[Koha] New to KOHA

[Stephen Hedges]

Marie Wardall said:
[...]
> *Barcodes-Our current barcodes are 5 digits long with a leading T for a
> material barcode and a leading P for a patron barcode.

Joshua noted that Nelsonville Public Library still uses the Follett patron
barcodes, so I can give you some extra information here.

Follett uses Interleaved 2-of-5 symbology in their barcodes, but the
scanned codes are then manipulated by their system so the user only sees a
"T" or a "P" and no more than five digits.  If you scan these barcodes
with a non-Follett scanner in a text editor, you will see that the
barcodes are actually always 10 digits long:  the visible digits (no "T"
or "P") with leading zeros to pad the number to 7 digits, plus three more
digits that tell the Follett software a little more about the barcode
(such as if it is a "T"itle or a "P"atron barcode).  For example, if the
Follet library card had the number "P 1234" printed on it, an
off-the-shelf scanner would read something like "0001234999."

Most vendors of barcode scanners know how to program their products for
Follett systems, so they can sell to schools that use Follett.  Those same
vendors can help you program your scanners to simply remove the last three
digits.  Then the barcode example above would look like "0001234" when
scanned into Koha.  Staff quickly get used to making this conversion in
their heads if they need to type in a number manually.  Works fine.  (But
don't expect the Follett folks to help you with the scanner programming,
of course!)

-- 
Stephen Hedges
Skemotah Solutions, USA
www.skemotah.com  --  shedges at skemotah.com