Malcolm,
Our patron barcodes are printed on centrally produced university cards and if lost the replacements have a new barcode printed on them (for
security reasons). We decided to keep the old barcode on file (marked "lost" or similar) in these cases and add the new one as it can be
helpful sometimes to have the old ones present.
Our student records system outputs the full list of student records for us (and other departments) every day. Our Computer Services
department has written a program which checks the latest full file against the previous full file and establishes which records have been
changed or added in the new file. The program then produces a library file suitable for loading into Innopac. All new records include the
barcode (of course). In cases where the patron barcode has changed, the new barcode is included in the file destined for Innopac. (We also
get a report each day of cases where the barcode has changed so we can mark the old ones appropriately.) Where the barcode has not changed
but other relevant elements of the record have changed, the barcode is not included in the record which will be loaded into Innopac. Where
there are no relevant changes at all to a record, that record is not included in the Innopac load file on that day.
This achieves what we want without duplicating any barcodes. We don't need to apply any protection to the barcode field, and at the same
time we are able to keep all our old barcodes on file.
Best wishes,
Anne
Sheffield Hallam
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: M.G. Taggart [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 28 October 2000 10:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Duplicate barcodes
Just wondered if anyone else had experienced problems with the automatic
creation of duplicate patron barcodes as partially described below.
We import our student patron records from "Academic Affairs", a Keele admin.
dept. Whereas other data changes are overlaid correctly, the patron barcode
field, which does not require updating, is being duplicated in a new field.
When a reader wishes to place a hold for example, Innopac goes into a tizz
as it does not know which of the duplicate p.barcodes to select!
Malcolm Taggart, Keele
Forwarded message:
> From lia08 Mon Oct 23 16:50:21 2000
> Subject: Duplicate barcode
> To: [log in to unmask] (Graham Woodruff)
> Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 16:50:21 +0100 (BST)
> X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3]
> Content-Length: 620
>
> Graham,
> Another instance of a duplicate patron barcode field causing
> problems, this time with a hold for Tracey Elder: failed to find matching
> hold in .p10036155 and .i4893897. The due date says ERROR. I have deleted
> the duplicate barcode and thus been able to place a valid hold on an
> AVAILABLE item. However, I cannot delete the invalid hold ... Norman thinks
> there is a weakness in the patron records update software which allows the
> creation of a duplicate p. barcode field instead of overlaying or simply
> leaving well alone when there is no change. I came across one patron record
> with 7 duplicates!
> Malcolm
>
>
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