Becki - thanks for all of that!! My question is not so much where do barcodes come from - but how is it that my Koha knows what the next barcode is - who gave it the first barcode to calculate all the others based on? It wasn't me - and if it was I didn't realize I was doing it ;) Nicole On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 1:50 PM, Becki Whitaker <becki@incolsa.net> wrote:
Nicole,
If you want an identifying sequence of numbers that some barcode symbologies use, there is actually a barcode registry for the usual 4-digit identifying number. Dating back to the early days of CLSI, it is now maintained by Thor <www.thor.com>, the folks that bought Geac and turned it into the Vubis Smart, Integrated Library System. Anyway, they maintain a registry of the 4-digit identifier numbers -- who has what where, etc. Unfortunately and ironically, the registry is still kept in a book and not accessible to anyone except them. You can call 800-765-4658 and submit your desired number. They will check the registry and tell you if the number is already assigned or not and to whom. Given that there are only 9999 unique numbers in this scheme, many numbers are already taken.
The original purpose of the registry was to help folks have unique numbers to aid getting ILL items back to the right library. However, we have found that even keeping track of what libraries are using in our state helps, as do barcodes with library names on them that many now use. In our consortium, we starting using the last four digits of the library's SAN number. That won't work nationwide but so far it has worked for us. If a number is in use, you can decide if you are perhaps geographically different enough to go ahead and use that number.
And where do patron barcodes come from? From the same place item barcodes come from. You can buy and/or create matching item and patron barcodes once you have your pattern, i.e. patron numbers all start with "2" and item numbers all start with "3", the next four digits are your identifier, then fill 0s as needed for the length of the barcode sequence, the accession number and maybe a check digit. We've found Koha will take pretty much anything. It's the library that needs the pattern and the organization.
Don't know if this is TMI but the registry might be useful for some.
Best,
Becki
--- Becki Whitaker Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) 6202 Morenci Trail Indianapolis, IN 46268 317-298-6570 x106 / 800-733-1899 (IN only) / fax: 317-328-2380 whitakerb@mcls.org / www.mcls.org / scion.incolsa.net
Nicole Engard wrote:
Hi all,
Got a question today that I never thought about before ... but it's a good one -- Where do patron barcodes come from? How do they know where to start? And how do they know how to increment?
The answer will of course go in the manual for others to learn from.
Thanks Nicole _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha