Library Automation & Information Services

Kenyan libraries and archives increasingly need more than a catalogue — they need a coherent information estate that covers the collection, the institutional record, and everything that connects them. Digi Records Consulting delivers exactly that: Koha for the library collection, DSpace for the institutional repository, AtoM for archival description, and our EDMS line for registry and administrative records — implemented, hosted and supported as one practice rather than a shelf of unrelated systems from different vendors. This page sets out what that means in practice: what we install and configure, which services work as standalone engagements, the standards we work to, and who we typically work with.

How a library automation engagement runs

The Information Estate: One Partner, Not a Vendor Per Platform

Every other provider in this market sells a piece of the puzzle — a library system here, a records solution there — leaving institutions to coordinate multiple vendors, multiple hosting arrangements and multiple support contracts for information that, in practice, belongs together. We take a different view. A university's theses sit in DSpace, but the correspondence and minutes behind them belong in the EDMS. A county archive's accession registers sit in AtoM, but the same county's active files are subject to a records retention schedule. Treating these as one information estate — one Kenyan hosting platform, one support contract, one Data Protection Act 2019 posture — is not just tidier administratively; it is the only way an institution gets a single, coherent view of what it holds and where. No other provider in this market currently combines library systems with records and archives management under one roof, and that combination is the core of what we offer.

• Koha handles the library collection: acquisitions, cataloguing to MARC21, circulation, patron management, serials, reporting and the OPAC.
• DSpace handles the institutional repository: theses, dissertations, research output, past examination papers and institutional reports.
• AtoM (Access to Memory) handles archival description and access, built to international archival standards, with hierarchical arrangement and authority records.
• Our EDMS line, already established under Systems & Platforms, handles registry and administrative records.

We are careful about the distinction between these: Koha manages a published, lendable collection. It is not a records management system, and we do not present it as one. Institutional records — correspondence, contracts, minutes, personnel files — stay on the EDMS line, whether or not a library sits alongside them.

What We Actually Sell

The service is implementation and support, not licences. Koha, DSpace and AtoM are open source; nobody, including us, owns them or can sell them as proprietary software, and we hold no official, certified or exclusive status with any of these projects. What an institution pays for is the work: needs assessment, installation and configuration, data migration from whatever system or card catalogue came before, retrospective cataloguing, barcoding and spine labelling, staff training, hosting and managed services, and customisation or integration with other institutional systems. Every engagement is scoped to what the institution actually needs — a full migration and configuration, a training-only engagement, or an ongoing hosting and support arrangement — and proposed in writing rather than quoted off a generic price list.

Services That Stand Alone

Several parts of this line work perfectly well as standalone engagements, without a full system migration attached, and institutions often start here:

• Retrospective conversion — cataloguing a library still working from card catalogues or a card index, independent of whether or when it moves to Koha.
• Annual stock-taking and collection audit — a physical count and condition check against the catalogue, the same discipline as a records audit applied to a library collection.
• Library policy development — collection development policy, weeding and disposal criteria, circulation rules, and e-resources policy, written for the institution rather than adapted from a template.
• Patron data protection under the Data Protection Act 2019 — privacy notices, retention rules for circulation history, and access controls around who can see what a patron has borrowed.
• OPAC and library web presence — a public-facing catalogue that reflects the institution properly.
• Library staff training and continuing professional development, delivered on-site and scoped to the roles in the library.

Why Data Cleanup Dominates Timelines

The honest answer to "how long will this take" is that migration and cataloguing quality, not software installation, sets the schedule. Installing and configuring Koha, DSpace or AtoM is measured in days. Getting an existing collection into a state where the new system is actually usable — deduplicated records, consistent classification, complete holdings data, patron records cleaned of duplicates and errors — is where the real time goes, and it scales with the state the existing data is in rather than with the size of the collection alone.

Standards We Work To

For the library collection: MARC21 as the bibliographic standard, AACR2 or RDA for descriptive cataloguing depending on what the institution already uses, Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress Classification as the client requires, Z39.50 for copy cataloguing against existing bibliographic records, and SIP2 where a self-service or third-party integration calls for it. For repositories: Dublin Core metadata and OAI-PMH for harvesting and interoperability with other repositories. For archival description in AtoM: the international standards the archival profession works to, including hierarchical, multi-level description and authority records for creators and custodians.

Who This Is For

This line serves TVET institutions and national polytechnics building or modernising a library service; county public library networks running multiple branches from a single instance; universities and colleges with both a library and an institutional repository; private and international schools with a dedicated library service, distinct from a bundled school-management module; and special libraries — law firms, research institutes, NGOs, churches and professional bodies — with a defined collection to manage. A county network is a good example of where the single-instance model pays off: branches share one catalogue, one patron database and one circulation policy, administered centrally but usable at every branch. We do not pursue primary schools or position against bundled library modules inside school ERP systems — that segment is served well enough by those tools, and it is not where our depth adds value.

Why Institutions Choose Us

On-site delivery for the work that has to happen on-site — cataloguing, spine labelling, barcoding, stock-taking — rather than a remote-only engagement. Kenyan hosting, because patron borrowing records are personal data under the Data Protection Act 2019, and data residency matters as much for a library system as it does for an EDMS. A lead consultant with a library and information science qualification and Kenya Association of Records Managers and Archivists (KARMA) membership, so the work is grounded in the profession rather than bolted onto a general IT practice. And no vendor lock-in: your catalogue, your patron data and your archival descriptions are yours, exportable, and you are free to change provider at any time — we are not selling you into a closed system.

Every engagement is scoped per engagement, with a written proposal within 48 hours of an initial conversation. For the detail of how a Koha implementation actually runs — migration, configuration, training and support — see our dedicated Koha Implementation page.