Hi all, Got a question today that I never thought about before ... but it's a good one -- Where do patron barcodes come from? How do they know where to start? And how do they know how to increment? The answer will of course go in the manual for others to learn from. Thanks Nicole
Got a question today that I never thought about before ... but it's a good one -- Where do patron barcodes come from? How do they know where to start? And how do they know how to increment?
They start from the system you automated with originally, back in 1980s. Back then you started with 1 and kept going up. Since then you switched to a system that needed patron barcodes to be a fixed length number, so you programmed all your barcode scanners to pad the patron barcode with zeroes. Now you're using Koha and you can't remember why your patron barcodes are in this weird old format. You're buying library cards with the numbers pre-printed on them and you have to explain to the vendor why you have to do the barcodes that way. And you have to struggle to remember how to program every new barcode scanner. And you ask yourself... How did I get here? -- Owen -- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org
So - what if I started with a fresh new system - how do I tell it where to start? Nicole On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 12:20 PM, Owen Leonard <oleonard@myacpl.org> wrote:
Got a question today that I never thought about before ... but it's a good one -- Where do patron barcodes come from? How do they know where to start? And how do they know how to increment?
They start from the system you automated with originally, back in 1980s. Back then you started with 1 and kept going up. Since then you switched to a system that needed patron barcodes to be a fixed length number, so you programmed all your barcode scanners to pad the patron barcode with zeroes. Now you're using Koha and you can't remember why your patron barcodes are in this weird old format. You're buying library cards with the numbers pre-printed on them and you have to explain to the vendor why you have to do the barcodes that way. And you have to struggle to remember how to program every new barcode scanner. And you ask yourself... How did I get here?
-- Owen
-- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Then there are those of us in Schools in which all students are assigned an ID number. We prefer to use that as it links the student to other services the school provides. If we need to we have printed kindergarten cards using dymo printers but usually by semester the kids know their ID because it is used for everything from Lunch to computer access. For public library folk... always a mystery nengard wrote:
So - what if I started with a fresh new system - how do I tell it where to start?
Nicole
On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 12:20 PM, Owen Leonard <oleonard@myacpl.org> wrote:
Got a question today that I never thought about before ... but it's a good one -- Where do patron barcodes come from? How do they know where to start? And how do they know how to increment?
They start from the system you automated with originally, back in 1980s. Back then you started with 1 and kept going up. Since then you switched to a system that needed patron barcodes to be a fixed length number, so you programmed all your barcode scanners to pad the patron barcode with zeroes. Now you're using Koha and you can't remember why your patron barcodes are in this weird old format. You're buying library cards with the numbers pre-printed on them and you have to explain to the vendor why you have to do the barcodes that way. And you have to struggle to remember how to program every new barcode scanner. And you ask yourself... How did I get here?
-- Owen
-- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org _______________________________________________ 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
-- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/Patron-Barcode-Question-tp27706769p27714284.html Sent from the Koha - Discuss mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Nicole, If you want an identifying sequence of numbers that some barcode symbologies use, there is actually a barcode registry for the usual 4-digit identifying number. Dating back to the early days of CLSI, it is now maintained by Thor <www.thor.com>, the folks that bought Geac and turned it into the Vubis Smart, Integrated Library System. Anyway, they maintain a registry of the 4-digit identifier numbers -- who has what where, etc. Unfortunately and ironically, the registry is still kept in a book and not accessible to anyone except them. You can call 800-765-4658 and submit your desired number. They will check the registry and tell you if the number is already assigned or not and to whom. Given that there are only 9999 unique numbers in this scheme, many numbers are already taken. The original purpose of the registry was to help folks have unique numbers to aid getting ILL items back to the right library. However, we have found that even keeping track of what libraries are using in our state helps, as do barcodes with library names on them that many now use. In our consortium, we starting using the last four digits of the library's SAN number. That won't work nationwide but so far it has worked for us. If a number is in use, you can decide if you are perhaps geographically different enough to go ahead and use that number. And where do patron barcodes come from? From the same place item barcodes come from. You can buy and/or create matching item and patron barcodes once you have your pattern, i.e. patron numbers all start with "2" and item numbers all start with "3", the next four digits are your identifier, then fill 0s as needed for the length of the barcode sequence, the accession number and maybe a check digit. We've found Koha will take pretty much anything. It's the library that needs the pattern and the organization. Don't know if this is TMI but the registry might be useful for some. Best, Becki --- Becki Whitaker Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) 6202 Morenci Trail Indianapolis, IN 46268 317-298-6570 x106 / 800-733-1899 (IN only) / fax: 317-328-2380 whitakerb@mcls.org / www.mcls.org / scion.incolsa.net Nicole Engard wrote:
Hi all,
Got a question today that I never thought about before ... but it's a good one -- Where do patron barcodes come from? How do they know where to start? And how do they know how to increment?
The answer will of course go in the manual for others to learn from.
Thanks Nicole _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
Becki - thanks for all of that!! My question is not so much where do barcodes come from - but how is it that my Koha knows what the next barcode is - who gave it the first barcode to calculate all the others based on? It wasn't me - and if it was I didn't realize I was doing it ;) Nicole On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 1:50 PM, Becki Whitaker <becki@incolsa.net> wrote:
Nicole,
If you want an identifying sequence of numbers that some barcode symbologies use, there is actually a barcode registry for the usual 4-digit identifying number. Dating back to the early days of CLSI, it is now maintained by Thor <www.thor.com>, the folks that bought Geac and turned it into the Vubis Smart, Integrated Library System. Anyway, they maintain a registry of the 4-digit identifier numbers -- who has what where, etc. Unfortunately and ironically, the registry is still kept in a book and not accessible to anyone except them. You can call 800-765-4658 and submit your desired number. They will check the registry and tell you if the number is already assigned or not and to whom. Given that there are only 9999 unique numbers in this scheme, many numbers are already taken.
The original purpose of the registry was to help folks have unique numbers to aid getting ILL items back to the right library. However, we have found that even keeping track of what libraries are using in our state helps, as do barcodes with library names on them that many now use. In our consortium, we starting using the last four digits of the library's SAN number. That won't work nationwide but so far it has worked for us. If a number is in use, you can decide if you are perhaps geographically different enough to go ahead and use that number.
And where do patron barcodes come from? From the same place item barcodes come from. You can buy and/or create matching item and patron barcodes once you have your pattern, i.e. patron numbers all start with "2" and item numbers all start with "3", the next four digits are your identifier, then fill 0s as needed for the length of the barcode sequence, the accession number and maybe a check digit. We've found Koha will take pretty much anything. It's the library that needs the pattern and the organization.
Don't know if this is TMI but the registry might be useful for some.
Best,
Becki
--- Becki Whitaker Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) 6202 Morenci Trail Indianapolis, IN 46268 317-298-6570 x106 / 800-733-1899 (IN only) / fax: 317-328-2380 whitakerb@mcls.org / www.mcls.org / scion.incolsa.net
Nicole Engard wrote:
Hi all,
Got a question today that I never thought about before ... but it's a good one -- Where do patron barcodes come from? How do they know where to start? And how do they know how to increment?
The answer will of course go in the manual for others to learn from.
Thanks Nicole _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
On 24 February 2010 08:10, Nicole Engard <nengard@gmail.com> wrote:
Becki - thanks for all of that!!
My question is not so much where do barcodes come from - but how is it that my Koha knows what the next barcode is - who gave it the first barcode to calculate all the others based on? It wasn't me - and if it was I didn't realize I was doing it ;)
It only assigns you barcodes if you switch that option on. Most libraries I have worked with get pre printed cards, and scan them in when registering a borrower. If you have autoMemberNum on, it will start at 1 and work up, theres nothing much more to it than that.
From the sysprefs "default the card number field on the patron addition screen to the next available card number (for example, if the largest currently used card number is 26345000012941, then this field will default to 26345000012942)."
my $sth = $dbh->prepare( "select max(cast(cardnumber as signed)) from borrowers" ); $sth->execute; my ($result) = $sth->fetchrow; return $result + 1 So to start the largest is null == 0, the next largest is 1, so away it goes. If however you have check digit switched on, it will do something funkier to build cardnumbers. But 99.9% of people won't do that. Chris
Correction! The company is not Thor. The correct information name is Infor, <www.infor.com>. The 800# is correct. I need to use my glasses not just wear them! Best, Becki --- Becki Whitaker Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) 6202 Morenci Trail Indianapolis, IN 46268 317-298-6570 x106 / 800-733-1899 (IN only) / fax: 317-328-2380 whitakerb@mcls.org / www.mcls.org / scion.incolsa.net Becki Whitaker wrote:
Nicole,
If you want an identifying sequence of numbers that some barcode symbologies use, there is actually a barcode registry for the usual 4-digit identifying number. Dating back to the early days of CLSI, it is now maintained by Thor <www.thor.com>, the folks that bought Geac and turned it into the Vubis Smart, Integrated Library System. Anyway, they maintain a registry of the 4-digit identifier numbers -- who has what where, etc. Unfortunately and ironically, the registry is still kept in a book and not accessible to anyone except them. You can call 800-765-4658 and submit your desired number. They will check the registry and tell you if the number is already assigned or not and to whom. Given that there are only 9999 unique numbers in this scheme, many numbers are already taken.
The original purpose of the registry was to help folks have unique numbers to aid getting ILL items back to the right library. However, we have found that even keeping track of what libraries are using in our state helps, as do barcodes with library names on them that many now use. In our consortium, we starting using the last four digits of the library's SAN number. That won't work nationwide but so far it has worked for us. If a number is in use, you can decide if you are perhaps geographically different enough to go ahead and use that number.
And where do patron barcodes come from? From the same place item barcodes come from. You can buy and/or create matching item and patron barcodes once you have your pattern, i.e. patron numbers all start with "2" and item numbers all start with "3", the next four digits are your identifier, then fill 0s as needed for the length of the barcode sequence, the accession number and maybe a check digit. We've found Koha will take pretty much anything. It's the library that needs the pattern and the organization.
Don't know if this is TMI but the registry might be useful for some.
Best,
Becki --- Becki Whitaker Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) 6202 Morenci Trail Indianapolis, IN 46268 317-298-6570 x106 / 800-733-1899 (IN only) / fax: 317-328-2380 whitakerb@mcls.org / www.mcls.org / scion.incolsa.net
Nicole Engard wrote:
Hi all,
Got a question today that I never thought about before ... but it's a good one -- Where do patron barcodes come from? How do they know where to start? And how do they know how to increment?
The answer will of course go in the manual for others to learn from.
Thanks Nicole _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
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participants (6)
-
Becki Whitaker -
Chris Cormack -
David Schuster -
Kathy Rippel -
Nicole Engard -
Owen Leonard