[Koha] Having more than one 'barcode' for an item

[James Weinheimer]

I've had a lot of experience with barcodes and accessions numbers. One thing
I have discovered is that there is normally no reason to have more than one
unique number for a physical item. When you start trying to maintain 2, 3, 4
or more unique numbers for an item, it becomes terribly confusing and a lot
of work. When you begin a new system, you should seriously reconsider your
old methods to discover if some of the old ways become obsolete. Computer
technology (RDBMS, XML, and so on) make many old methods unnecessary, or
even worse.

Once you start to barcode--which is a unique number, I think there will be
little reason to continue the accessions numbers. I have discovered that
this can be very difficult for staff to accept, but maintaining multiple
unique numbers is even more difficult in the long run. If the purpose of the
accessions numbers is to maintain good lists of what is coming in and how
they are processed, an RDBMS that can provide information that is just as
good or better than that from accessions numbers.

Barcoding should not be seen only as more work. They can take the place of
old processes as well. And if you are definitely going to barcode, then it
should begin as soon as possible, since everything you do today will need a
barcode sooner or later. It's easy to put a barcode on an item while you
process it, but believe me: afterwards, it becomes *very difficult!*.

Regards,
Jim

James Weinheimer  j.weinheimer at aur.edu
Director of Library and Information Services
The American University of Rome
via Pietro Roselli, 4
00153 Rome, Italy
voice- 011 39 06 58330919 ext. 327
fax-011 39 06 58330992
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-
> bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Kevin O'Rourke
> Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 11:10 AM
> To: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> Subject: [Koha] Having more than one 'barcode' for an item
> 
> Is it possible to have more than one barcode for an item?
> 
> Our library currently does not have barcode scanners, but will in the
> future.  I don't want to make the staff have to enter long barcode
> numbers now, so I'm thinking of just using our (unique per item)
> accession numbers instead.
> 
> However, when we do eventually change over to barcoding it would be nice
> to be able to either enter the accession number OR scan the barcode.
> 
> Similarly for members it would be convenient to have short numbers for
> manual entry as well as barcodes.
> 
> Is this possible with Koha 2.2.8?  I see the 952p MARC field is shown as
> non-repeatable, so I'm assuming it's not.
> 
> Kevin
> --
> Kevin O'Rourke
> ICT Coordinator, National Teachers' Institute, Kaduna, Nigeria
> 062 316972
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