Koha software based self-check
Is anyone out there using the Koha OPAC as a self-checkout station? I ask because I know this can be done with Evergreen (King County Library System is doing it) and it makes a self-check station cost $300 instead of $2000. All they did was tweak the OPAC a bit and put a scanner (or RFID reader) on a low end PC and bingo...self check. Has anyone tried that? Lori =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lori Bowen Ayre // Library Technology Consultant The Galecia Group // www.galecia.com (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre@galecia.com <Lori.Ayre@galecia.com>Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID, filtering, workflow optimization, and materials handling =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Hi! 2011/3/9 Lori Bowen Ayre <lori.ayre@galecia.com>:
Is anyone out there using the Koha OPAC as a self-checkout station? I ask because I know this can be done with Evergreen (King County Library System is doing it) and it makes a self-check station cost $300 instead of $2000. All they did was tweak the OPAC a bit and put a scanner (or RFID reader) on a low end PC and bingo...self check. Has anyone tried that?
Have you seen Koha's "very basic self checkout module"? http://koha-community.org/documentation/3-2-manual/?ch=x7980 You can see a demo of it here: http://head.bibkat.no/cgi-bin/koha/sco/sco-main.pl Login as username demo, password demo. Since all the checkout requires is the card number of a user, it seems awfully easy to tamper with the accounts of other users than your own with this system... Best regards, Magnus Enger libriotech.no
Hi!
2011/3/9 Lori Bowen Ayre <lori.ayre@galecia.com>:
Is anyone out there using the Koha OPAC as a self-checkout station? I ask because I know this can be done with Evergreen (King County Library System is doing it) and it makes a self-check station cost $300 instead of $2000. All they did was tweak the OPAC a bit and put a scanner (or RFID reader) on a low end PC and bingo...self check. Has anyone tried that?
Have you seen Koha's "very basic self checkout module"? http://koha-community.org/documentation/3-2-manual/?ch=x7980
You can see a demo of it here: http://head.bibkat.no/cgi-bin/koha/sco/sco-main.pl Login as username demo, password demo.
Since all the checkout requires is the card number of a user, it seems awfully easy to tamper with the accounts of other users than your own with this system...
Thats why you don't have a keyboard attached. Just a barcode scanner, then it's exactly the same as any other selfcheck machine. The danger is in letting people type cardnumbers in, (if you opened a self check machine and connected a keyboard, same thing ;)) So I would put the pc in a locked cabinet so people can not tamper with it (like plugging in a keyboard) Chris
USB keyboards and mice are hot swappable. When we need to leave PCs in public area we log them in, then take away the mouse and keyboard, plugging them back in at the end of the day when its time to log off the PC. J On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 9:00 AM, <chrisc@catalyst.net.nz> wrote:
Hi!
2011/3/9 Lori Bowen Ayre <lori.ayre@galecia.com>:
Is anyone out there using the Koha OPAC as a self-checkout station? I ask because I know this can be done with Evergreen (King County Library System is doing it) and it makes a self-check station cost $300 instead of $2000. All they did was tweak the OPAC a bit and put a scanner (or RFID reader) on a low end PC and bingo...self check. Has anyone tried that?
Have you seen Koha's "very basic self checkout module"? http://koha-community.org/documentation/3-2-manual/?ch=x7980
You can see a demo of it here: http://head.bibkat.no/cgi-bin/koha/sco/sco-main.pl Login as username demo, password demo.
Since all the checkout requires is the card number of a user, it seems awfully easy to tamper with the accounts of other users than your own with this system...
Thats why you don't have a keyboard attached. Just a barcode scanner, then it's exactly the same as any other selfcheck machine.
The danger is in letting people type cardnumbers in, (if you opened a self check machine and connected a keyboard, same thing ;)) So I would put the pc in a locked cabinet so people can not tamper with it (like plugging in a keyboard)
Chris
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On 9 March 2011 21:14, Joann Ransom <jransom@library.org.nz> wrote:
USB keyboards and mice are hot swappable. When we need to leave PCs in public area we log them in, then take away the mouse and keyboard, plugging them back in at the end of the day when its time to log off the PC.
Heh, that is clever! But if there is no mouse, is there any way for patrons to terminate their "session"? Or does their list of borrowed stuff remain on the screen until the page reloads/autoterminates the session (after 120,000 milliseconds, apparently)? And does that not make it possible (not to say unavoidable) for the next patron in line to register books on the account of the previous patron who used the self checkout? Best regards, Magnus Enger libriotech.no
On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Magnus Enger <magnus@enger.priv.no> wrote:
USB keyboards and mice are hot swappable. When we need to leave PCs in public area we log them in, then take away the mouse and keyboard,
On 9 March 2011 21:14, Joann Ransom <jransom@library.org.nz> wrote: plugging
them back in at the end of the day when its time to log off the PC.
Heh, that is clever! But if there is no mouse, is there any way for patrons to terminate their "session"? Or does their list of borrowed stuff remain on the screen until the page reloads/autoterminates the session (after 120,000 milliseconds, apparently)? And does that not make it possible (not to say unavoidable) for the next patron in line to register books on the account of the previous patron who used the self checkout?
We leave the mouse hooked up and instruct our patrons to be sure to end their own session.
I'm planning to use a cheap touchscreen - would that work as well as the simple interface implies? Best regards /Viktor Sarge Library adviser Regional development council Halland (Sweden) 10 mar 2011 kl. 00:37 skrev "Chris Nighswonger" <cnighswonger@foundations.edu<mailto:cnighswonger@foundations.edu>>: On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Magnus Enger <<mailto:magnus@enger.priv.no>magnus@enger.priv.no<mailto:magnus@enger.priv.no>> wrote: On 9 March 2011 21:14, Joann Ransom <<mailto:jransom@library.org.nz>jransom@library.org.nz<mailto:jransom@library.org.nz>> wrote:
USB keyboards and mice are hot swappable. When we need to leave PCs in public area we log them in, then take away the mouse and keyboard, plugging them back in at the end of the day when its time to log off the PC.
Heh, that is clever! But if there is no mouse, is there any way for patrons to terminate their "session"? Or does their list of borrowed stuff remain on the screen until the page reloads/autoterminates the session (after 120,000 milliseconds, apparently)? And does that not make it possible (not to say unavoidable) for the next patron in line to register books on the account of the previous patron who used the self checkout? We leave the mouse hooked up and instruct our patrons to be sure to end their own session. _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list <http://koha-community.org> http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz<mailto:Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 11:42 PM, <Viktor.Sarge@regionhalland.se> wrote:
I'm planning to use a cheap touchscreen - would that work as well as the simple interface implies?
I see no reason why this would not work. We have tossed around the idea of a touch screen also. Kind Regards, Chris
I hooked up a touchscreen when I got to work and can now report that it does work fine. There are drawbacks though - the buttons are too small to: 1) work well with the low precision on a typical touchscreen monitor 2) communicate the fact that the screen used is actually a touchscreen. Large buttons seem to work better in communicating touchscreen capability – regardless of it´s actual presence (or not). On the bright side is the fact that both these problems can be solved by changing the font-size value in the CSS to something like 230% instead of the original 93%. The relevant file is sco.css. It´s not quite as pretty as a tailor made touchscreen design could be but it works well. Best regards/Viktor Sarge ________________________________ [http://ukfhalland/signaturer/rh1.gif] Viktor Sarge Utvecklingsledare - Digitala biblioteksmiljöer Box 517, 301 80 HALMSTAD | Besöksadress: Kristian IV:s väg 1 Tel direkt: 035-17 98 73 | Mobil: 070-557 47 25 E-post: viktor.sarge@regionhalland.se Webb: www.regionhalland.se<http://www.regionhalland.se/> Från: Chris Nighswonger [mailto:cnighswonger@foundations.edu] Skickat: den 10 mars 2011 06:13 Till: Sarge Viktor RK RU Kopia: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Ämne: Re: [Koha] Koha software based self-check On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 11:42 PM, <Viktor.Sarge@regionhalland.se<mailto:Viktor.Sarge@regionhalland.se>> wrote: I'm planning to use a cheap touchscreen - would that work as well as the simple interface implies? I see no reason why this would not work. We have tossed around the idea of a touch screen also. Kind Regards, Chris
Is anyone out there using the Koha OPAC as a self-checkout station? I ask because I know this can be done with Evergreen (King County Library System is doing it) and it makes a self-check station cost $300 instead of $2000. All they did was tweak the OPAC a bit and put a scanner (or RFID reader) on a low end PC and bingo...self check.
Has anyone tried that?
Hi Lori Koha has a selfcheckout mode, which you can enable and then run Koha in this way too. Chris
Thanks Chris and Magnus! On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 11:57 AM, <chrisc@catalyst.net.nz> wrote:
Is anyone out there using the Koha OPAC as a self-checkout station? I ask because I know this can be done with Evergreen (King County Library System is doing it) and it makes a self-check station cost $300 instead of $2000. All they did was tweak the OPAC a bit and put a scanner (or RFID reader) on a low end PC and bingo...self check.
Has anyone tried that?
Hi Lori
Koha has a selfcheckout mode, which you can enable and then run Koha in this way too.
Chris
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
-- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lori Bowen Ayre // Library Technology Consultant The Galecia Group // www.galecia.com (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre@galecia.com <Lori.Ayre@galecia.com>Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID, filtering, workflow optimization, and materials handling =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 2:57 PM, <chrisc@catalyst.net.nz> wrote:
Is anyone out there using the Koha OPAC as a self-checkout station? I ask because I know this can be done with Evergreen (King County Library System is doing it) and it makes a self-check station cost $300 instead of $2000. All they did was tweak the OPAC a bit and put a scanner (or RFID reader) on a low end PC and bingo...self check.
Has anyone tried that?
Hi Lori
Koha has a selfcheckout mode, which you can enable and then run Koha in this way too.
We run Koha in self-checkout mode on a workstation nearly all of the time. It works a trick. I have some modifications in the queue which need to be rebased against the current master and re-submitted which might interest you as well. http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=5250 Kind Regards, Chris
I've got some code I need to bundle up into a patch that does Self Checkout by login and password, instead of barcode scanning, to give the system an added layer of security. I've been a little swamped, and haven't released this to Koha patches list as soon as I would have liked (it's available in the ByWater repo at http://git.bywatersolutions.com/?p=bywater-koha.git;a=commit;h=5c212fe159e7f..., but may need a rebase). I'll work on rectifying that this month. -Ian 2011/3/9 Chris Nighswonger <cnighswonger@foundations.edu>
On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 2:57 PM, <chrisc@catalyst.net.nz> wrote:
Is anyone out there using the Koha OPAC as a self-checkout station? I ask because I know this can be done with Evergreen (King County Library System is doing it) and it makes a self-check station cost $300 instead of $2000. All they did was tweak the OPAC a bit and put a scanner (or RFID reader) on a low end PC and bingo...self check.
Has anyone tried that?
Hi Lori
Koha has a selfcheckout mode, which you can enable and then run Koha in this way too.
We run Koha in self-checkout mode on a workstation nearly all of the time. It works a trick. I have some modifications in the queue which need to be rebased against the current master and re-submitted which might interest you as well.
http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=5250
Kind Regards, Chris
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-- Ian Walls Lead Development Specialist ByWater Solutions Phone # (888) 900-8944 http://bywatersolutions.com ian.walls@bywatersolutions.com Twitter: @sekjal
I've got some code I need to bundle up into a patch that does Self Checkout by login and password, instead of barcode scanning, to give the system an added layer of security. I've been a little swamped, and haven't released this to Koha patches list as soon as I would have liked (it's available in the ByWater repo at http://git.bywatersolutions.com/?p=bywater-koha.git;a=commit;h=5c212fe159e7f..., but may need a rebase). I'll work on rectifying that this month. -Ian 2011/3/9 Chris Nighswonger <cnighswonger@foundations.edu>
On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 2:57 PM, <chrisc@catalyst.net.nz> wrote:
Is anyone out there using the Koha OPAC as a self-checkout station? I ask because I know this can be done with Evergreen (King County Library System is doing it) and it makes a self-check station cost $300 instead of $2000. All they did was tweak the OPAC a bit and put a scanner (or RFID reader) on a low end PC and bingo...self check.
Has anyone tried that?
Hi Lori
Koha has a selfcheckout mode, which you can enable and then run Koha in this way too.
We run Koha in self-checkout mode on a workstation nearly all of the time. It works a trick. I have some modifications in the queue which need to be rebased against the current master and re-submitted which might interest you as well.
http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=5250
Kind Regards, Chris
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
-- Ian Walls Lead Development Specialist ByWater Solutions Phone # (888) 900-8944 http://bywatersolutions.com ian.walls@bywatersolutions.com Twitter: @sekjal -- Ian Walls Lead Development Specialist ByWater Solutions Phone # (888) 900-8944 http://bywatersolutions.com ian.walls@bywatersolutions.com Twitter: @sekjal
participants (7)
-
Chris Nighswonger -
chrisc＠catalyst.net.nz -
Ian Walls -
Joann Ransom -
Lori Bowen Ayre -
Magnus Enger -
Viktor.Sarge＠regionhalland.se