[Koha] Unique Barcodes across branches

[Jason Robb]

There's some magic in bug 7676
<http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=7676> that
provides a solution for this but it isn't built into Koha because it's
somewhat incomplete and there are doubts and limitations surrounding it.
You can read about those in the bug discussion.

Re-barcoding everything is ideal but it wasn't an option for us either. We
were one of those consortia that *had *to have this functionality to be
able to operate. It works for our specific situation.

How it works for us:
Library A  has a prefix of 34311, Book A has a physical barcode of 12345
Library B has a prefix of 34322, Book B has a physical barcode of 12345

When libraries are migrated into our catalog, legacy barcodes are modified
to include the library's prefix and enough zeroes to bring to barcodes to
14 digits. So as far as Koha is concerned, Book A has a barcode of
34311000012345 and Book B has a barcode of 34322000012345. The physical
labels on the items are still 5-digit barcodes that are identical.

When someone logged in as Library A checks in/out Book A, the 34311 is
pre-appended, followed by enough zeroes to bring it up to 14 digits,
resulting in: 34311000012345.

Likewise, when someone logged in as Library B checks in/out Book B, the
34322 is pre-appended, followed by enough zeroes to bring it up to 14,
resulting in: 34322000012345.

The major/most important thing is that any items departing one library for
another *must *be re-barcoded, that's a consortia-wide policy. If Book A
makes it to Library B with an old 5-digit barcode, it pre-appends Library
B's prefix instead of Library A's prefix resulting in a transaction of the
wrong item. With 41 libraries slinging items back and forth things only
slip through very rarely, and we've taught our libraries how to manually
pre-append barcodes to keep things moving should an item with a legacy
barcode arrive.

Jason Robb
SEKnFind Coordinator
jrobb at sekls.org


On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 9:54 AM, Jeramey Valley <valleyj at bcreek.org> wrote:

> Looking more for confirmation here....
>
> Multiple "independent" branches still require unique barcodes for each
> item, correct?
>
> I was under the incorrect assumption that there would be behind-the-scenes
> magic that would tie barcodes to their home library/location and so there
> could be the same barcode in use at multiple branches, each for a different
> item.
>
> As in:
>
> Library 400
> Book A, barcode 2001
>
> Library 500
> Book B, barcode 2001
>
> I was looking forward to having one install with a shared catalog, patron
> database and other "one stop management" functions.
>
> --
>
> Regards,
>
> Jeramey Valley
> Network Manager, Bullock Creek Schools
> valleyj at bcreek.org
>
>
>
>
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