[Koha] Patron Barcode Question

[Nicole Engard]

So - what if I started with a fresh new system - how do I tell it
where to start?

Nicole

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 12:20 PM, Owen Leonard <oleonard at myacpl.org> wrote:
>> Got a question today that I never thought about before ... but it's a
>> good one -- Where do patron barcodes come from?  How do they know
>> where to start? And how do they know how to increment?
>
> They start from the system you automated with originally, back in
> 1980s. Back then you started with 1 and kept going up. Since then you
> switched to a system that needed patron barcodes to be a fixed length
> number, so you programmed all your barcode scanners to pad the patron
> barcode with zeroes. Now you're using Koha and you can't remember why
> your patron barcodes are in this weird old format. You're buying
> library cards with the numbers pre-printed on them and you have to
> explain to the vendor why you have to do the barcodes that way. And
> you have to struggle to remember how to program every new barcode
> scanner. And you ask yourself... How did I get here?
>
>  -- Owen
>
>
> --
> Web Developer
> Athens County Public Libraries
> http://www.myacpl.org
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