សូមចុចត្រង់នេះដើម្បីអានភាសាខ្មែរ
The Center for Khmer Studies is pleased to announce that we have received a grant from the Equinox Open Library Initiative to upgrade our online catalog. CKS is one of two grant recipients of the Equinox Open Source Grant. The Equinox Open Source Grant program provides migration, implementation, hosting, and support of the Koha Integrated Library System to eligible libraries, archives, museums, and other educational, cultural, and information organizations.
The CKS library currently holds more than 20,000 items specializing in Southeast Asian history, social science, art, linguistics and other subjects. To help achieve our mission, our collection needs to be organized and accessible for all of our visitors. In 2020, Internet visitors from more than 110 countries viewed over 120,000 pages in our online catalog. Sixty-seven percent of these visitors accessed our content with a mobile phone. Our current online catalog has served us well, however CKS is looking to meet the needs of a growing digital community.
Over the past year, CKS explored options to relaunch our online catalog with three key objectives. First, we sought to make it easier for people to find our collection by publishing our catalog online with open access for researchers, other libraries, and search engines such as Google. Second, we wanted to be sure our catalog is easy to use, and intuitive for both library visitors and staff. Finally, we want our catalog leverage software that is actively maintained and regularly enhanced.
Our search led us to Koha, the world’s first free and open source library. Koha is a full-featured library management system running at 3,738 libraries worldwide. Koha offers powerful search capabilities, leveraging content from Google, Amazon, Open Library and other data providers. It is a web-based system, compliant with the most common library standards (MARC 21, UNIMARC, z39.50, etc.) with open source code supported by a global community. Learn more at koha-community.org.
Our migration to Koha is provided through a generous grant from Equinox Open Library Initiative
“We are extremely honored to receive Koha migration and hosting services from Equinox,” said Sivleng Chhor, Head Librarian at the Center for Khmer Studies. “We are looking forward to expanding access to our library and catalog while supporting our community and mission.”
The grant was inspired by the vibrant open source community and the belief that every community deserves to benefit from an accessible and thriving library.
“We are excited and very much looking forward to working with the Center for Khmer Studies,” said Rogan Hamby, Data and Project Analyst at Equinox. “The Center is home to a strong and unique collection, combined with an amazing staff. It’s a special opportunity to partner with them through the Equinox Open Source Grant and provide the tools to bring an already amazing institution to a new level.”
CKS is grateful for the support and looking forward to announcing our new catalog in the summer 2021.
