HIT: Winnebago and magazines

[Debra Gniewek <dgniewek@SDP2.PHILSCH.K12.PA.US>]

As a result of my inquiry about Winnebago and magazine circulation, I've
compiled the following responses. Thanks to all! Deb


We have been using the Winnebago system for 7 years now and love it. When
magazines come in, we immediately give them a bar code...inputting the
magazine exactly as we would input a book. We have a special material type
for periodicals. When a student wants to check out a magazine, we simply
read the bar code as we would read a book barcode and stamp the magazine.
(Lynn Evarts)
*************

I circulate magazines using Winnebago  for IBM.  I assign a very large
material number for magazines, so that at inventory time I can exclude
them. Then when assigning barcodes, I type the title of the magazine  and in the
author line I type the year, then month and date:  96 Nov 3. That way when
I want to delete the magazines in 5 years, I can batch delete using 96.That
is the only info I enter for them. I picked up the idea for doing
this at a Winnebago workshop one summer. (Hila Garms)
****************

First I tried barcoding Tyvek envelopes to put the magazines in.  This
meant a "message" with the title and pub date had to be added and then
removed on return.  This worked fine when people handling circulation were
careful, but we began to have too many errors.  So I gave up and now I just
barcode each magazine.  I spent the time to enter several years ahead so as
each issue comes in we just have to peel off the label and put it on the
magazine.  I enter the pub date as author and the material type is
"Periodical."  I didn't do back issues though.  They still have to be done
with the envelope method.  Eventually, through weeding, all will be
barcoded. (Joanne Proctor)
********************

I heard a great idea at a Winnebago workshop.  A librarian across the table
from me said that her aide makes barcode labels for the whole years'
subscription at one time, and puts them in a safe place.  When each issue
comes in, she already has the barcodes made, peels them off and attaches
them to the magazine.  She also said that when her aide gets each issue, she
takes them (I think she's talking about professional journals here) and sits
down at  the computer and calls up that record, and on the subject lines,
she makes subject headings for the articles of interest to the teachers.
Then, they can find them on the card catalog.(Suby Wallace)
**********************
Here's what I do: I have a number of index cards in a box with barcode labels
stuck on them (let's say a range of 50 BCs). In the Winn system, each is
labeled with the title "One-week periodical loan" and is set to check out for
a 7-day period (you can set it to whatever time period you check magazines
out for). When a child checks out a magazine, I make him/her fill out a
little pink slip of paper on which s/he writes: Name, Grade, Name of
periodical and Date of periodical. Then I have a line for due date, which I
stamp and tell the kid how long it can be out (I may start putting plain
labels on the back covers and stamping them with the due dates). At the
bottom of the pink slip it says "DO NOT WRITE BELOW THIS LINE," and then I
have a space for barcode #. I take the slip to the computer, assign it one of
the barcodes from the index cards, and write the barcode number on the pink
slip. That way it can be checked WHICH "one-week periodical" the student has
out by the barcode number.  Then I take the card with the BC on it and put it
in the back of the box under "used barcodes" so I don't try to use the same
number again. After it's checked back in, I replace it back with the other
unused barcoded cards. I have never found a way around the extra paperwork
(the slip of paper) because it seems to be the only way you can keep track of
which issue is out, short of barcoding every issue, which I refuse to do.
Another twist on this is to assign a range of barcodes to a magazine title
(i.e. 20 BCs for TIME; 10 BCs for SEVENTEEN, etc.) and keep them on a rolodex
or in a box. But there's STILL the problem that you don't know which issue is
checked out. When I send overdues and the kid says "what does one-week
periodical loan"  mean?, I look at his/her slip and say, "You checked out
the 11/12/87 issue of Newsweek and it's overdue." Hope this isn't too
difficult to understand. I'd be curious to know if anyone else has found a
way to sidestep the paper part and still know which issue is checked
out.(Jody Gerlock)
******************

We enter all our new magazines and circulate them overnight.
We are now going over the annual process of printing barcodes for the
next years magazines. For about 70 titles, it is taking 2 weeks ,full
time, for my assisstant to enter the information and print out the
barcodes. But this way we will have the bar codes ready whenthe magazines
come in.We didn't go back and barcode the previous years whenwe went onto
Winnabago in 94. We just printedout  some barcodes and we add the titles
to them when someone wants to take out a magazine.(Sharon Hamer)






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Debra Lyman Gniewek                    :dgniewek@sdp2.philsch.k12.pa.us
School District of Philadelphia        :(215) 875-3255
Office of Information Technology       : Visit Our Home Page
734 Schuylkill Ave. - Room 614         : http://www.philsch.k12.pa.us
Philadelphia, PA 19146

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