To hear the beeps or not?

by Ed Veal on Dec 19, 2014

As most if not all of you are aware Koha has a variety of sounds that are activated by different functions within Koha. There are chimes for holds and a pretty standard beep for checking out. Now with the new speedier circulation updates having these sounds turned on is important (soundon system preference).

With the old checkout procedure staff would scan an item and hear the beep provided by the scanner, then they would watch the screen for the circulation to appear on the checkout table. Then they would proceed on to the next item. The screen provided visual cues as to when to scan the next item.

Now with the new checkout functionality if you have chosen to not “Show Checkouts‚Äù you will not see the table listing all of the patrons checkouts. Combining this with the “Processing‚Äù message that appears and being told that you can scan the next item while this processing message is still on the screen has caused some confusion.

One way to help clear up the confusion staff is experiencing is to turn on the Koha sounds. With the sound activated the staff will first hear the beep from the scanner indicating that the scanner has read the barcode. This does not indicate that Koha has checked the item out. Then depending on a variety of issues ranging from the network to the browser there might be a short pause before the Koha generated sound. This is the sound that indicates that Koha has checked the item out and another item can be scanned.

If staff is only hearing the one beep they might scan the next item causing the circulation system to not read either barcode and miss one if not two items. As new updates and patches are added to the new circulation code things will become clearer visually and audibly thanks to Kyle’s hard work. In the mean time be sure to turn your sounds on so you hear the right beeps.