Hi again......most/all libraries here use "codabar" or "code39" symbologies for both patrons &/or collection....after all, the bar-code is only a numerical record number for each book/patron.....so within any circulation system
Monday, June 30, 2003 19:50 CDT Further to what Cliver correctly noted ... If one uses MARC21, in tag 852, one of the non-prescribed subfields is sometimes used to contain the significant digits of a bar code (in most collections between 4 and 6 at the end of a bar code, excluding the last, which is a check digit). In Athena, which I used in a school library, I believe it was $w. In other systems, I have seen it in 090 and 949 fields (system specified). So we'll all know, can someone from the development end tell us how/where Koha is storing this info? Steven F. Baljkas Koha neophyte Winnipeg MB CANADA cliver <cliver@alphalink.com.au> wrote: there
would be a 'data field' for that 'number'/record. At least ...that's my understanding.....all the best
Clive Robertson EAS services....Melbourne, Australia
Elizabeth Spruill wrote:
Is there a certain symbology that Koha works with? I've been exploring the website and information, but so far haven't seen that information spelled out anywhere? Thanks so much for your help. Elizabeth
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Hi All! The standard subfield to contain the barcode in the 852 tag of MARC21 is subfield p. (ie. 852 $p). This is used by most Library Management Systems in North America today. It was based on a protocol called MicroLIF that was set up by a group of software providers, book vendors (who supply records with the books they sell) and librarians (The format was approved finally by MARBI which is supposed to do such things ALA, Library of Congress, etc. and originally formulated around 1991 for transmitting MARC records on diskette.) Many proprietary Library automation systems have used barcode symbologies that required you to purchase barcodes from the software vendor (to provide an additional revenue stream for them, perhaps). Codabar and Code 39 (also known as Code 3 of 9) have been commonly used, as well as Interleave 2 of 5 as symbologies. To keep things simple, I'd suggest you use Code 39, which is an alpha-numeric symbology that may allow you to incorporate your library holding symbol as part of your barcode, thus making the numbers unique to your own collection. (e.g.. One library near me has a National Library of Canada Holding Symbol or Collection Code of QMsb. They are using barcodes starting with QMSB000001. It does help to uniquely identify where the books come from). You can also put an alpha indicator in the Patron barcodes so you don't mix them up. (In early days we used the same barcodes for books and patrons, and it became possible to check patrons out to books if you scanned barcodes in the wrong order!!) I'd further suggest that you use the simplest form of the code without check digit. This means that you don't have to have some code in the program that recognizes the type of barcode and further decodes it so that the value returned to the computer when the barcode is scanned is the same as the value stored in the record. I have had many problems, and some collections had to be completely rebarcoded, when a library needed to change software because they used a special code that had a special algorithm included, and the number you got back from scanning the barcode was not the same as the value you had in your record. By doing this, you should have no problem using any keyboard wedge type scanner with koha, or any other type of software that comes along later. (Not that you'll ever need to change because koha will meet all our needs eventually!! ;-) ) My two cents worth! Regards, Al Calame Librarian-at-Large, Albert P. Calame Consulting Montreal, Québec, Canada 514-745-3424 albert.p.calame@sympatico.ca ----- Original Message ----- From: <baljkas@mb.sympatico.ca> To: "cliver" <cliver@alphalink.com.au>; <espruill@rmsel.org> Cc: <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz>; <baljkas@mb.sympatico.ca> Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 8:52 PM Subject: Re: [Koha] Bar code scanners
Monday, June 30, 2003 19:50 CDT
Further to what Cliver correctly noted ...
If one uses MARC21, in tag 852, one of the non-prescribed subfields is sometimes used to contain the significant digits of a bar code (in most collections between 4 and 6 at the end of a bar code, excluding the last, which is a check digit). In Athena, which I used in a school library, I believe it was $w.
In other systems, I have seen it in 090 and 949 fields (system specified). So we'll all know, can someone from the development end tell us how/where Koha is storing this info?
Steven F. Baljkas Koha neophyte Winnipeg MB CANADA
Hi again......most/all libraries here use "codabar" or "code39" symbologies for both patrons &/or collection....after all, the bar-code is only a numerical record number for each book/patron.....so within any circulation system
cliver <cliver@alphalink.com.au> wrote: there
would be a 'data field' for that 'number'/record. At least ...that's my understanding.....all the best
Clive Robertson EAS services....Melbourne, Australia
Elizabeth Spruill wrote:
Is there a certain symbology that Koha works with? I've been exploring the website and information, but so far haven't seen that information spelled out anywhere? Thanks so much for your help. Elizabeth
_______________________________________________ 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
Hi All!
The standard subfield to contain the barcode in the 852 tag of MARC21 is subfield p. (ie. 852 $p). This is used by most Library Management Systems in North America today. It was based on a protocol called MicroLIF that was set up by a group of software providers, book vendors (who supply records with the books they sell) and librarians (The format was approved finally by MARBI which is supposed to do such things ALA, Library of Congress, etc. and originally formulated around 1991 for transmitting MARC records on diskette.) Many proprietary Library automation systems have used barcode symbologies that required you to purchase barcodes from the software vendor (to provide an additional revenue stream for them, perhaps). Codabar and Code 39 (also known as Code 3 of 9) have been commonly used, as well as Interleave 2 of 5 as symbologies. To keep things simple, I'd suggest you use Code 39, which is an alpha-numeric symbology that may allow you to incorporate your library holding symbol as part of your barcode, thus making the numbers unique to your own collection. (e.g.. One library near me has a National Library of Canada Holding Symbol or Collection Code of QMsb. They are using barcodes starting with QMSB000001. It does help to uniquely identify where the books come from). You can also put an alpha indicator in the Patron barcodes so you don't mix them up. (In early days we used the same barcodes for books and patrons, and it became possible to check
out to books if you scanned barcodes in the wrong order!!) I'd further suggest that you use the simplest form of the code without check digit. This means that you don't have to have some code in the
that recognizes the type of barcode and further decodes it so that the value returned to the computer when the barcode is scanned is the same as the value stored in the record. I have had many problems, and some collections had to be completely rebarcoded, when a library needed to change software because they used a special code that had a special algorithm included, and the number you got back from scanning the barcode was not
Thanks for the good information, Albert. Could someone please clarify if it is possible to turn off the checksum algorithm in koha for item barcodes so that we can do as Albert suggests and use barcodes without a checksum digit? I see a setting for checkdigit in system preferences, but the description seems to indicate it affects only the member number. There is another setting in system preferences for autoBarcode. Could someone please explain what that does? Does that just automatically generate the next number in sequence using koha's algorithm as you add new items? Thanks, Rob ----- Original Message ----- From: "Albert P. Calame" <albert.p.calame@sympatico.ca> To: <baljkas@mb.sympatico.ca>; "cliver" <cliver@alphalink.com.au>; <espruill@rmsel.org> Cc: <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 11:25 PM Subject: Re: [Koha] Bar code scanners patrons program the
same as the value you had in your record. By doing this, you should have no problem using any keyboard wedge type scanner with koha, or any other type of software that comes along later. (Not that you'll ever need to change because koha will meet all our needs eventually!! ;-) )
My two cents worth!
Regards, Al Calame
Librarian-at-Large, Albert P. Calame Consulting Montreal, Québec, Canada
514-745-3424 albert.p.calame@sympatico.ca
participants (3)
-
Albert P. Calame -
baljkas＠mb.sympatico.ca -
Rob & Janet Weir