Odyssey (Library System) / Andrew

[Jonathan]

The link works fine for me.

[MJ]

MJ - are you getting this error on following the link from this forum or from a page on the actual demo - because it is working fine from this end.

There should be an error number such as 404 etc near the bottom of that page - if one is there - please post it.

Error: Cannot find server or DNS Error

[Andrew]

I'm sorry to say that it is working fine for everyone else and I suspect it may be something to do with your internet connection configuration.

If it works for everyone else but not for you there really isn't much option. I suggest contacting your ISP.

[MJanofsky]

Andrew,
It was my browser. It works fine on my other computer! This looks great! Competition for things like Spectrum. Thanks again
MJ

[peachey13]

will the system use the dewry decimal system to stort books out.

----------------------------E.G.-------------------------------
e.g. i'm pretty shure that pets is like so 006.???---------
----------------------------E.G.-------------------------------

thank you in advance,
peachey111213

[Andrew]

it's Dewey Decimal, and Odyssey won't explicitly support it. Not everyone uses this system but nearly ever single application I've used supported a "Call Number" which will be the same in Odyssey, if you checked out the screenshots on page 1 you would see this.

The problem with dewey decimal is you actually need to pay a license fee to use it. Odyssey will not automatically assign dewey decimal numbers - you have to find out what they are or will be and enter them.

Pet's would actually be classified in the 600-699 series, as pet care is an art. If the title was not directly related to petcare it may be classified under sciences in the 500-599 series.

Once the first 3 digits of the DD number are decided - it can be more accurately defined by the addition of decimal numbers to the end - but I've never classified items as deep as this since I never owned a copy of the DD classification scheme.

[peachey13]

When will this thred be moved off into the off topic section as it has nothing to do with pos.



thanks in advance,
peachey111213

[Andrew]

The original purpose of Dale's forum was to discuss educational software. I consider Odyssey to be educational software, so feel it is fine here - as long as it remains within this one thread it takes up little space.

The off-topic forum is for all the random questions and posts we were getting recently which in my view, were not seen to be related in any way to educational software.

[Guest]

On being able to distinguish between patrons and items, many libraries identify them by their starting number.

I.E.
"2" Patrons - "29653" Bill Gates
"3" Items - "32546" Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

[Andrew]

Odyssey won't care what numbers you use, as shown in the screenshots there are seperate fields for entering either numbers.

If I've learnt anything from programming and from being around here with Dale programming DHPOS - it is, not to try and save users from themselves, if people want to use the same numbers for books as they use for borrowers - sobeit.

[ChrisKraus]

Okay, Let Me Try To Explain The 2 and 3 Thing. You Can Type In Patron and Item Numbers in The Same Field without having them idenified with 2 and 3. With library systems, there are 2 different kinds of numbering methods used.
1. The Incremential Method
2. The Standard Libary Method (There Is A Correct Name For This, I Just Don't Know It)

The Incremential Method Doesn't care if its a Patron or an Item, It searches through BOTH databases. When Assigning Numbers, It starts at 1 and goes up by 1 when assigning numbers.

FOR EXAMPLE:

Code: Select all

1-Patron: Andrew Bunn
2-Item: PC's For Dummies
3-Patron: Dale Harris
4-Item: Mac's Are Good Too
5-Patron: Chris Kraus

The Standard Libary Method:

First, Lets Look At The Format Of The Number:

Code: Select all

# #### ##### ####
I AAAA AAAAA AAAA

I = Identifier (2 or 3)
    2 = Patron
    3 = Item
A = Any Number

With The Standard Method, You Could Still Go Up By 1, and You Can Still Have 1 Text Field. But The Databases Wouldn't be as connected as above. It Would Be More Like Below.

Code: Select all

2 0000 00000 0001-Patron: Andrew Bunn
2 0000 00000 0002-Patron: Dale Harris
2 0000 00000 0003-Patron: Chris Kraus

Code: Select all

3 0000 00000 0001-Item: PC's For Dummies
3 0000 00000 0002-Item: Mac's Are Good Too

So As You See, You Would Need Two Sets of Incremential Numbers.

Bye For Now,
Chris

[Andrew]

No, as you would see Chris I have used two different fields in the circulation screen to avoid this kind of hassle.

One will search the borrowers, the other will search the items. This is how all systems I've seen minus one work and it seems to work just fine.

[anabus_maximus cookiedead]

I'm pretty sure if you're library is so busy that you have to have that much efficency, there's a better solution

[bdude]

In NSW Schools (Australia), the library system is an old DOS Creation , OASIS. In the library circulation module, you can do it like this:

SCAN CARD
SCAN BOOKS
SCAN NEXT CARD
SCAN BOOKS...
without having to press {esc} between borrowers. This works as Patron barcodes start with B and Resources with R.

[Guest]

In NSW Schools (Australia), the library system is an old DOS Creation , OASIS. In the library circulation module, you can do it like this:

SCAN CARD
SCAN BOOKS
SCAN NEXT CARD
SCAN BOOKS...
without having to press {esc} between borrowers. This works as Patron barcodes start with B and Resources with R.

Same in WA (Australia), but mainly with an old dos program called BOOKMARK