Barcoding

A response to Marty's question about barcoding.  At Columbia the
decision was made to place the barcode inside the back cover, at the
upper left corner.  I can definitely recommend NOT doing it this way.
First, because it means you have to open the book to insert the barcode,
and every time you want to charge it in and out.  Second, because the
natural tendency is to put the book down so that the book block is flat
and the back cover at an angle, and then put pressure on the cover,
leading eventually to a separation of the cover from the book.  If you
must put the barcode inside, at least put it where the book block will
absorb the pressure.  Third, when books get rebound, the cover is of
course removed and this is causing us endless headaches in trying to
figure out the least staff and time consuming way to assign new barcodes
and change the records, or retrieve and re-stick the old barcodes.  Any
method that puts the barcode on the exterior or interior cover will have
the same problem.  Frankly, I don't know of a good place for a barcode.

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 4:26
               Distributed: Wednesday, November 14, 1990
                        Message Id: cdl-4-26-001
                                  ***