CSpace community: If you've created an extension to CSpace that supports barcoding, can you respond to this email and tell the community about it - how it works, if the code is accessible, any screenshots or functional specs, etc.? We've had a few attendees at recent open houses and walkthroughs ask questions about CSpace's barcoding capabilities, and I'd like to improve my answers! Thanks, Megan Megan Forbes CollectionSpace Community Outreach and Support Manager megan.forbes@lyrasis.org 800.999.8558 x 2917 Main 917.267.9676 Cell meganbforbes Skype

Hi Megan, We at PAHMA (the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology) implemented barcoding immediately after migrating to CSpace. I'll give a summary of our CSpace-driven barcode workflow first, and then will give some additional details for those who are interested. Please let me know if you'd like to know more about any part of this process. Apologies in advance for the length of this note. *Summary of our CSpace-driven barcode workflow:* • Our collection is large, incompletely inventoried, and incompletely cataloged, a situation with which I believe most museums can identify. • The barcoding process actually begins with a storage location inventory of objects, facilitated by both a "Systematic Inventory" iReport that we print out for each location being inventoried (using a CSpace iReport webapp), and by using an inventory reconciliation CSpace webapp. • Once we have a correct inventory for a location, we use a "Key Information Review" CSpace webapp to make sure that the basic object information to be printed on the barcoded label is as good as we can make it in the time we have available. • Once the key information is entered, we use yet another CSpace webapp to print out the barcoded object labels for that storage location. • We also printed and attached barcodes to each storage location. (Staff members already had barcodes on their university ID badges, so we didn't need to print barcoded labels for staff). • The resulting roll of barcoded labels for a location is then stored in the storage location with the objects until the next step in our process—photography. It is during photography that individual barcodes are associated with individual objects. • We assigned simple barcode readers to photographers to streamline the object photography process and remove a significant source of human error in renaming object photographs. • A reference/condition photo of each object is taken, with the barcode visible in the lower margin of the frame. Immediately after taking the photo, it is automatically sent to Adobe Bridge. • The photograph is automatically renamed with the object number and a date/time stamp once the photographer scans the barcode associated with the object. • The object is then rehoused along with its barcoded label in the storage location. • At the end of the day, the photographer can upload all the photos she's taken and renamed using another CSpace webapp, the Bulk Media Uploader. This webapp uploads the media files, determines object numbers from file names, creates a media record in CSpace for the image, and creates a relationship from that media record to the relevant object record. It's a thing of beauty and eliminates our previous weeks- or months-long backlog of images awaiting uploading to CSpace (we take a lot of photos—about 200,000 since we implemented CSpace). • We assigned handheld barcode batch scanners to collections managers and others to record the important details of object moves or other changes in storage locations. • Those moving or inventorying objects are prompted by a program on the barcode batch scanner to scan their personal barcode, and to identify the type of activity they're undertaking (simple movement, movements involving packing of object(s) into boxes or crates, or movements of boxed groups of objects—and they can do a mixture of these, as long as they identify each activity first). They are then are verbally prompted by the scanner to scan the relevant barcodes in the correct order. • We have yet another CSpace webapp that allows those who use the barcode batch scanners to upload their scanner files at the end of the day. • Once the webapp uploads the scanner files, the a server-side Talend script webapp verifies the data in the file (it checks whether all objects and locations in the scanner file correspond to CSpace objects and locations) and then processes the file to create new movement/inventory records for the objects in question. • The updates to object locations in CSpace are made in near-real-time, which is good enough for our purposes. Generally staff use a scanner all day long, upload the scanner file at the end of the day, and all changes are made in CSpace that evening. *Additional details:* While the standard way to go is to assign an essentially random barcoded number to each object or location and then associate that number with each object or location, we had heard of one horror story* that made us consider the pros and cons of using random numbers versus meaningful identifiers for barcodes. We decided that encoding meaningful identifiers was the better way to go (at least for us), and that the one clear drawback of doing so—that we couldn't guarantee uniqueness of identifiers—was actually a feature for us, as whenever this caused a problem, it was because there was an actual registration problem (duplicate object numbers, typos in object numbers) that we could immediately fix and that we might have not otherwise even noticed. We used one-dimensional barcodes (specifically Code 39) for encoding object numbers. This was possible because our object numbers are relatively short (usually less than 12 characters, e.g., "1-123456a,b"). I think you could have object numbers up to about 20 characters long before Code 39 becomes impractical for 1.5 x 3 inch labels. Each label had the object number in both barcoded form and human-readable form. We also included object name, count, field collection place, ethnographic file code, and associated culture on our labels, since we had the space. Because our storage location names are significantly longer (they usually contain building name, room number, aisle number, cabinet number, and drawer number), we went with the two-dimensional Data Matrix barcodes to encode storage locations. We printed these on 3 x 3 inch label stock, with the location presented in both barcoded form and human-readable form. The CSpace webapp that supports the printing of barcodes is something that you could use pretty much as it's written, with only modest configuration. The way this webapp works, in general, is that the user specifies an object (or range of objects) or a location (or range of locations), and a destination printer. Upon clicking the "Search" button, the webapp queries CSpace and shows the user what it intends to print (if a just a few labels, then a per-object or per-location summary; if many, then a count of the object or location labels to be printed. Upon pushing "Create labels", the webapp queries CSpace for the information that will be printed on the labels (examples of our labels attached). It writes this information to a file in the printer-appropriate monitored folder on the server (our webapp server and barcode server are separate machines, a mile apart, but the watch folder is mounted on the webapp server) as a text file and our barcode-printing software handles the symbolic encoding and label formatting and sends the result to the desired barcode printer. The CSpace webapp that handles uploading and processing of the barcode scanner file can also be used as-is if you decide to use the same scanners we used (below) and the onboard program we wrote for them. If another batch scanner is used, some reworking will be necessary to adapt the webapp to a differently formatted incoming file. We use Worth Data TriCoders as our batch barcode scanners (specifically model LT5020H <http://www.barcodehq.com/5000tricoder.html>, which has a comfortable trigger grip and can handle both 1-D and 2-D barcodes). For the photography barcode scanners, we used Symbol LS2208 scanners. We bought two types of printers, each for a specific use: • For printing 500,000+ barcoded labels for objects, we went with a workhorse that could handle this volume: a Zebra 110Xi4. • For printing 50,000+ barcoded labels for locations, pallets, crates, and boxes, we went with a more affordable model: a Zebra ZM400. We custom designed our label stock and use 3 x 3 inch labels (for storage locations) and 1.5 x 3 inch labels (for objects) of non-adhesive virgin polypropylene that are waterproof, tear resistant, smudge resistant, and sunlight resistant. We've been told that we can expect these labels to last 100 years (which we interpret as "several decades of regular use"). Michael ------------- * we heard of one case where an institution did this and felt so confident about the new system that they removed the printed object numbers that identified each object. Once they finished barcoding several thousand objects, someone realized that they had never saved the associations between barcode numbers and object numbers. There were many mistakes that led to this result, but if they had encoded their object numbers instead of random numbers, they wouldn't have been in such a pickle at the end of the process. On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 8:04 AM, Megan Forbes <megan.forbes@lyrasis.org> wrote: > CSpace community: > > > If you've created an extension to CSpace that supports barcoding, can > you respond to this email and tell the community about it - how it works, > if the code is accessible, any screenshots or functional specs, etc.? We've > had a few attendees at recent open houses and walkthroughs ask questions > about CSpace's barcoding capabilities, and I'd like to improve my answers! > > > Thanks, > > Megan > > > > Megan Forbes > CollectionSpace Community Outreach and Support Manager > *megan.forbes@lyrasis.org <megan.forbes@lyrasis.org>* > 800.999.8558 x 2917 Main > 917.267.9676 Cell > meganbforbes Skype > > > > _______________________________________________ > Talk mailing list > Talk@lists.collectionspace.org > > http://lists.collectionspace.org/mailman/listinfo/talk_lists.collectionspace.org > >