We are moving forward with two projects that will require startup fees in 2012. There will be some ongoing costs in 2013 and beyond but these costs will not increase the technology or ILS fees for participating libraries in 2013. We will be using Crystal Reports software to develop an end-user reports interface for Koha. We are using a portion of the 2012 LSTA Public Library System Technology grant to finance the bulk of the startup costs for Crystal Reports, including procuring a server, server setup, software licenses, training costs and the consulting fees to develop some prototype reports. The new server will be rolled into the ongoing server maintenance plan. We may need to pay software maintenance, but for 2013 we would cover those costs out of ILS contingency or with the 2013 LSTA grant.
We will be contracting with Envisionware for online credit card payment for the LINKcat libraries. Again, there are startup fees for this service, but they will be paid for out of the ILS contingency. There is an annual maintenance fee with Envisionware and there will be transaction fees both for the merchant bank and with Envisionware, but these costs will be deducted out of the fines and fees collected before they are distributed to the libraries.
We look forward to bringing these two exciting services to the LINKcat libraries and we are pleased to be able to do so without an increase in the 2013 payments.
[This article is also being posted to the Link2.0Koha blog. For those of you who read both, we apologize for the duplication.]
--Vicki Teal Lovely
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