CHRISTOPHER BRANNON CURRENT POSITION IT Coordinator, Coeur d’Alene Public Library, ID DEGREE BS, Music Education, Warner Pacific University, OR, 1993

GEORGE WILLIAMS CURRENT POSITION  Next Search Catalog Coordinator, Northeast Kansas Library System DEGREE BA, English Literature, Boise State University, 2002

FOLLOW BOTH koha-us.org/learn/video-playlists Top photo by JD Smithson; bottom photo courtesy of George Williams

Koha’s Terrific Two

Christopher Brannon and George Williams are go-to experts helping the free, open source Koha integrated library system (ILS) grow and thrive in U.S. libraries. Both have been active leaders in the koha-US user group: In addition to their work on committees and regular appearances as presenters and panelists at conferences and events, Brannon is the organization’s current president, and Williams is a past president. Both have made multiple contributions to the Koha jQuery Library wiki and Koha SQL Reports Library wiki, and Brannon participates on Koha’s Bugzilla site, where he has contributed more than 260 bug reports and ideas for new software enhancements.

Then there’s the behind-the-scenes work. “Christopher uses his knowledge of Koha, jQuery, CSS, SQL and other tools to add efficiency, accuracy and added value to staff workflows in Koha,” writes nominator Barbara Johnson, technical services manager for Bedford Public Library, TX, and 2022 koha-US president. “George will spend hours on customizing something just to save several keystrokes by staff…. His investment of time upfront makes a huge difference to users down the line.”

Librarians who work with Koha might be most familiar with the duo from “The Terrific Every-Other-Thursday Training Videos” the two produce. Now in the third season, the biweekly video series—available on the koha-us.org website and YouTube—covers topics such as working with plugins for WordPress or hoopla, improving circulation rules, patron validation, resetting credentials, interlibrary loan workflows, and more.

The 20-30 minute unscripted and lightly edited videos have a conversational tone, with demos and explanations seamlessly slipped in. “We just talk about the things that we do,” Brannon says. One motivation for the series has been demonstrating how easy it is to create informative content for other Koha users, he says. “If anything that we do is helpful, it’s worth doing.” 

They’re both self-effacing about their contributions to Koha and the koha-US user group. “I think the whole Koha community are Movers & Shakers,” Williams says. “In the past 10 years, there’s been a huge change with the number of people using [Koha], and…the Koha community has done a lot to make something that’s really valuable that nobody owns.” Brannon adds, “The community is the core of this product, and they deserve every bit of recognition that we do.”