[Koha] Need Barcode Wisdom

[Steve Campbell]

Hi, Gwyan,

Did you check out the barcode input filters available in Koha? You can select one by changing the itemBarcodeInputFilter preference. It's possible one of these filters will solve your problem. It's easy to try them.

What is the make and model of your new scanner?

Steve Campbell
Trustee, Converse Free Library, Lyme, New Hampshire, US

On Mar 8, 2012, at 8:42 PM, Gwyan Rhabyt wrote:

> I'm migrating a small elementary school library from Follett to Koha. All
> has gone well until now. Our problem is a mismatch between the barcodes as
> read by the scanner  which give readings like T 3210 and our biblios in
> Koha which have the codes like T0003210.
> 
> At first I thought it was the Follett 3800 scanner that was dropping the
> zeros, but a new generic scanner reads the same way.
> 
> So what is the easiest fix? I can imagine four but none sound easy:
> 1) Reprogramming the scanner -- seems possible but the manual is written
> for a barcode expert (so many different formats and sub formats) -- how do
> I express the kind of change I want to make in the language of scanner
> firmware?
> 2) Batch changing the biblios from within Koha  -- it seems to support
> batch work but you have to list the items. I can't work out how to make it
> change every single record.
> 3) Batch changing via the MySQL database -- I don't know SQL, so there is a
> serious learning curve
> 4) Going back to the MARC records, massing the barcode field there and then
> reimporting -- I don't know how easy that would be in MarcEdit and I am
> loathe to go that many steps backwards.
> 
> Could anyone provide some wisdom to help?
> 
> Cheers,
> Gwyan
> -- 
> 
> Gwyan Rhabyt
> Associate Professor, Art Dept. and Multimedia Graduate Program
> California State University East Bay
> President of the Board of Trustees, Pacific School District
> gwyan.rhabyt at csueastbay.edu