in-house barcode printing

[Gail E. Kampmeier]

Doug Yanega wrote
>I've just been doing a little research, and found the following: (1) it
>appears that many, if not most, institutions that use barcodes for specimen
>inventory BUY the labels from someone else who prints them - often stacked
>codes printed by thermal transfer on plastic. (2) there are several cheap
>pieces of commercial software (generally around 200 dollars, such as Bar
>Code Pro by SNX) for both macs and PCs that are capable of printing
>barcodes in-house, using nothing more than a laserwriter and archival
>paper, and giving up to 100 million unique labels with dimensions as small
>as 1/2 by 1/4 inch (14 x 7 mm). They don't have to be stacked codes,
>either.
>
>Can anyone give a good justification why all these collections are paying
>someone thousands of dollars to print out barcode labels when it can be
>done in-house? Am *I* the one who's missing something, or is it that folks
>just didn't realize that in-house printing was possible, and just followed
>the examples of other people who had assumed you needed to buy the labels?

Could be a matter of timing.  When we investigated barcodes about 3 or 4
years ago, we were unable to find writers that would produce small enough
labels that wouldn't dwarf existing labels on insects.  Sounds like
technology has finally caught up with demand: a half inch by a quarter
sounds in the right ballpark.

We eventually decided not to go the route of the barcode but to just give
our specimens unique numbers that can be read without specialized
equipment, especially in this fast changing technological world.  Barcodes
also always have to be the bottom label and need to be mounted upside down,
so you must remove the specimen from the tray to see its identifying number
or scan it.

Cheers!
Gail
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Gail E. Kampmeier, Research Entomologist, Illinois Natural History Survey,
Box 5 NSRL-EASB, MC-637, 1101 W. Peabody, Urbana, IL 61801 USA
ph. 217-333-2824; fax 217-333-6784; email: gkamp at uiuc.edu
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