Birmingham Museum of Art Selects Koha

The Koha installation will be hosted off-site at one of LibLime's secure data centers. The Library has also contracted with LibLime for support on their Koha system.

The Clarence B. Hanson, Jr. Library is one of the most comprehensive art research libraries in the southeastern United States. Library holdings include over 35,000 items focusing on objects and styles in the Museum's permanent collection and traveling exhibitions. Founded in 1951, the Birmingham Museum of Art has one of the finest collections in the Southeast, with over 17,000 objects representing a rich panorama of cultures.

"I looked at a lot of different systems before settling on Koha," says Tatum Preston, Librarian at the Museum. "I liked the idea of an open-source ILS that had customer service and technical support. Koha was an excellent value for us, and contained many features of higher-priced systems for a lot less money."

LibLime's hosted offering was also attractive: "Both our network administrator and I liked the fact that the hosted system is web-based, alleviating our concerns about using our server space, backing up data, and performing software updates," Tatum explains. "I liked the Koha interface, and the level of customization available with the system."

She adds: "Current Koha users also gave me very positive feedback about the product. They praised everything from the ease of data conversion and the product's usability, to the excellent customer service of LibLime's staff."

This will be the very first time that the Library has had their collection online. "Our curators and other staff members are very excited about being able to access the library catalog from their desks, homes, and when traveling. They also love the carts and lists they can create," says Tatum.

The Birmingham Museum of Art is one of three museums across the U.S. to choose a Koha solution through LibLime in the last three months. Their public catalog can be found online at: http://bma.kohalibrary.com

About the Clarence B. Hanson, Jr. Library

The Clarence B. Hanson, Jr. Library holds a broad range of research materials including general art reference works, auction catalogues, artists' files, periodicals, indexes, exhibition catalogs, and databases. The Chellis Wedgwood Collection, housed in the Lucille Stewart Beeson Rare Book Room, is the largest and most comprehensive special collection in the world related to Josiah Wedgwood and his manufactures, and makes the Library the U.S. center for the study of Wedgwood.

The Birmingham Museum of Art is located in the heart of Birmingham's cultural district. The generosity of the City of Birmingham and other private and municipal funders has allowed the Museum to remain free of charge to visitors since its opening in 1951.

Due to the unique nature of many items in the Library's collection, patrons may only use materials on the premises. A photocopier is available. The Library is open to the public Tuesday through Friday, 10 am to 4 pm, and may be contacted at 205.254.2565 x3944 or library@artsbma.org.

About Koha

Since it was first put into production in early 2000, Koha has enabled new realities of open access, affordability, and free innovation for hundreds of libraries around the world. Koha has lived up to its name, which means ‘Gift’ in the Maori language of New Zealand. From the outset, many libraries understood the power of this gift. They downloaded it, they installed it, they changed it, and they contributed their solutions back to the library community.
To learn more about the Koha project, visit:
http://koha.org

To try out Koha for yourself, visit LibLime's demos:
http://liblime.com/demos

About LibLime

LibLime is the global leader in open-source solutions for libraries, with a mission to make open source accessible to libraries. Rather than sell software licenses for static, hard-to-customize software products, LibLime educates libraries about the benefits of open source, enabling them to make choices about how best to provide their communities and staff with better technology services. LibLime then facilitates implementation of open-source in libraries by providing outstanding development, customization, support and training solutions--solutions tailored to each library's needs. For more information, see http://liblime.com.

Press Contact:

Tina Burger
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tnb@liblime.com

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