Our migration to Koha is going well. One issue we've hit is that a portion of our barcodes have "extra" characters in the bar code. For example, one book has a bar code that physically displays "T 9568" and when read by a bar code scanner it is shown as "00095680023"; the bar code in Koha is 9568 and when the librarian deals with the item, the bar code to them is just 9568. So when it is scanned, Koha can not find the item. If 9568 is manually keyed in, it is found. In our old circulation system, there were rules set up in the software to drop those leading zeros as well as the trailing characters. I've not found where this feature exists in Koha. Hopefully I've just missed it. Previous discussion on this mailing list that I could find indicated that it was not a feature, but that discussion was on previous versions. We are on 3.16.04.000 under Debian. Producing new bar code labels is the ultimate solution, but with >5000 books to do per library, it's not an immediate solution for us. Our new, cheaper, bar code readers do not appear to have the ability to modify the barcode output that it is reading. I'm still researching our older bar code readers to see if they do have that ability (finding the manuals for the old ones is a bit trickier). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. -- Regards, Jeramey Valley Network Manager, Bullock Creek Schools valleyj@bcreek.org
Hi, On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 9:48 AM, Jeramey Valley <valleyj@bcreek.org> wrote:
Producing new bar code labels is the ultimate solution, but with >5000 books to do per library, it's not an immediate solution for us.
Our new, cheaper, bar code readers do not appear to have the ability to modify the barcode output that it is reading. I'm still researching our older bar code readers to see if they do have that ability (finding the manuals for the old ones is a bit trickier).
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Another option would be updating the database so that barcodes stored in the Koha item records match what the scanners emit. Do you happen to know which checkdigit algorithm, if any, is used by your barcodes? Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: gmc@esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web: http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org & http://evergreen-ils.org
We are using 3 of 9, if that is what you were asking regarding check digits, I might be misunderstanding... Thanks for the suggestion of modifying the items in Koha. One of the issues is that we don't know which materials have the "funky" barcodes, so there is no list to pull up and modify in Koha. We don't know until a material is physically examined if it has a regular or modified bar code. The rough guess is that about half of the materials have different bar code formatting. -- Regards, Jeramey Valley Network Manager, Bullock Creek Schools valleyj@bcreek.org On Oct 17, 2014, at 12:54 PM, Galen Charlton <gmc@esilibrary.com> wrote:
Hi,
On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 9:48 AM, Jeramey Valley <valleyj@bcreek.org> wrote:
Producing new bar code labels is the ultimate solution, but with >5000 books to do per library, it's not an immediate solution for us.
Our new, cheaper, bar code readers do not appear to have the ability to modify the barcode output that it is reading. I'm still researching our older bar code readers to see if they do have that ability (finding the manuals for the old ones is a bit trickier).
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Another option would be updating the database so that barcodes stored in the Koha item records match what the scanners emit. Do you happen to know which checkdigit algorithm, if any, is used by your barcodes?
Regards,
Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: gmc@esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web: http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org & http://evergreen-ils.org
Hi, On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 10:14 AM, Jeramey Valley <valleyj@bcreek.org> wrote:
Thanks for the suggestion of modifying the items in Koha. One of the issues is that we don't know which materials have the "funky" barcodes, so there is no list to pull up and modify in Koha. We don't know until a material is physically examined if it has a regular or modified bar code. The rough guess is that about half of the materials have different bar code formatting.
In that case, three other approaches occur to me: [1] Inventory time! [2] Customize the barcodedecode() function in C4/Circulation.pm to add another ItemBarcodeInputFilter mode. Your situation may ore may not be common enough for you to also submit the changes as a patch to the community. Pro: you can munge the barcodes exactly how you need them to. Con: it's a customization to account for each time you upgrade. [3] Write some JavaScript to add to the intranetuserjs system preference to munge item barcode values prior to submitting them to the checkout and checkin forms. Pro: The customization doesn't need to be reapplied after each upgrade, although it may need to be checked in case the structure of the circulation forms changes. Con: May take more time to implement than adding another ItemBarcodeInputFilter mode. Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: gmc@esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web: http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org & http://evergreen-ils.org
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Galen Charlton -
Jeramey Valley