All, What we can do in our current system and would like be able to do is to get a single result - so that if I search for cardnumber "6532" I get just that one and not "*6532*" - every number that contains that string. I had tried enclosing it with single quotes and double quotes, and neither worked. We have 17000+ patrons, and the going through them can be really time consuming. On 4/6/2011 10:38 AM, James Ghiorzi wrote:

We just scan the barcode. The other easiest way to do it is enter last name, first name (you can just put the first initial if you want, it will display a list of patrons that closely match your search.

Hope that helps,

James Ghiorzi Library Assistant II San Benito County Free Library 470 Fifth St. Hollister, CA 05-23 (831) 636-4107

________________________________________ From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Linda Culberson [lculber@mdah.state.ms.us] Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 2:18 PM To: koha Subject: [Koha] Koha: staff client searching by card number

Everyone, Another newbie question: Is there a way in the staff client to search by the exact card number? It seems to be using wild cards before and after. For example, a search for "643" pulls up 1643", "36431" and everything else that contains "643" with 643 in the list. We want it to pull up only the one 643. I'm assuming it isn't acceptable to change member.pl?

Thanks in advance.

-- Linda Culberson lculber@mdah.state.ms.us Archives and Records Services Division Ms. Dept. of Archives& History P. O. Box 571 Jackson, MS 39205-0571 Telephone: 601/576-6873 Facsimile: 601/576-6824

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

-- Linda Culberson lculber@mdah.state.ms.us Archives and Records Services Division Ms. Dept. of Archives & History P. O. Box 571 Jackson, MS 39205-0571 Telephone: 601/576-6873 Facsimile: 601/576-6824

In the staff interface, you can add an asterisk * before the barcode to get the exact item. Something like *36431 instead of just 36431. On 04/06/2011 11:10 AM, Hal Bright wrote:

In addition, is there a way to force an exact search in the materials catalog?

-----Original Message----- From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Linda Culberson Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 5:18 PM To: koha Subject: [Koha] Koha: staff client searching by card number

Everyone, Another newbie question: Is there a way in the staff client to search by the exact card number? It seems to be using wild cards before and after. For example, a search for "643" pulls up 1643", "36431" and everything else that contains "643" with 643 in the list. We want it to pull up only the one 643. I'm assuming it isn't acceptable to change member.pl?

Thanks in advance.

-- Tim McMahon Technical Services West Liberty Public Library

All, It does work in check out!! It is just in searching the patron's that it doesn't. Surely, the staff will accept that. Surely. I hope. I apologize for my panic. We'll just use the name when searching for patrons and continue with our current procedure when checking out items. Linda On 4/6/2011 1:46 PM, Linda Culberson wrote:

All, I tested the various suggestions. On our version, 3.02.02.003, putting an asterisk in front of the number made no difference in the result. A search of my number pulled up 1540 results. Adding the first letter of my last name cut it down to 552. Using the first two letters did cut it down to 26. Using my number and my full first name was 28 (mainly because it got those "Belinda" and "Malinda" and "Melinda" etc.)

A coworker's results were worse. Her card number pulled up 6358 results, adding the first letter of her last name cut it to 2837, and the first two letters to 249. Using her number and her full last name (which is admittedly a common name - almost as bad as "Linda") got it down to 17.

So basically, for us, searching by cardnumber doesn't really seem to work, and so our checkout procedure will have to be reworked. We had been swiping the patron's card and then the item's barcode. This won't work in Koha, apparently.

Thanks to all who answered.

Linda

On 1:59 PM, Tim McMahon wrote:

...

In the staff interface, you can add an asterisk * before the barcode to get the exact item. Something like *36431 instead of just 36431.

On 04/06/2011 11:10 AM, Hal Bright wrote:

...

In addition, is there a way to force an exact search in the materials catalog?

-----Original Message----- From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Linda Culberson Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 5:18 PM To: koha Subject: [Koha] Koha: staff client searching by card number

Everyone, Another newbie question: Is there a way in the staff client to search by the exact card number? It seems to be using wild cards before and after. For example, a search for "643" pulls up 1643", "36431" and everything else that contains "643" with 643 in the list. We want it to pull up only the one 643. I'm assuming it isn't acceptable to change member.pl?

Thanks in advance.

-- Linda Culberson lculber@mdah.state.ms.us Archives and Records Services Division Ms. Dept. of Archives & History P. O. Box 571 Jackson, MS 39205-0571 Telephone: 601/576-6873 Facsimile: 601/576-6824

So basically, for us, searching by cardnumber doesn't really seem to work, and so our checkout procedure will have to be reworked. We had been swiping the patron's card and then the item's barcode.  This won't work in Koha, apparently.

Are you talking about circulation? If by "swiping" you mean "scanning," then of course that should work. That's what we do every day. In circulation I don't find that entering "643" pulls up "1643" at all. -- Owen -- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 3:58 PM, Galen Charlton <gmc@esilibrary.com> wrote:

Hi,

On Apr 6, 2011, at 3:51 PM, Owen Leonard wrote:

...

Are you talking about circulation? If by "swiping" you mean "scanning," then of course that should work. That's what we do every day. In circulation I don't find that entering "643" pulls up "1643" at all.

Two different searches are being discussed:

[1] 'search patrons' - uses a "like" on the patron barcode, so a search of "123" will pull up barcode 123, 6123, 12345, etc. This applies whether the barcode was type or scanned.

Perhaps a simple radio button setup with "exact" and "like" options in the patron search interface would allow both types of searches without the inconvenience of having to select one *or* the other via a syspref. Kind Regards, Chris

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 4:14 PM, Galen Charlton <gmc@esilibrary.com> wrote:

Hi,

...

Perhaps a simple radio button setup with "exact" and "like" options in

On Apr 6, 2011, at 4:07 PM, Chris Nighswonger wrote: the patron search interface would allow both types of searches without the inconvenience of having to select one *or* the other via a syspref.

Indeed. But I'm going to play the devil's advocate for a moment: is providing such an option something that would be of real use, or would it be UI noise?

Yes. Or at least the functional equivalent. Most searches I've seen elsewhere at least have an "advanced" option which includes the ability to do both an exact search and a "contains" search. I would further postulate that libraries with thousands of patrons might appreciate the option to do both without having to go through the multi-step process of changing a syspref. Noise is acceptable so long as it does not raise the overall noise floor... ;-)

+1 I think the radio button would be a great idea. For us the "search patrons" by cardnumber is problematic unless the number is really high. I found in my testing, that even with names it would be extremely helpful to have the ability to specify exact. From my very selfish perspective, the radio button would work better than the the system preference, because with names there are indeed times when the "like" works better and times when exact does. On 4/6/2011 3:07 PM, Chris Nighswonger wrote:

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 3:58 PM, Galen Charlton <gmc@esilibrary.com <mailto:gmc@esilibrary.com>> wrote:

Hi,

On Apr 6, 2011, at 3:51 PM, Owen Leonard wrote: > Are you talking about circulation? If by "swiping" you mean > "scanning," then of course that should work. That's what we do every > day. In circulation I don't find that entering "643" pulls up "1643" > at all.

Two different searches are being discussed:

[1] 'search patrons' - uses a "like" on the patron barcode, so a search of "123" will pull up barcode 123, 6123, 12345, etc. Â This applies whether the barcode was type or scanned.

Perhaps a simple radio button setup with "exact" and "like" options in the patron search interface would allow both types of searches without the inconvenience of having to select one *or* the other via a syspref.

Kind Regards, Chris

-- Linda Culberson lculber@mdah.state.ms.us Archives and Records Services Division Ms. Dept. of Archives & History P. O. Box 571 Jackson, MS 39205-0571 Telephone: 601/576-6873 Facsimile: 601/576-6824