[Koha] Need some answers about bar-codes

[Bigwood, David]

Deborah,

It is customary for libraries to start patron barcodes with a 2 and
materials with a 3. 

If purchasing barcodes, test to see how well your equipment reads them.
Ask for samples and then scan them 100 or 1000 times and see the number
of misreads and skips. We bought one batch of barcodes that have the
bars closer together and they misread or are skipped much more often
than our other barcodes. We regret that purchase every inventory.

If you purchase the barcodes you can get dumb or smart ones. For smart
barcodes you send off your MARC records to a vendor. They then produce
barcodes for each item. They add the barcode number to the record. You
then reload the records. And go around the library finding the items and
placing the barcodes on them. Dumb barcodes are not linked; you put the
barcode on an item, call up the record and enter the barcode number in
the system.

Before doing any of this the best 1st step is to weed the collection. No
sense spending time and money on worthless items.

Sincerely,
David Bigwood
dbigwood at gmail.com
Catalogablog
http://catalogablog.blogspot.com

-----Original Message-----
From: koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz
[mailto:koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of doybia at gmavt.net
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 4:06 PM
To: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
Subject: [Koha] Need some answers about bar-codes

I'm part of a group of libraries in Vermont who are in the process of
moving to Koha. Most of the other libraries are already automated, but a
few of us are still on card catalogs, so we are starting from scratch.

Here are the questions:
1)I've moved some of my marc records into Koha, but the bar code
generator
in Koha doesn't work for me. Does anyone know what will make this work
so
I could print my own?

2)If printing my own won't work, I can afford to go and buy barcodes,
but
I need to know if Koha has any specs on barcodes. Will any convenient
variety work, or do I have to do something standard, and if so, what?

3)If I do go and buy barcodes and apply them to my books, how do I link
the barcode to the marc record?

4)How about the barcodes for the patron cards? We'll be importing the
patron records eventually (they are currently in an Excel spreadsheet)
and
they'll need to have barcodes attached, too. I assume they should be
different from the book barcodes. At our meeting today I was told to
start
the Patron barcodes with P and the Book barcodes with B, which seems
simple enough. Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Deborah

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