On Tue, 2003-03-04 at 22:22, Osgaldo Suanzes wrote:
Hi Nigel.
Thanks so much for your intro to Koha. I will start to play around with Koha and instalation this night. A few questions comes to my mind. My wife has read your mail also, and she says that she saw somtime a system which was capable of reading the back cover ISBN or EAN Code trough a Barcode reader and feeding that way the Library Database.
Yes. The UPC code on the back cover of most modern books contains the ISBN number. With an appropriate barcode reader (they cost about 100Euros) you can read the ISBN number, and then Koha can query Z39.50 servers to retrieve most of the information. This assumes that there are public Z39.50 servers available in Spain, and that they have information on the books you want to enter.
Is there a way to Download or access ISBN Database while entering the books in the System with Koha with a Barcode Reader? In case that it is not possible and we have to do it the old and hard way typing one by one each book into the system, (2000 books more or less) You said that multiple Web Browsers can access the "Acquisition" menu and so enter new books using more people for the purpose. what happened if accidentally someone entered an information twice? (sure there could be 2 copies of the same book or more in the library)
I suspect Koha can handle this. The second one will be entered as a copy of the first, and will have a different bar code issued to it.
Could she use the program you mentioned "Glabels" for creating a Library Identity card for every kid?
Yes. Glabels is a general purpose label/business card generation tool. It runs under Linux and can print barcodes. See http://snaught.com/glabels/ Nigel
Thanks again
Regards Osgaldo
----- Original Message ----- From: "Nigel Titley" <nigel@titley.com> To: "Osgaldo Suanzes" <osgaldo@tiscali.es> Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 10:39 PM Subject: Re: [Koha] School Library Management (loans, returns ,accounthandles...)
Osgaldo,
Koha is ideal for this purpose, in fact I hope to be doing exactly that for my wife's school. Debian is the ideal platform to build it on. You will need to install mysql as well, and a handful of perl CPAN modules, but the installation process is completely painless.
The majority of the work is going to be in entering the books into the system. You need to print out a bunch of sticky labels, each with a barcode. I use glabels to do this. Each book is then entered into the system using the "acquisitions" menu. With practice, one can manage a book every 30 seconds or so, depending on how much information you want to enter. This may obviously take some time, but if your wife can enlist the help of the older children at school, then it can be done more quickly. bear in mind that any web browser can be used to access the Koha screens, so many people can be entering data at once.
Once this has been done, every child has to be given an entry in the system. Again this will be tedious the first time it is done, but in subsequent years you will only be entering the new year's intake, which will be much easier.
Once each book and child is entered, your wife can easily issue and return books to children. She can pull up reports of which books are overdue, and a reading record of each child. It is perfect for the job.
Hope this helps
Nigel
Hi My wife is working in a School here in Spain And she is responsible for
On Tue, 2003-03-04 at 21:12, Osgaldo Suanzes wrote: the
School Library. There are sometimes too many children asking at the same time for loaning books, without a computer! So she asked me if I could managed to setup a Library Book Managment System, Something that with a Barcode Reader she could Inventory the books and handle the Loans and returns of the Kids. Everyone is telling me that Koha is the way to go, but I must admit I have no clue about EAN and ISBN and if Koha supports Loans and returns and such.... I highly appreciate any hint I would prefer to build this upon Debian
here a few questions also: What exacty is in the Koha-CD.iso file? should I better download the Aplication tar.gz?(smaller download) Who can help or tell me on how Koha must be modified to match our needs (School Library Loans, returns, User administration, inventory trough a barcode reader?(if its possible)
Im pretty sure this must be asked a lot of times, Im sorry for this. but I need some guide
Thanks in advance.
Osgaldo. PD: Sorry for the bad english!
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