Koha System Performance Tuning: A Case Study

Academic libraries maintain a huge amount of data in their databases to facilitate its management, reference, and processing in accordance with their requirements. Therefore, there is a constant need to improve and tuning performance to increase the efficiency of their systems. Database performance tuning refers to activities that ensure that databases operate faster, smoother, and more efficiently. In short, improving overall performance. This includes several activities, such as optimizing queries, updating the database, and improving indexing. One of the most famous databases used is MySQL, which is used in the Koha system currently used in the Nizwa University Library as an open-source system for library management. Open-source software is an effective alternative to academic libraries in terms of cost, flexibility, and ability to be managed by the library and meet its various requirements. Experts and programmers continue to improve the quality of the system's performance and increase its speed and features to meet the complexity of the users' requirements. This does not differ from the systems used to manage libraries, as Koha is one of the most prominent open-source integrated library systems, widespread around the world, enabling it to manage various library services, which is used in the University of Nizwa library. The subject of this study aimed to identify the factors and difficulties that prompted the library to switch from commercial systems to open-source systems, as well as identify some strategies that can be applied to improve system performance, and finally improve the queries that are used to create Koha reports to increase speed and performance. From the results, we find that the library faces several difficulties, such as cost and lack of local technical support in commercial systems compared to open-source systems. It was also noted that the system's response speed increased after applying Apache Caching, as well as improving the hardware and software, updating the system to the latest version of it, and improving some queries designed to create reports in SQL to increase the system's response speed and make the outputs more organized and efficient.