What’s on our mind: How to find Open Fifth, Koha LMS and Aspen Discovery news, resources and events

Last updated on: 28th January 2026| 28th January 2026 | Lauren Purton | WOOM

Online

Social

The easiest way to see our regular updates is by following Open Fifth on LinkedIn, where we share company and library software news and resources throughout the week.

We’re also on Bluesky, where there are many brilliant library, librarian and open source developer profiles to follow.

Find our ‘What’s on our mind’ videos, new feature demos and recordings of recent webinars on the Open Fifth YouTube channel

 

Open Fifth mailing list

Subscribe to our mailing list to receive our quarterly newsletter (here’s November’s issue) and press releases. 

 

Blogs

We regularly write blogs about new software features, hints and tips, and a monthly post about what the Open Fifth team have been reading, watching and doing (here’s December’s ‘What’s on our shelves’ round-up). 

Bigger updates can be found on the Open Fifth news page.

 

Events

We hold webinars twice a month, free for anyone to attend. See our upcoming webinars and register on the Open Fifth Eventbrite page

You can find information about our annual Customer Days, library software forums, webinars and training events on our Events page, check the calendar to see what’s coming up. 

 

Open source communities

Koha

Website – There’s a Koha community website packed with information, events and resources. 

Mattermost – Join the conversation with other Koha users globally on the dedicated Mattermost server. Here’s a ‘Using Mattermost’ guide we prepared on how to get involved. 

Koha news – There’s a monthly Koha Community newsletter filled with updates from around the globe, here’s January’s issue.

 

Aspen Discovery

Website – The Aspen Discovery community also has a website for software information, resources, and a calendar of community meetings. A wealth of documentation and resources can be found on the community Aspen Discovery Help Centre.

Slack – There’s an Aspen Discovery Slack space, where you can connect with Aspen libraries from around the world with dedicated channels for Koha, testing, cataloguers, and many more. 

For Open Fifth customers

We hold online and in-person events exclusive to Open Fifth customers throughout the year, here’s a selection:

Open Discussions

Open Discussions are quarterly online meetings for Open Fifth customers across all sectors where we share practices, demo and discuss specific topics. Recent Open Discussions have covered AI in the library, tracking engagement with library software, and demonstrating impact. 

 

What to expect from your Koha upgrade

These sessions are held ahead of Koha LMS upgrade periods, where customers can meet our upgrades team and get an overview of the process for upgrading to a new release. We discuss what to do before and after the upgrade date, how to find out more about new features, and hold a Q&A.

 

Aspen in Action

Our Aspen Discovery customers are invited to online Aspen In Action sessions, held every four months (January, May, September). These sessions include a show & ask from our libraries across regions and sectors, demonstrations of new features, updates from our developer team, and the opportunity for Q&A.

 

Customer Day

Our big customer event of the year is the Open Fifth Customer Day, where we invite all customers to join us for a day of networking, sharing practices, workshops and talks.

Talks and sessions are led by the Open Fifth team as well as customers who share about what their library is doing with Koha LMS, Aspen Discovery, Metabase, AtoM and more.

In 2025 we were joined by Professor Jane Secker who delivered the fascinating keynote ‘Open Practices, Copyright and the Rise of GenerativeAI: exploring the challenges and opportunities for libraries’. In 2024 Luke Burton, Director – Libraries at Arts Council England, delivered the illuminating keynote ‘Libraries at the Crossroads: Adapting to Change, Planning for Tomorrow’.

 

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