My experience was similar to Erich's, although my department's card readers are standard ID TECH models available from Amazon (MiniMag II). I configured them by installing a configuration tool from the company's website; otherwise, by default, they appended prefix/suffix characters to the text strings generated by swiping the cards' magnetic stripes.

Andrea, what brand/model are your card readers? You might want to check in with your university's IT department. Or, maybe other departments at your other university have card readers that needed configured at setup (student rec, dining services, cashier's office).

Best,

Nathan Sonnenschein (he/him)
User Services & Experience Librarian
Montana State University Billings Library

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Hammer, Erich F
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2022 7:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Recommendations for a new card swiper solution for Access Services

NOTICE: This email originated from outside of your organization. Do not click links, open attachments, or respond unless you were expecting this message and know the content is safe.

Andrea,

Our card swipers are programmable using the programming software from here:

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fidinnovations.com%2Fdownloads.html&amp;data=05%7C01%7Cnathan.sonnenschein%40MSUBILLINGS.EDU%7Cc12f3d04c93c49c145bc08dadd179477%7C324aa97a03a644fc91e43846fbced113%7C0%7C0%7C638065390598428283%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=fgBFZK6KUozA0qOxpp5oXgzp5pl5cEYIFwjgrbvAUwM%3D&amp;reserved=0

How to program them is not obvious, but I have figured it out after a bit of trial and error.  The readers should behave like a keyboard in that whatever information they are programmed to return can be input into any program (like notepad), so testing what text comes back is pretty easy.

We did get some help from our "SUNYCard" office who issues the cards and manages the card swipe door access system.  Maybe you have a similar department at Westfield?

Erich



On Tuesday, December 13, 2022 at 09:20, Andrea Puglisi eloquently inscribed:

> Hi all,
>
> I am wondering if anyone has any experience with card swipers that 
> they are willing to share. Our Access Services department has card 
> swipers available at their desk for students to swipe their school ID 
> which uses a magnetic stripe (not a barcode). The trouble is, is that 
> the magnetic stripe contains a lot of information that we do not need 
> -- or want. All that we are interested in is the Student ID number 
> (from Banner) so that way when a student swipes their card, their 
> Student ID number is input into the patron look up field Worldshare Management Services' Circulation module.
>
> In the past, a Systems Librarian (two people ago!) created a Firefox 
> extension that effectively did blocked out all data except the bit of 
> information that we needed. The web browser extension has since 
> stopped working, and we would really like to move away from a 
> customized solution for this.
>
> I am wondering if you have any recommendations, or know of a card 
> swiper that is customizable from the back end? I do not imagine that 
> we are the only university with students whose IDs have a magnetic 
> strip, a library has a card swiper, and we just want very limited data 
> to be captured and input into our ILS (WMS Circulation).
>
> If anyone has any insight to share, we would be most appreciative!
>
> Andrea
>
> Andrea Puglisi
> Digital Initiatives/Technology Librarian Westfield State University
> 577 Western Avenue
> Westfield, MA 01086
>
> Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Phone: 413-572-5464
> Pronouns: 
> she/her<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2
> F%2Fpronouns.org%2Fshe-her&amp;data=05%7C01%7Cnathan.sonnenschein%40MS
> UBILLINGS.EDU%7Cc12f3d04c93c49c145bc08dadd179477%7C324aa97a03a644fc91e
> 43846fbced113%7C0%7C0%7C638065390598428283%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJ
> WIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000
> %7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=iZcCPl%2BrAYc8rODqhtgS9Xs7IBtHJqICuxLgOgBsgC0%3D&a
> mp;reserved=0>