Private company

LibLime

Logo: liblime.com3

LibLime is a commercial entity providing implementation and development services around the open source Integrated library system Koha. LibLime was founded in 2005, as part of Metavore Inc. and purchased by Progressive Technology Federal Systems, Inc. (PTFS) in 2010.2 It is headquartered in Maryland.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

2005Founded1
  • Industrysoftware industry1
  • HeadquartersMaryland1
  • Websiteliblime.com

LibLime is a commercial entity providing implementation and development services around the open source Integrated library system Koha. LibLime was founded in 2005, as part of Metavore Inc. and purchased by Progressive Technology Federal Systems, Inc. (PTFS) in 2010.2

The story

LibLime was founded in 2005 by Joshua Ferraro, a systems administrator who helped spearhead the migration project of moving the Athens County Public Libraries in Ohio to use OpenSource software called "Koha", a system generally considered to be the earliest open-source ILS still in production. LibLime and Ferraro soon became involved in further developing the product, and Ferraro was elected as the official Koha Project Release Manager for version 3.0.0.

In 2006, LibLime acquired the assets of Skemotah Solutions, another US-based Koha support company.

In March 2007, LibLime acquired the Koha division of Katipo Communications Ltd - the original developers of Koha. Assets involved in the acquisition included existing support contracts with libraries that contracted with Katipo, copyrights on the original Koha source code, and the koha.org domain and Website.

Koha 3.0.0 was released in August 2008 three years after the release of version 2.2.0 (Jan 6 2005).

In July 2008, LibLime acquired select assets of partner CARE Affiliates, Inc. Assets involved in the acquisition included existing support contracts for OpenTranslators and Masterkey, as well as copyrights and trademarks related to OpenTranslators.

In January 2009, the company launched ‡biblios.net, a free cataloging service.

In 2009 a dispute arose between LibLime and other members of the Koha community. The dispute centred on LibLime's apparent reluctance to be inclusive with the content of the http://koha.org/ sites and the non-contribution of software patches back to the community. A number of participants declared that they believed that LibLime had forked the software. A separate web presence, source code repository and community was established at http://www.koha-community.org/.

In March 2010, LibLime was purchased by PTFS, a US Federal Government contractor.

Read the full text

The dispute with the Koha community deepened in November 2011 when it was reported that LibLime had applied to New Zealand's Ministry of Economic Development for a trademark of the name 'KOHA'. The Horowhenua Library Trust, who originally had Koha developed, has objected to LibLime's proposal, saying that "the Trust had created something really good, and given it away to the world, and that now LibLime wants to take it".

From Wikipedia’s article on LibLime, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Products and brands

LibLime KOHA open-source integrated library system: A LibLime variant of Koha based on Koha 3.0. Announced May 2011.

LibLime Enterprise KOHA integrated library system: A LibLime variant of Koha based on Koha 3.0. Announced Sept 2009.

From Wikipedia’s article on LibLime, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. 2005Founded Founded1

Sources

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    Company websiteLibLime logo
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