Videos

One Koha, 1,300 Libraries: Architecture and Extensions of Türkiye’s National Public Library System

Abstract

One of the largest centralized Koha deployments in the world is the national public library infrastructure operated by the Directorate General for Libraries and Publication under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Türkiye. In Türkiye, more than 1,300 public libraries, ranging from small rural branches to major urban libraries, are managed through a single centralized Koha infrastructure serving over 7 million users, managing more than 30 million items, supporting the daily operations of over 9,000 library staff members across the country, and maintaining around 6 million bibliographic records within its shared national catalog. In 2025 alone, the system recorded more than 16 million circulation transactions, illustrating not only its size but also its intensity of daily public use. Operating at this scale required rethinking Koha not simply as an integrated library system, but as a strategic digital infrastructure capable of supporting public service continuity, national identity verification, security, data quality, and institutional interoperability.

A standard Koha installation was transformed into a highly customized and secure platform capable of operating at national scale. In this context, the system has been strengthened through identity verification with MERNİS[1], single sign-on through the e-Government[2], SMS-based and staff-level two-factor authentication, phone-verified patron transfer workflows, and controlled processes designed for institutions with higher security requirements. Through the e-Government, citizens can also interact directly with the library system by registering for library membership, tracking their borrowed items, and updating their registered library information, allowing Koha services to be accessed as part of Türkiye’s broader digital public services infrastructure.

The main architectural extensions and modules developed in response to Türkiye’s institutional needs include centralized pre-cataloging workflows, integration with KAŞİF[3], the specially developed library automation program used by the National Library of Türkiye, a customized discovery interface, Turkish offline circulation tools, inventory and bulk stock management modules, API user management, a support and ticketing system, institutional library management tools, automated statistical reporting for TÜİK[4], and a browser-based inventory counting application that modernizes annual stocktaking outside Koha through camera or barcode-scanner input, manual entry, bulk `.txt/.xlsx` upload, ISBN mis-scan detection, and one-click handoff to Koha returns. Together, these developments have supported standardization across the national network while preserving flexibility for local operational needs.

Concrete field stories demonstrate secure patron mobility across branches; prison-library workflows for incarcerated users, including controlled transfer scenarios where standard SMS verification is not applicable; service continuity in rural and mobile libraries under low-connectivity conditions through offline-first tools; and governance patterns for managing a heavily customized national fork without losing operational stability. These examples also reflect a broader before-and-after transformation from fragmented local workflows to a standardized national model, showing how a single open-source platform was adapted to highly diverse institutional environments, including prison libraries and libraries affiliated with other ministries.

This case demonstrates concrete success stories and transferable lessons: how a centralized open-source model reduced licensing costs, standardized workflows, improved data quality, and enabled cross-border technical cooperation with Azerbaijan and Moldova. Beyond the technical architecture itself, the experience offers reusable lessons for the wider Koha community in identity integration, offline circulation, security-sensitive patron flows, and API-oriented public-service design.

It also provides an honest account of the trade-offs involved in sustaining a large national fork over time, including extension debt, documentation, dependency tracking, upgrade discipline, and governance complexity. These lessons are discussed through a three-part governance perspective covering product governance, operational governance, and release governance, and are further summarized on a companion project page:

https://ismailkaraca.com.tr/onekoha1300libraries

Keywords

Koha; national public libraries; open-source library infrastructure; centralized library systems; e-government integration; library automation; offline circulation; digital public infrastructure; library governance; interoperability.

Explanatory Notes

[1] MERNİS: The Central Civil Registration System of Türkiye, the national population database where the civil records of citizens and foreign residents are maintained, updated, and shared electronically.

[2] e-Government (e-Devlet Kapısı): Türkiye’s national digital public services portal used here for secure single sign-on and for user-facing library services such as membership registration, borrowed-item tracking, and updating registered library information.

[3] KAŞİF: A specially developed library automation program used by the National Library of Türkiye and integrated into this wider Koha ecosystem.

[4] TÜİK: The Turkish Statistical Institute, whose annual library statistics support service planning and national library policy.

When we onboard a new Koha library, we spend a large chunk of our training time just helping them set it up. The Koha Administration module is a beast, with its many sections and settings. Then, there are nearly 1,000 system preferences to wade through which determine how your Koha looks and behaves. We love how configurable Koha is, but it can be an intimidating and overwhelming process – especially for busy staff, who need a library system that just works.

Rōpū kohinga at Catalyst have been dreaming of ways to simplify the setup of a new Koha. We've found there are steps we take to set up any Koha that doesn't need all the bells and whistles. So, we built a proof-of-concept that automates much of this process for us. At this point it works for one profile – a small lending library, run by volunteers or staff with no formal library qualification – but more profiles could be added to make onboarding different types of libraries more efficient. This intent is not to replace the Administration module; instead it is to make getting started feel more accessible to those who simply need a good library system.

Aleisha Amohia, Rōpū kohinga Technical Lead, will discuss the considerations they made when building this profile and demonstrate how the tool works, using a Koha implementation for schools in Tonga as a case study.

Finnish academic libraries have established an open consortium to collaboratively maintain and develop a modular library system with Koha as its central component. As the importance and usage of electronic resources continue to grow in higher education, academic libraries require efficient tools and integrated workflows to manage the acquisition and activation of resources, usage monitoring, and discovery.

This presentation introduces a modular, API-driven approach to ERM that streamlines key processes across the resource lifecycle. Core components include the automated activation of electronic resources within the acquisition workflow, harvesting and analyzing COUNTER usage data via the COUNTER API (formerly SUSHI), and visualizing usage patterns in Microsoft Power BI to support informed decision-making. The project also explores enhancements to end-user discovery, including the implementation of EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) and its integration within the VuFind-based Finna search services.

By sharing practical outcomes, technical solutions, and lessons learned, this session highlights how collaborative development can advance Koha’s ERM capabilities and improve both staff workflows and user experience.

AI tools are quickly becoming the newest member of the development team… sometimes brilliant, sometimes confidently wrong, and occasionally chaotic. In this talk, Brian Pichman shares how he uses AI as a daily collaborator while working with Koha. From quickly prototyping Koha plugins, exploring new integrations, and “vibe coding” experimental ideas, to debugging scripts and generating documentation, AI has become a surprisingly useful development companion.

But the story doesn’t stop at code.

Brian will also talk about how AI helps manage the other side of the work: organizing tasks, tracking ideas, planning projects, and generally keeping a busy tech brain from melting down. Think of it as using AI as both a pair programmer and a life operations assistant. This session will highlight real examples of where AI shines, where it fails spectacularly, and how it can help Koha developers and library technologists move faster while staying creative. Expect practical ideas, a few cautionary tales, and at least one example of AI confidently giving the worst possible answer.

Manual cataloging within the Koha Integrated Library System remains a labor-intensive task, often slowed by repetitive data entry and the persistent risk of human error. This paper introduces a native Koha tool designed to automate the extraction of MARC21 metadata directly from images of book title pages. By allowing librarians to simply upload a photo, the system identifies and populates essential fields such as Author (100), Title (245), Publication Information (260/264), and ISBN (020). To ensure reliable data extraction from real-world photos, the system employs a sophisticated engineering pipeline. It utilizes ImageMagick for preprocessing—addressing common issues like improper orientation, shadows, and uneven lighting through local adaptive thresholding—before passing the image to Tesseract OCR. A key innovation of this research is the transition from traditional regex-based parsing and external API dependencies toward the use of locally deployed Large Language Models (LLMs), such as Qwen. By processing raw OCR text through a local LLM, the system can "read between the lines" to reconstruct fragmented titles and organize bibliographic data into structured, MARC-compatible JSON. This context-aware approach significantly improves accuracy when dealing with noisy data while maintaining data privacy by keeping the entire workflow on local hardware. Ultimately, this tool transforms cataloging from a manual "type-everything" chore into a streamlined "photo-to-verification" model. The result is a faster, more efficient workflow that paves the way for a truly AI-augmented library environment.

Historically, cataloguers employed punctuation to demarcate and provide context for the various elements of bibliographic data, ensuring its comprehensibility to users, particularly when the data was presented on cards. However, context-sensitive punctuation can often complicate data-related tasks. Consequently, more recently developed formats do not include punctuation. RDA recommends omitting it, and LoC/PCC opt for punctuation-light MARC for storage and editing since 2020.

Conversely, library catalogues may contain records with and without punctuation. Marc21 is able to differentiate between these two types of records by leveraging the attributes of leader/18. If set to 'c' or 'n', they instruct the cataloguing system to add punctuation automatically as required. However, if set to 'a' or 'i', it should rely solely on the records data. It is regrettable to note that these attributes are currently being ignored by Koha. Therefore, e.g. following the import of RDA records via SRU/Z39.50, it is imperative to add punctuation manually at the record level in order to ensure optimal display.

This issue can be resolved using Kohas MARC::Filter. A suitable filter will allow for the transparent injection of the necessary punctuation for records based on leader/18. Due to its Perl-based nature, the filter is better suited to managing complex situations than the standard XSLT approach used for rendering, which can be unwieldy in certain cases.

In this presentation, we will introduce a plugin that operates on the associated hook implemented in Bug 40972 to automatically add the necessary punctuation. Introducing automatic punctuation based on leader/18 will enhance Kohas standard compliance. As more and more RDA-based records enter the systems, this will also become a key issue. Implementation as a plugin allows for straightforward development and swift deployment of the necessary functions.

In the wake of increasing digitalization, Nigerian libraries face the challenge of providing efficient and accessible services to diverse user groups. This presentation investigates the empirical outcomes of implementing the Koha Library Management Software across various libraries in Nigeria, drawing on recent case studies and surveys. According to a 2021 study by Adetunji et al., over 60% of Nigerian academic libraries have migrated to Koha, reporting significant improvements in user satisfaction and resource management. Qualitative data reveals that libraries experienced an up to 40% increase in user engagement post-implementation, largely due to enhanced accessibility and streamlined operations. An increasingly important aspect of this transformation is the integration of linked data principles within Koha. These principles enable libraries to interconnect their resources with global data networks, enhancing discoverability and enriching user experience. For instance, a case study from the University of Lagos Library illustrates how linked data implementation resulted in a 30% increase in citations and collaborations, as researchers were able to access and integrate broader resources seamlessly. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses, this study explores the impact of Koha on library operations, user experience improvements, community collaborations, and the transformative role of linked data. It also examines the challenges faced during the implementation process, including the need for technical training and strategies to overcome user resistance. By sharing these insights, the study aims to inform best practices for Koha implementations in Nigeria and advocate for collaborative initiatives that foster open-source solutions. This presentation intends to spark discussions on future directions for Koha and linked data in enhancing library services and accessibility in the Nigerian context, encouraging librarians to embrace innovative technologies for better knowledge dissemination.

This presentation shares practical experiences from implementing, migrating, and upgrading Koha in academic library environments across Ghana. Drawing from real-world deployments, the session explores the full lifecycle of Koha adoption — including infrastructure preparation, data migration from legacy systems, configuration, customization, staff training, and post-implementation optimization. The talk highlights technical and operational challenges encountered in resource-constrained environments, such as inconsistent metadata, legacy catalog structures, infrastructure limitations, and user adoption barriers. Practical solutions are presented, including strategies for bibliographic data cleanup, managing service downtime, improving workflows, and ensuring sustainable system maintenance through local capacity building. The presentation also examines integrations between Koha and related digital library services such as institutional repositories, web platforms, and authentication systems to create cohesive digital ecosystems. Lessons learned from system upgrades and ongoing maintenance are included to support libraries planning long-term Koha sustainability. Attendees will gain actionable insights, implementation checklists, and practical strategies that can support successful Koha implementations, migrations, and upgrades—particularly in academic and developing-country contexts.

Koha legend Chris Cormack, one of the first developers and a community enthusiast, is once again taking on the honorable task of presenting awards this year for outstanding contributions to the Koha community.

For many years, deploying Koha has relied on distribution packages and locally tailored environments. While effective, this model often leads to inconsistencies between development, testing, and production deployments across the community.

This talk presents a practical approach to running Koha in containerized environments using Docker and orchestrating services with both Docker Swarm and Kubernetes.

Rather than focusing only on architecture, the presentation will walk through a working implementation, demonstrating how Koha services can be initialized, observed, and operated reliably inside containers. The talk will highlight challenges encountered while adapting Koha’s service model, including process initialization, service coordination, and observability.

The session will include a practical demonstration of the containerized setup running under both Docker Swarm and Kubernetes, showing how these environments can support reproducible development setups and more consistent operational deployments.

Finally, the talk will explore how containerization could simplify collaboration across the Koha ecosystem and open the door to more standardized deployment workflows for libraries, hosting providers, and developers.