How to make a list of items by scanning barcodes

This page refers to the Voyager ILS, an Ex Libris product used at the Folger from 1996 to 2022.

For current documentation on using the catalog, see Category:Catalog.
For current documentation on staff use of the ILS, see Category:TIND ILS.

If you need to make a list of a large set of items that are barcoded (e.g., for batch updates, reports, or shelf reading) and you have access to the physical items, you can scan all the barcodes into a file and work from there..

Collect bar codes in a file

First, you need a .txt file that contains bar codes, each on its own line.

Create a new .txt file and save it with a meaningful name. The file must be plain text, and the file name must not contain spaces, SoMakeItCamelCase or Use_underscores_or_dashes so that it's one string.
Open the .txt file on a computer attached to a barcode reader
Use the barcode reader to scan each barcode. Don't worry if you scan the same barcode more than once: it can be deduped later. It's better to risk duplication than to risk skipping one.

To make a list from the file of barcodes

If you need to generate a list of titles, call numbers, or whatever from the barcodes, use MS Access Voyager Reports:

Import the list of barcodes to a new table
Use that table to build a query with the ITEM_BARCODE table as the match point. Remember that barcodes are stored in the item record, not the holdings record, so you'll need to link several tables together before you can get to call number (from MFHD_MASTER) or title (from BIB_TEXT)

To change data based on the file of barcodes

There are two built-in ways to make bulk changes in Voyager:

Global Data Change: allows changes to Bib and Holdings records (anything in MARC can be added, removed, or altered)
Pick-and-Scan: allows changes to Item records (e.g., item type, location, status) and bulk suppress/unsuppress of Bib and Holdings records

Please see the Head of Collection Information Services for log-in information and instructions