Yes storing barcodes in a scanner and then dumping them into the circ station is what I mean. We close down the library for two plus days and scan everything in the library for inventory. We run reports against the shelves for missing items that have not been scanned and we can tell then what items were mysteriously lost that year. Marie
KL Nasveschuk <klnasveschuk@klnconsulting.net> 2/27/2006 11:56 AM >>> Marie,
Are you just trying to scan barcodes versus typing in a barcode? We have tested this briefly and it works with Koha. Ex. scan a barcode, pull record from catalog advanced search. I guess what really matters is how it is setup in Koha. If you are looking to store barcodes in the scanner, then download as part of inventory, I don't believe Koha will do that. Someone correct me if I am wrong. Kent On Mon, 2006-02-27 at 08:29 -0600, Marie Wardall wrote:
So the Dolphin Scanners that we have right now that we use for inventory could be re-programmed to work with the KOHA system if we had someone do that for us. Our Network Manager I'm thinking could do this.
Thanks! Marie
Marie J. Wardall IMC Coordinator Rothschild Elementary School 810 First Street Rothschild, WI 54474 mwardall@dce.k12.wi.us Phone: 715-359-3186 ext.5424 FAX: 715-355-3723 Fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards. Arthur Schopenhauer
"Stephen Hedges" <shedges@skemotah.com> 2/26/2006 3:06 PM >>> Marie Wardall said: [...] *Barcodes-Our current barcodes are 5 digits long with a leading T for a material barcode and a leading P for a patron barcode.
Joshua noted that Nelsonville Public Library still uses the Follett patron barcodes, so I can give you some extra information here.
Follett uses Interleaved 2-of-5 symbology in their barcodes, but the scanned codes are then manipulated by their system so the user only sees a "T" or a "P" and no more than five digits. If you scan these barcodes with a non-Follett scanner in a text editor, you will see that the barcodes are actually always 10 digits long: the visible digits (no "T" or "P") with leading zeros to pad the number to 7 digits, plus three more digits that tell the Follett software a little more about the barcode (such as if it is a "T"itle or a "P"atron barcode). For example, if the Follet library card had the number "P 1234" printed on it, an off-the-shelf scanner would read something like "0001234999."
Most vendors of barcode scanners know how to program their products for Follett systems, so they can sell to schools that use Follett. Those same vendors can help you program your scanners to simply remove the last three digits. Then the barcode example above would look like "0001234" when scanned into Koha. Staff quickly get used to making this conversion in their heads if they need to type in a number manually. Works fine. (But don't expect the Follett folks to help you with the scanner programming, of course!)