Re: Barcode placement on videos

LaRoi Lawton (LRL@BCC.CUNY.EDU)
Thu, 3 Feb 2000 06:35:27 -0800 (PST)

Our barcodes are placed on the outside container because we had the
unpleasant experience of having the barcode come off the video itself inside
one of our VCR's. Our technician had to take the item apart to ascertain
what the problem was with respect to this particular VCR. It wasn't until he
actually opened it up that he noticed that the barcode had somehow had been
chewed up into the system. While this has not happened
again, it reiterated that "Murphy" was alive and well. For the most part,
all of our barcodes are on the outside container. My circulation staff check
videos anyway when they are returned to our desk since we are a
non-circulating unit of our campus library.

Prof. LaRoi Lawton, Director
Learning Resource Center
Bronx Community College
Bronx, NY 10453

----- Original Message -----
From: Karen Fischer <Karen_Fischer@freenet.richland.oh.us>
To: Multiple recipients of list <videolib@library.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2000 4:23 PM
Subject: Barcode placement on videos

> Hi, I'd like some feedback or discussion on our situation.
> Our library is a mid-size public library with a video collection of
over
> 25,000 videos. Entertainment videos circ is over 20,000 loans each
month.
> Our barcodes are currently on the video shell above the title, requiring
the
> circulation staff to open each video case for every checkout and checkin.
> The circulation staff is complaining about repetitive motion injuries as a
> result. They want the barcodes placed on the outside video case, rather
than
> the actual video shell. The AudioVisual staff is really against this as
we
> have experienced too many problems with mixed-up videos, patron's personal
> videos, etc. coming back in the cases, even with opening each one.
> The other option our Technical Services Supervisor suggested was video
> cases with an opening for the barcode to be scanned without opening the
> cases. The AV staff still has some of the same concerns about this.
> I'd really like to know what other libraries do and what sorts of
problems
> they've run up against. Thanks.
>
> Karen Fischer
> AV Librarian
> Mansfield/Richland County Public Library
> Mansfield, OH