You can do direct entry, which would have the advantage for your student workers of taking longer. However, the clear advantage a barcode scanner has it that it reduces transcription errors -- which is extremely important for item barcodes. If a typo is made in one of those, you might not find out until at the circ desk when it will look like the item isn't in the system.
Elaine J. Elaine Hardy PINES Bibliographic Projects and Metadata Manager Georgia Public Library Service, A Unit of the University System of Georgia 1800 Century Place, Suite 150 Atlanta, Ga. 30345-4304 404.235-7128 404.235-7201, fax [email protected] www.georgialibraries.org http://www.georgialibraries.org/pines/ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of G. T. Stresen-Reuter Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 7:31 AM To: Evergreen Discussion Group Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Bar Code Readers, ISBN, and Amazon On Mar 14, 2012, at 9:30 PM, Joel Harbottle wrote: > If you have a barcode reader, your librarian just scans the barcode > and it immediately reads and registers the barcode on the computer, > because a barcode reader just acts like a normal keyboard connected to a computer. Yeah.... that's all very true but I'm in a somewhat financially strained environment and even expenses as small as that (even buying one used) are sometimes subject to scrutiny and denied, so I was just sort of exploring the alternatives. Also, we have students who will probably end up doing a fair amount of the data entry and they won't care how long it takes ;-) (they'll thank me for making it take longer!) Anyway, I completely agree and am already looking around for a reasonable solution. Thanks for the ideas! Ted
