Not an immediate solution, but we do have an enhancement in testing right now that has some advanced patron searching possibilities including truncation, searching by partial phone/email, and SQL searching. You would then be able to search HEATH, HEA* etc. It's tied to some other features that are still being developed, but we hope to get the group out soon. Jane Wagner Library Systems Analyst PTFS Inc. Content Management and Library Solutions 6400 Goldsboro Road, Suite 200 Bethesda, MD 20817 (301) 654-8088 x 151 jwagner@ptfs.com <mailto:jwagner@ptfs.com> From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Sharon Moreland Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 10:28 AM To: Nicole Engard Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz; Mickey Coalwell Subject: Re: [Koha] Finding a patron name in lookup Hi Nicole, The issue is that we have 197 Heathers in the catalog, so finding Heather Heath is proving difficult - we have problems with Jones and Smiths, as well. The only helpful feature I've discovered is that we can sort by Branch and then go to the last page of the results to get to the library in question. Clunky. Do any qualifiers work in the patron search box? Sharon NExpress On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 5:38 AM, Nicole Engard <nicole.engard@liblime.com> wrote: Mickey, does searching for her full name not work? A full name search should find her - or a search by barcode. I'm confused as to why that isn't working. What results are they getting? --- Nicole C. Engard Open Source Evangelist, LibLime (888) Koha ILS (564-2457) ext. 714 nce@liblime.com AIM/Y!/Skype: nengard http://liblime.com http://blogs.liblime.com/open-sesame/ On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Mickey Coalwell<mcoalwell@nekls.org> wrote:

Any thoughts/tips/strategies for finding a patron named HEATHER HEATH (or any similarly structured name) in Koha's patron lookup quickly and efficiently? I'm confounded. This is an actual patron name, and her home library called us to say that they could not find her via name lookup. Interesting problem.

-- Mickey Coalwell, Library Development Consultant Northeast Kansas Library System 4317 W. 6th Street Lawrence, KS 66049 Phone: 785-838-4090 Fax: 785-838-3989 Toll Free: 1-888-296-6963

_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha

_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha -- Sharon Moreland Technology Consultant Northeast Kansas Library System

Real Soon Now we are planning to do all the bugzilla enhancement entries as was the plan developed at Kohacon. It's just been a question of staff time and rapidly moving code/specs. For the patron searching enhancement, the screen looks like this: The pulldown in the top search box has Standard (covers name and barcode), borrower number, email, and phone. If the staff person is familiar with the SQL, he/she can also do a direct query in the bottom box. You'll note a Borrower Cart in the screenshot - a separate enhancement we're working on has some batch edit/delete capabilities for records that are selected and added to the cart. That code is also still in test. Jane Wagner Library Systems Analyst PTFS Inc. Content Management and Library Solutions 6400 Goldsboro Road, Suite 200 Bethesda, MD 20817 (301) 654-8088 x 151 jwagner@ptfs.com -----Original Message----- From: Owen Leonard [mailto:oleonard@myacpl.org] Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:10 AM To: Wagner, Jane Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Finding a patron name in lookup

Not an immediate solution, but we do have an enhancement in testing right

now that has some advanced patron searching possibilities including

truncation, searching by partial phone/email, and SQL searching.

That sounds great Jane. Can you create an enhancement bug for it so that others can see it's being worked on? Will it be just a change to the way the search works now, or will it include other methods of searching patrons, like an advanced search screen? Thanks, -- Owen -- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org

I have to second Owen on that...most front line library staff have NO idea what SQL is and that interface would confuse and/or scare the life out of them. I Really like the drop down menu limits, though. Kudos to those. Sharon NExpress Shared Catalog Northeast Kansas Library System On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 11:03 AM, Owen Leonard <oleonard@myacpl.org> wrote:

...

If the staff person is familiar with the SQL, he/she can also do a direct query in the bottom box.

That seems like a wildly inappropriate interface to offer to the general staff. Maybe this could be a separate page which is linked to from the default patrons page?

-- Owen

-- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha

-- Sharon Moreland Technology Consultant Northeast Kansas Library System

Per Galen's request just now on the IRC, we'll add a syspref to control display of the SQL part before sending to community. Jane Wagner Library Systems Analyst PTFS Inc. Content Management and Library Solutions 6400 Goldsboro Road, Suite 200 Bethesda, MD 20817 (301) 654-8088 x 151 jwagner@ptfs.com -----Original Message----- From: Owen Leonard [mailto:oleonard@myacpl.org] Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 12:03 PM To: Wagner, Jane Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Finding a patron name in lookup

If the staff person is familiar with the SQL, he/she can also do a direct query in the bottom box.

That seems like a wildly inappropriate interface to offer to the general staff. Maybe this could be a separate page which is linked to from the default patrons page? -- Owen -- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org