[OPEN-ILS-DEV] How to add a book(s) and DVDs etc?

[Karen Collier]

Here's another use case, from a public library newly live on Evergreen....  :)

When we imported a batch of marc records into our former ILS, it would assign them temporary barcodes so that they would immediately show up in the catalog with a status of On Order for patrons to place holds.  There were import profiles set up so that if a marc record was imported more than once, it would make multiple copies, and depending on which profile was used during import, it would assign those copies to their appropriate branches.

When the books actually came in, our cataloger would update the records to include the actual barcodes that shipped with the books, any needed changes to the marc record or holdings would be made, and the books would be checked in, making them available.

In our case, the barcode itself is unimportant and could just as easily be entered when the book arrives.  It's making the record appear in the catalog for patrons to place holds right after import, and (ideally) keeping track of the number of copies and where they're going that would be useful to us.

Karen

Karen Collier
Public Services Librarian
Kent County Public Library
408 High Street
Chestertown, MD 21620
410-778-3636

----- "Jason Etheridge" <jason at esilibrary.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 4:05 PM,  <evergreen at copelan.com> wrote:
> > Has there been any thought (or maybe the functionality is already
> there) to automatically
> > generating a sequential bar code number?   In my case (as maybe is
> with Charlene), I'm cataloging
> > a small collection so will not be actually barcoding the items.  It
> isn't a big deal to keep a
> > offline track of the last number used but it would save some key
> strokes in order to have an
> > option to automatically insert the barcode number.   I'll add it to
> my list of "things I'd like to
> > program" if it hasn't already been discussed.
> 
> There's been mention of it, but we'd really want to find out what the
> use cases actually are (i.e. have this conversation).  Will these
> generated barcodes ever be printed and/or used in an interface like
> Check In or Check Out?  Are they merely placeholders so that a title
> will show up in the catalog, or so that a hold can be requested on a
> title?  Will they get replaced with real barcodes?  Is what you
> really
> want an anonymous count of items associated with a title?  We'd want
> to make sure that auto-generated barcodes were not being used as a
> kludge or workaround for something that could be implemented in a
> better way.
> 
> -- 
> Jason Etheridge
>  | VP, Community Support and Advocacy
>  | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Evergreen Experts
>  | phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
>  | email: jason at esilibrary.com
>  | web: http://www.esilibrary.com