Koha is taught at Library Schools and KohaCon is taking place in one of Greece’s largest cities.  What we lack though is communication and a strong, organized local community.  We are all working privately, quietly and we barely know each other.  We need a community that will offer information, help, give answers, organize events, manage projects, but most of all communicate with each other and hopefully sometimes act as a unit.

Taking in to account my personal experience and observation, the purpose of this presentation is to propose and discuss about possible ways that we can follow in order to develop local communities that will take us from introversion to extroversion, from solitude to solidarity.  Examples, ideas and tools will be put on the table in the hope that this conference will be the beginning of a new era to Greece and other countries around the world.