Tina Burger

A conversation with Van Carpenter, Head Librarian at NBBC

LibLime: Van, tell us a bit about Northland Baptist Bible College (NBBC).

Van: NBBC is a relatively small and specialized primarily four-year undergraduate institution. We do have a small graduate program. Overall we have about 650 students who study mainly Bible and Theology subjects in preparation for religious ministry. Many will become missionaries, pastors and teachers. A good many of our graduates go on for some graduate level education in Bible/Theology/Ministry, usually at a seminary. The mission of NBBC is “to train the next generation of servant leaders for great commission living.”

LibLime: In 2005, NBBC migrated to Koha ILS. Why did you choose Koha over a proprietary system?

Van: Three reasons: 1) cost - this is less expensive than comparable programs, even with support costs 2) features - we were pleased with the feature set sported by Koha. It has a few holes, but give it a year or two and those will be filled. 3) flexibility - we have the opportunity to develop ourselves or drive development. This is the issue that is the largest drawback in vendors of proprietary systems. Vendors just aren’t listening to the customer any more, and they charge exorbitant fees.

LibLime: What obstacles did you face in making your migration to Koha a reality? How did you overcome them?

Van: Initial cost was the first big hurdle. While it wasn’t as much as Dynix, TLC, Voyager, or Aleph, we weren’t in that market. Our previous vendor cost us about half of the hosted solution provided by Liblime. We knew, however, that we had to make changes; and this afforded the most cost-effective means available on the market. We had some conversion issues, but the staff at Liblime really helped with the process. I’m almost certain we would not have had that sort of attention with a $100,000 system vendor. The migration was relatively painless.

LibLime: How does the open source model support the mission and philosophy of your library?

Van: The open-source model allows us to use cutting-edge technology without experiencing bleeding-edge costs. While not ideologically committed to open source, we have found a number of open-source products that work well in our environment. Koha is only one of several open-source products deployed within our institution. It allows us the ability to focus on core competencies without getting soaked from the serious costs of competing products.

LibLime: What do you, your board, your patrons, or your staff like best about Koha?

Van: They like the fact that it is easily accessible anywhere - especially now that we have wireless. Before Koha, our IT department would not trust our previous vendor’s web interface. The user-specific features such as renew, suggestions, and account details are also helpful to our users.

LibLime: What advice do you have for libraries such as yours who are considering an open-source solution?

Van: I think that libraries need to look at Koha in order to leverage the best technology without sacrificing acquisitions, personnel, or other developmental opportunities. It may not be completely polished in its original source code manifestation, but the value-add of a consultant like Liblime really makes the product suite shine for staff and patrons.

About the Author

Tina Burger is VP Marketing for LibLime. She holds a Master's in Sociology from Ohio University with a concentration on theory and media. Tina envisions open source as a way of empowering libraries to respond creatively to fiscal challenges and still benefit from emerging library technologies. In her spare time, she currently serves as co-Chair of Voter Services for the League of Women Voters of Athens County where she is able to combine her passions for libraries and democracy by organizing candidate forums and voter guides for Athens County.