LibKi Integration

Kyle Hall, ByWater Solutions

LibKi website

Kyle tried many, many different options that were available at the time his library (Meadville) was looking for a time management software package, and eventually developed his own, to meet his library’s needs — LibKi.

Staff interface, now shows live data (didn’t in the past). Simple interface (users; clients)

Koha works very well with LibKi. Version 2, now has support for SIP.

Does the client lock down the patron computer — can’t be bypassed? Kyle says yes. Auto-hot-key used for restrictions.

Can customize the banners on the client screen, with images and/or custom HTML.

Persistent user creation (if you don’t use SIP)

Guest pass creation

Goal: Librarian shouldn’t have to interact with system — self-sustaining.

Settings — pretty simple: default time allowance/day; default time allowance per session; client registration update delay limit — if computer is down/network issues, etc.

Client Behavior option — First come, first serve; reservations only; or combo of these two.

Automatic time extension: length; when to kick it in; exception to extensions.

Third party integration (like with Koha, to create a link to a patron in Koha).

Closing hours (not complete yet): 

Bare-bones statistics module; daily usage counts, date range, who logged on and when; can implement cron job to delete user history.

When using the client, gives time left messages, every five minutes.

Age limits now available, using Koha date of birth field. {Wonder if this could be extended to having a flag on if person has signed patron Internet use policy agreement}

Software gives options for what happens after patron logs off/time runs out: nothing; restart computer (DeepFreeze); log out of account (Cleansweep); works with Linux client, too.

Will there ever be a print feature, integration? Kyle would like this to happen, but it doesn’t have that right now.