--- /dev/null
+==============================================================================
+RELEASE NOTES FOR KOHA 3.0 ALPHA
+==============================================================================
+Koha 3 is the next-generation release of the award-winning Koha open-source
+integrated library system.
+
+These Release Notes cover What's New in Koha 3, information about the new
+Revision control system (Git), and Version-release process, pointers to
+Download, Installation, and Upgrade documentation, a brief introduction to the
+new Templates, a call to Translation and Documentation writers, and finally,
+Known Issues with this version.
+
+==============================================================================
+WHAT'S NEW IN KOHA 3?
+==============================================================================
+
+1. Zebra plugin - Zebra is a high-performance, general-purpose structured
+text indexing and retrieval engine. It supports large data sets (tens of
+millions of records) and includes support for SRU, Z39.50 and several query
+languages: CCL, CQL, and PQF. For more information about Zebra, please see:
+
+http://indexdata.dk/zebra
+
+Koha's new search engine, built on top of Zebra, supports features such as
+relevance ranking, field weighting, truncation, stemming, use of fuzzy
+operators, language-specific indexing, sorting, etc.
+
+Indexes are updated in real-time with circulation transactions, enabling
+limits by availability and statuses.
+
+Faceted refine-by limits are available from both staff and opac interfaces.
+
+For libraries that don't want the overhead of maintaing Zebra, Koha 3 ships
+with a NoZebra option, in which bibliographic and authority data is indexed
+in the RDBMS.
+
+2. New installer - based on the common Perl module ExtUtils::MakeMaker, the
+new installer makes it a snap to get Koha running on just about any platform.
+
+The installer comes complete with a Developer's Toolkit target ('dev') that
+can be used to get a development environment linked directly to revision
+control, to support rapid prototyping and an agile development process.
+
+3. Standard APIs - in addition to support for library standards for search
+and retrieval (SRU and Z39.50), Koha has native support for OpenSearch/RSS.
+
+To retrieve and interact with Circulation and Patron data, Koha 3 includes
+support for 3M's Standard Interchange Protocol (SIP2), using the OpenNCIP
+libraries (http://openncip.org).
+
+There are also an ever-expanding set of native REST APIs to handle
+interoperability with external tools such as third-party cataloging clients.
+These APIs provide authentication as well as add/edit/delete control over
+bibliographic data within a Koha system. For more information, see:
+
+http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:web_services
+
+Koha 3 also includes pluggable authentication - easy integration with LDAP and
+Active Directory via the Auth_with_ldap module.
+
+Amazon.com can be enabled to enrich bibliographic data with jacket covers,
+professional reviews, ratings and comments from Amazon users, as well as point
+to 'Similar Items' within the catalog. OCLC's xISBN, and LibraryThing's
+ThingISBN can likewise be enabled to provide an 'Editions' tab on item detail
+pages. Service throttling is now available to keep within subscription limits.
+
+4. Cross-platform, multi-RDBMS, Web-server agnostic - Run Koha on the platform
+of your choice: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris. Koha 3 also
+includes better support for multi-RDBMS (MySQL 5.0 and PostgreSQL), and runs
+under Apache2, IIS, or the web server of your choosing.
+
+5. Multi-lingual support - Koha was designed from the ground up for multilingual
+libraries. Koha 3 can handle Chinese, Japanese, and even right-to-left languages
+such as Arabic and Hebrew with ease.
+
+You can translate Koha into your language using the built-in translation tools,
+or by visiting http://translate.koha.org.
+
+6. New templates - Koha's staff and patron interfaces are developed with a
+template system that's easy to theme. The default templates are composed of 100%
+valid XHTML and CSS. Koha aims to meet or exceed U.S. Government Section 508 and
+W3C's WAI-AA standards for sight and motor impaired individuals. All
+Javascript usage comes with fallback modes that work in any web browser.
+
+7. Koha 3 has quite a few new modules, as well as enhancements to existing
+modules, including: news writer, label creator, calendar, OPAC comments, MARC
+staging and overlay, notices, transaction logs, guided reports with a data
+dictionary and task scheduler, classification sources/filing rules.
+
+==============================================================================
+REVISION CONTROL
+==============================================================================
+
+With Koha 3, we've started using a new distributed revision control system
+called Git; it's the same system in use by many other projects, including the
+Linux Kernel. To learn more about how to develop Koha using Git, please see
+the Wiki page:
+
+http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:git_usage
+
+==============================================================================
+VERSION NUMBERING
+==============================================================================
+
+With Koha 3, version numbering has been changed to use a method similar to
+Perl's:
+
+major.minor[.revision[.build]]
+
+ * major: one digit
+ * minor: two-digit
+ * revision: two-digit
+ * build: three-digit
+
+This alpha release of Koha 3.0 is versioned 3.00.00.041. Every database change
+or significant enough code change requires an update to the 'build' number,
+and developers will be able to easily upgrade their systems using the built-in
+updater.
+
+Koha 3.0 Release Schedule:
+
+This alpha release of Koha 3.0 will be followed by a beta release on Feb 1,
+2008, including fixes to the following components:
+
+ * General Bugfixing (everyone)
+ * New API for item management (gmcharlt)
+ * MARC21 Authorities (gmcharlt)
+ * I18N/L10N, BiDi, lang detection (kados)
+ * OPAC Templates re-design (oleonard)
+ * Documentation and Translations (everyone)
+
+The final stable release of Koha 3.0 is slated for March 1 2008 and will
+include bugfixes to 3.0 beta.
+
+Subsequent releases of 3.0 will be bugfix releases, and won't include any new
+features.
+
+New features will be available in Koha 3.2 and subsequent releases.
+
+==============================================================================
+UPGRADING FROM A PREVIOUS VERSION OF KOHA
+==============================================================================
+
+The upgrade process from a previous version of Koha is documented on the Wiki
+at the following page:
+
+http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=22_to_30
+
+==============================================================================
+TEMPLATES
+==============================================================================
+
+You may have heard that the templates for Koha 3 have been re-skinned; there
+is also the start of a template style guide on the Wiki:
+
+http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:documentation:templates_style_guide
+
+Kudos to Owen Leonard and the Nelsonville Public Library for their
+contributions!
+
+==============================================================================
+TRANSLATIONS
+==============================================================================
+
+Koha 3 alpha (this release) currently has complete translations for en-GB
+(English) and fr-FR (French). The Koha Team welcomes additional translations;
+please see http://www.kohadocs.org/usersguide/apb.html for information about
+translating Koha, and join the koha-translate list to volunteer:
+
+http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-translate
+
+==============================================================================
+DOCUMENTATION
+==============================================================================
+
+User-contributed documentation for Koha 3 is available on the Koha Wiki
+(http://wiki.koha.org). The Koha Team welcomes documentation contributions;
+please join the Koha-devel list to volunteer:
+
+http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
+
+==============================================================================
+KNOWN ISSUES
+==============================================================================
+
+Known bugs are documented on the Koha wiki: http://bugs.koha.org and at the
+3.0 RM's QA notes Wiki page:
+
+http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:qanotes3.0
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