Perhaps "whence" would work just as well in the title of this entry, because I'm not only trying to figure out where to go with an integrated library system, but also how to come at it.
Some design directions I'm thinking about in order of importance:
Is there any reason the UI shouldn't be browser based?
A library system is essentially a database application. I have an okay understanding of database design, but there's room for improvement. So far, I've identified severala whole mess of different tables:
Koha is an already existing, working ILS project. It should be reviewed, but I don't know enough perl to review it myself. I've been told it's missing important features, like consortium support. It's a bias, I know, but I can't help but feel like if Koha were implemented in another language, like Python, I'd be able to make heads or tails of it.
Speaking of which, I'm unclear on the benefit of consortium support in a free (as in freedom) ILS. One need not amortize the cost of the system itself over the members of the consortium, and a shared sysadmin could administer several installations, that is, databases, almost as easily as one. One could implement reciprocal circulation policies in terms of, well, circulation policies and patron groups, it seems to me. I must look into this in more detail.
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