Barcode searching in webopac

[Elizabeth Thomsen <et@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I know that this has been discussed before, and I've read previous 
messages by Corey and Mieko and others on this topic, but it's an issue 
that we're revisiting and I'm finding myself somewhat unsatisfied with 
the way things work.

The reason that we're interested enabling barcode searching is primarily 
so we can create booklists that link by barcode.  We do lots of linked 
booklists, using various types of links: title, ISBN, keyword, record 
number, etc.  There are good and bad things about all of these types of 
links, but we'd like to be able to add linking by barcode to our 
repetoire.  And we also want to have staff be able to do barcode 
searching.  There should be no harm in having patrons search this way, 
although there may be little benefit.

We've looked at the issue of patron barcodes being found in the same 
index, and as far as we can see, this only identifies the existence of a 
particular barcode, and doesn't display any information from the patron 
record.  Our patrons can only access their records if they have been 
issued an individual PIN, so we don't see this as a security issue.

However, we do see one weird thing.  On the screen that you get when you 
search a patron barcode, there is a Request button.  If you click on 
that, you end up placing a bib level hold on the bib record whose record 
number corresponds to the patron number.  In other words, the p number 
is read as a b number, and you've placed a hold on a bib.  Now, I'm not 
sure how often this will happen, and it would only happen if someone 
sees that the system can search by barcode, tries a patron barcode, and 
then tries placing a hold just to see what happens.  (After all, the 
idea of allowing patrons to place holds on other patrons is rather an 
intriguing one!)

Has anyone had this happen?  Any ideas on how to offer barcode searching 
without allowing the system to find patron barcodes?

-- 
Elizabeth Thomsen, Member Services Manager
NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange
Danvers MA 01923
et@xxxxxxxxxx