Hi Janet, 2010/6/3 <deavorj@comcast.net>:
I am at a small private school in the United States. We are just getting started with Koha, and we are hoping to do lots of data entry this summer.
We did the same thing about two years ago. It was a lot of work, but saved a lot of money.
I am aware that Koha will generate barcodes for you. However, we have had printer challenges at my school. Plus, I want sturdy barcodes. I found a discount vendor who will supply us with barcodes. http://www.budgetlibrarysupplies.com/index_files/Barcode.htm I have decided that getting laminated or polyester barcodes printed in bulk would be easier and faster than us trying to generate thousands of plain paper barcodes. Also, I am anxious to get as much data entry done as possible now that school will be out for the summer.
We found batching and printing our own added a trivial amount of time to the process. We used Avery labels, applied them to the back of the book on the same level as the spine label, and then covered both the spine and barcode labels with 3M book tape to reduce wear and tear.
My question is what kind of symbology does Koha support? I've been given options from the vendor like Code 39 or Codabar. Could you please advise what type of symbology I need to order?
For circulation purposes, Koha will accept any barcode your reader will support. Kind Regards, Chris