scanning isbn number for circulation
Hi, I'm trying to use the isbn number on books as the book barcode. however, when I scan the barcode of the isbn it registers the number but does not find the book. I think I need to set a mapping somewhere. I tried mapping the koha value items.barcode to marc 20a (isbn) but that does not seem to do the trick. We currently do not have barcodes on our books and were planning to just add them through z39.50 as much as we could by scanning the isbn number and using this for cataloging. * can anyone tell me how to make sure that the "item barcode:" that is asked when checking out is the same as the isbn number? * would you for any reason advise against using the isbn code and, if necessary, have several versions of the same book like this? We are a pretty small library for a research institute and not a public library so our collection is "limited". thank you! Klaas Klaas Chielens | Electronic Communication __________________________________ Institute for European Studies Vrije Universiteit Brussel Pleinlaan 2 (office: Pleinlaan 15, 5th floor) 1050 Brussels Belgium T: +32 2 6291563 F: +32 2 6291809 E: klaas.chielens@vub.ac.be
Hi Klaas, It’s not a good idea… The ISBN number is for bibliographic data and the bar code is for ITEM data, you will need in some cases more than one different bar code number for each item related to one bibliographic material. Regards Jorge I+D+wine From: klaas.chielens@vub.ac.be Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2011 12:15:31 +0100 To: Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: [Koha] scanning isbn number for circulation Hi, I'm trying to use the isbn number on books as the book barcode. however, when I scan the barcode of the isbn it registers the number but does not find the book. I think I need to set a mapping somewhere. I tried mapping the koha value items.barcode to marc 20a (isbn) but that does not seem to do the trick. We currently do not have barcodes on our books and were planning to just add them through z39.50 as much as we could by scanning the isbn number and using this for cataloging. * can anyone tell me how to make sure that the "item barcode:" that is asked when checking out is the same as the isbn number?* would you for any reason advise against using the isbn code and, if necessary, have several versions of the same book like this? We are a pretty small library for a research institute and not a public library so our collection is "limited". thank you! Klaas Klaas Chielens | Electronic Communication __________________________________ Institute for European Studies Vrije Universiteit Brussel Pleinlaan 2 (office: Pleinlaan 15, 5th floor) 1050 Brussels BelgiumT: +32 2 6291563F: +32 2 6291809E: klaas.chielens@vub.ac.be _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Salvete!
I'm trying to use the isbn number on books as the book barcode. however, when I scan the barcode of the isbn it registers the number but does not find the book. I think I need to set a mapping somewhere. I tried mapping the koha value items.barcode to marc 20a (isbn) but that does not seem to do the trick. We currently do not have barcodes on our books and were planning to just add them through z39.50 as much as we could by scanning the isbn number and using this for cataloging.
* can anyone tell me how to make sure that the "item barcode:" that is asked when checking out is the same as the isbn number? * would you for any reason advise against using the isbn code and, if necessary, have several versions of the same book like this? We are a pretty small library for a research institute and not a public library so our collection is "limited".
I try not to say things like this too often, but don't do that. The ISBN is not a unique identifier: it's quite possible to have two items with an identical ISBN. In fact, it's highly probable for this to happen with popular materials - new books acquired in duplicate. Stuart Yeates gave a wonderful talk on ISBNs and ebooks at KohaCon10, and it's available here: http://anitsirk.blip.tv/file/4381199/ Cheers, Brooke
I'm trying to use the isbn number on books as the book barcode. however,
It's supposed to be just a number to uniquely identify each physical item, and usually doesn't have any inherent "meaning", like a biblio-level call number. If you really want to, you could of course construct your item-level barcode by using the biblio-level ISBN number and then just adding an item-level suffix to make it unique. But I can't really think why you would want to do that, as you would still need to print (or buy) and physically apply the barcodes. Plus I've seen many instances where completely identical copies of a given book (just a different print run, not a different edition) had different ISBNs. What most people do is print out (or buy) a big batch of barcode stickers, and apply them to the physical books at the same time as entering the item-level holding information.
Well, the way to do it - should you want to - would be simply to key in or scan in the ISBNs in the Koha barcode field 952 $p. That would be easier than mapping and re-mapping. Koha would not allow duplicate in that field, so second copies and items with the same barcode number would send up error messages, and you'd have to come up with something else for those other copies. And key that new number in. And hope it doesn't conflict with a later item that has that invented number as its real ISBN. And in "a pretty small library for a research institute" I would also be fairly sure that we would have or soon acquire items that don't have any ISBN at all: home-grown research reports, offprints of articles, recordings, etc. So I'd say it's quite possible to do this (even though I wouldn't recommend it either). Just be prepared for the steep "down" side. Kurt A. Bodling Technical Services Librarian George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate, Museum & Gardens From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of M. Brooke Helman Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 6:54 AM To: Koha List Subject: Re: [Koha] scanning isbn number for circulation Salvete!
I'm trying to use the isbn number on books as the book barcode. however, when I scan the barcode of the isbn it registers the number but does not find the book. I think I need to set a mapping somewhere. I tried mapping the koha value items.barcode to marc 20a (isbn) but that does not seem to do the trick. We currently do not have barcodes on our books and were planning to just add them through z39.50 as much as we could by scanning the isbn number and using this for cataloging.
* can anyone tell me how to make sure that the "item barcode:" that is asked when checking out is the same as the isbn number? * would you for any reason advise against using the isbn code and, if necessary, have several versions of the same book like this? We are a pretty small library for a research institute and not a public library so our collection is "limited".
I try not to say things like this too often, but don't do that. The ISBN is not a unique identifier: it's quite possible to have two items with an identical ISBN. In fact, it's highly probable for this to happen with popular materials - new books acquired in duplicate. Stuart Yeates gave a wonderful talk on ISBNs and ebooks at KohaCon10, and it's available here: http://anitsirk.blip.tv/file/4381199/ Cheers, Brooke
Thanks all for the replies. You are right ofcourse and it was a bad idea to begin with. We now have ordered some barcode stickers to use for our circulation and cataloguing purposes. We do indeed have a lot of books that do not have isbn numbers (or barcodes with isbn numbers for that matter). thanks! Klaas On 03 Mar 2011, at 15:48, Kurt Bodling wrote:
Well, the way to do it – should you want to – would be simply to key in or scan in the ISBNs in the Koha barcode field 952 $p. That would be easier than mapping and re-mapping.
Koha would not allow duplicate in that field, so second copies and items with the same barcode number would send up error messages, and you’d have to come up with something else for those other copies. And key that new number in. And hope it doesn’t conflict with a later item that has that invented number as its real ISBN.
And in “a pretty small library for a research institute” I would also be fairly sure that we would have or soon acquire items that don’t have any ISBN at all: home-grown research reports, offprints of articles, recordings, etc.
So I’d say it’s quite possible to do this (even though I wouldn’t recommend it either). Just be prepared for the steep “down” side.
Kurt A. Bodling Technical Services Librarian George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate, Museum & Gardens
From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of M. Brooke Helman Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 6:54 AM To: Koha List Subject: Re: [Koha] scanning isbn number for circulation
Salvete!
I'm trying to use the isbn number on books as the book barcode. however, when I scan the barcode of the isbn it registers the number but does not find the book. I think I need to set a mapping somewhere. I tried mapping the koha value items.barcode to marc 20a (isbn) but that does not seem to do the trick. We currently do not have barcodes on our books and were planning to just add them through z39.50 as much as we could by scanning the isbn number and using this for cataloging.
* can anyone tell me how to make sure that the "item barcode:" that is asked when checking out is the same as the isbn number? * would you for any reason advise against using the isbn code and, if necessary, have several versions of the same book like this?
We are a pretty small library for a research institute and not a public library so our collection is "limited".
I try not to say things like this too often, but don't do that. The ISBN is not a unique identifier: it's quite possible to have two items with an identical ISBN. In fact, it's highly probable for this to happen with popular materials - new books acquired in duplicate. Stuart Yeates gave a wonderful talk on ISBNs and ebooks at KohaCon10, and it's available here:
http://anitsirk.blip.tv/file/4381199/
Cheers, Brooke
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Klaas Chielens | Electronic Communication __________________________________ Institute for European Studies Vrije Universiteit Brussel Pleinlaan 2 (office: Pleinlaan 15, 5th floor) 1050 Brussels Belgium T: +32 2 6291563 F: +32 2 6291809 E: klaas.chielens@vub.ac.be
participants (5)
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hansbkk＠gmail.com -
Jorge R. -
Klaas Chielens -
Kurt Bodling -
M. Brooke Helman