[Koha] Barcodes with leading zeros and spaces

[Steve Campbell]

Hi, Lori,

We had a similar barcode problem. Our library has two different barcode patterns, and we needed a way to canonicalize them for Koha. 

Our solution was to buy a new optical scanner that was programmable. For under US$200 we purchased a Symbol LS2208 barcode scanner. It supports a programming capability called Advanced Data Formatting. You can program the scanner to recognize certain character strings, for example "p 000" and either scan or skip following characters. There is almost no limit to what you can program the thing to handle. Now Koha never "sees" the barcode variants. The new scanner is also more sensitive and accurate than our old one.

Steve Campbell
Converse Free Library
Lyme, New Hampshire, US


On May 30, 2012, at 12:46 PM, Lori Bowen Ayre wrote:

> Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 09:45:54 -0700
> From: Lori Bowen Ayre <lori.ayre at galecia.com>
> To: Nora Blake <Nblake at masslibsystem.org>
> Cc: Koha List <koha at lists.katipo.co.nz>
> Subject: Re: [Koha] Barcodes with leading zeros and spaces
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAEJpJYUi37thJceioNMtEKWx=qirvtYgfO67uFt3kot4mwGFVQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> Thanks All.  This is useful.  I'll forward all the suggestions on to the
> library that had these questions!  Much appreciated.
> 
> Lori