Summary of replies from "Kimberly J. Laird" <LAIRDK@MEDSERV.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU>
--ed.
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
From: Peter Wellburn <pe231pw@admin.nls.uk>
Subject: Barcode readers
To: Lairdk@medserv.east-tenn-st.edu
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 95 11:21:24 GMT
Dear Kimberley
Greetings from a sunny but cold Scotland! Saw your note about scanners and
thought I'd offer you some help. However, I just looked at our scanners and
discovered none has a manufacturer's name on! The only clue is a code SCR-600K.
They are hand-held gun type as opposed to the pens that you swipe across the
codes.
Initially we had quite a few problems which seemed to be caused by colours used
on journal covers. However that no longer seems to be the case. We use the
scanners to call up titles in our catalogue. The scanners access the holdings
records directly so that checkin is quick. We hoped we might be able to checkin
with the scanners but at the moment anyway that isn't possible. It depends on
the information encoded in the barcode.
Our system is VTLS. I believe VTLS are looking at ways of making the scanners
more useful. The cost of the scanners btw was 130 pounds sterling but I have
seen adverts for scanners for about 100 pounds. Don't know how that compares
with US prices.
Hope this may have been of a little help at least. I should add that we
wouldn't be without them - a small price for a really useful little tool!
Amused to see your 'snowy' comment. Here it has been unusually mild - until
yesterday. Last night going home I couldn't believe my eyes to see white flakes
floating down. Winter is upon us again I suppose.
Best wishes
Peter Wellburn
Head of Periodicals - National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
pe231pw@nls.uk
----------------------
From: "Sandra Knowles" <SANDRA@dcsmserver.med.sc.edu>
Organization: School of Medicine
To: "Kimberly J. Laird" <LAIRDK@MEDSERV.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU>
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 10:09:30 EDT
Subject: Re: barcode scanners
Hi,
I'm just getting an inventory started with a handheld barcode reader.
I can't report to you yet on how well it works. The brand we have is
PERCON PT 2000 with a METROLOGIC scanner attached to it. Details
would have to come from our computer guru. We use Library
Information SYstems (LIS) for our online catalog.
Sorry I'm not further along with more info for you. But so far, the
scanning part is going great.
Sandy
*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
Sandra Knowles
Circulation Librarian
School of Medicine Library
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
803-733-3360
Sandra@dcsmserver.med.sc.edu
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
---------------------------
From: DBENTCH@kckpl.lib.ks.us (Dan Bentch)
Organization: KCK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 16:33:57 -0500
Subject: scanners
To: Lairdk@medserv.east-tenn-st.edu
Your info request was forwarded to me..
We have Symbol portable or, as they refer to them, memory scanners.
We have 2 older models and a newer one model LS3063 with the LL500
interface unit.
The 2 older ones have been in service almost 3 years now.. One had a
failure internally and both have had the battery packs replaced. The
one that failed had been dropped at some point and had been going down
hill for a while till it just quit. It cost about $300.00 to get it
fixed..
One is in service 3 days a week on the Bookmobile running our vendors
portable circ. The other unit is currently in use everyday for inventory,
when that is done it make get a bit of a rest..
The new unit is serving as a desk scanner in the serials department, and
is a backup unit to the other older ones..
We are an INLEX library & use Codabar barcodes.
Everyone gripes about the cost of Symbol products, but our experience is
that they work, and work, and work, and....
Our "parent" is the local school district, Symbol gives us GSA pricing,
which helps..
Good luck!
________________________________________
| \
| Dan Bentch dbentch@kckpl.lib.ks.us )
| Microcomputer Services Supervisor (
| Kansas City, Kansas Public Library KC
| 625 Minnesota Ave |
| Kansas City, KS 66101-2805 |
| tel 913-551-3280 x 363 |
| fax 913-551-3221 |
|__________________________________________|
-----------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 13:16:25 -0600 (CST)
From: CARROLL@LUB002.LAMAR.EDU
To: Lairdk@medserv.east-tenn-st.edu
CC: CARROLL@LUB002.LAMAR.EDU
Hi Kimberly,
I'm reply to your post on SEREDIT regarding portable barcode scanners.
I'm Coordinator of Cataloging and Circulation at Lamar University in
Beaumont, Texas. We've recently purchased two units from Symbol
Technologies. Here's the rundown:
Symbol Technologies, Inc.
10333 N.W. Freeway
Suite 100
Houston, TX 77092
(713) 9596-1937
We purchased two scanners for appx. $1700 total. Other stuff, including
cables, power supplies, junction boxes, and charging cradles, ran the
total to appx. $2300 (for two).
We are just starting to use them for both inventory and in-house surveying.
Now if we could just train those students to scan in the right damn order!
We're using DRA and their reports are pretty cruddy. Fortunately, we have
someone in-house who can write lots of code and "adapt" DRA's reports to
the point where they're very useful to us in our projects.
David Carroll
carroll@lub002.lamar.edu
---------------
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 08:25:16 -0800 (PST)
From: Mayer Carol <carolm@osprey.csrv.uidaho.edu>
Sender: Mayer Carol <carolm@osprey.csrv.uidaho.edu>
Reply-To: Mayer Carol <carolm@osprey.csrv.uidaho.edu>
Subject: Re: Videx TimeWand
To: lairdk@medserv.east-tenn-st.edu
We have all our bound and unbound periodicals on one floor with the
exception of Reserve, Special Collection, Index, and Reference titles. We
have 3500 current titles.
We purchased the Videx system in July of 1993 for $950.00. This included
two wands, a recharger for each one, and cable and program for MS DOS.
We made a database in dBase III for all of our current titles that
include fields for budget number, department, title, subscription price
(if not a gift), notes (if it is a gift, we put "GIFT" in this field),
call number, and barcode. We purchased barcodes and shelf label holders
(we attached the barcodes to these and placed them by the current shelf
titles) in 1994. We actually got the whole program running in August of
1994. We try to walk around the floor and retrieve current issues at
least five times a day (our summer office hours are M-Th 7:30 a.m. -
8:00 p.m. and F 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. with no weekend hours). When we
reshelve these issues we use the wands to scan the barcode, once for each
issue. Videx transfers the number of times scanned to our database.
>From the database, we can generate reports to tell us which titles are
not being used or which titles of a certain department are being used and
how often or what are our 100 most heavily used titles or ... the list is
endless. We also generate monthly and yearly statistics from this
database. Our error rate on the wands reading the barcode correctly or
the reshelver corectly using the wands varies from 0.3%-4.0%.
As far as the library system we use, I have very little, make that no,
knowledge about it. I asked one of our serial persons and, if you mean
the system we use to check in periodicals, we use Microlinx.
I hope this answers at least some of your questions. Please contact me
if I fuddled you or if you have any other questions. If I cannot answer
them, I will admit it quickly but ask around here to try and get you some
kind of answer.
SPUDS FOREVER!!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Carol Mayer Periodicals Service Center
Phone: (208)885-5831 Univerisity of Idaho Library
Fax: (208)885-6817 Moscow, Idaho 83843
carolm@osprey.csrv.uidaho.edu
!!Free the Bound Periodicals!!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
--------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 14:55:08 -0600 (CST)
From: Webster Library <webster@nslsilus.org>
Subject: Re: barcode scanners
To: "Kimberly J. Laird" <LAIRDK@MEDSERV.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU>
We are using Videx TimeWand System to take inventory. Its the size of a
credit card and holds about 3-5 sections of stacks (books in stacks)
before you have to download to the database program.
Their phone # in 1987 was (503) 758-0521 1105 NE Circle Blvd.,
Corvallis, Oregon 97330.
We use DataTrek - which works well for this feature. We also have Percon
light pens for Circulation processes.
We purchased these around 1989 so our pricing would be totally useless for
you.
Linda Feinberg
Webster Library, Evanston Hospital
webster@nslsilus.org (708) 570-2651
(708) 570-2926 FAX
------
On Thu, 16 Nov 1995, Kimberly J. Laird wrote:
> If anyone out there is using a portable barcode scanning
> wand to check browses, take inventory, etc., please contact me
> offlist.
> We need to know the type, model, and cost of the barcode
> scanning equipment AND the library software you use <NOTIS,
> GEAC, Unicorn, etc>.
>
> Kimberly J. Laird
> Technical Services Librarian//Quillen College of Medicine
> East Tennessee State University
> Lairdk@medserv.east-tenn-st.edu
