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Barcodes – Smart and Dumb

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Q: I hear about DUMB barcodes and SMART barcodes. What's the difference?

A: Simply, SMART barcodes have the title and local call number printed on the individual barcode, DUMB barcodes do not.

More specifically, SMART barcodes are usually used in the first stages of automation. They are the product of sending out your shelf list for a Retrospective Conversion or getting your data back in MARC format from any kind of conversion. Usually, barcodes, data disks (which have the matching barcode numbers as part of the new MARC records) and the shelf list are returned at the same time. The idea is to get the barcodes on your books before you start using a computer and barcode scanner at the checkout desk.

On the other hand, DUMB barcodes are usually supplied for ongoing, in-house library use, after the Retrospective Conversion, as things need to be cataloged in the automation system. A 10,000 volume collection may get 10,000 smart barcodes for immediate use and another 3,000 DUMB barcodes for ongoing use for future items that will be added to the collection.

Perhaps the most important thing about SMART barcodes is that before SMART barcodes are printed into sheets or rolls of barcodes with the titles on them, they are sorted (by computer) in your library's local call number order. That means, ideally, the barcodes on the peel-off sheets or rolls are in better order than the books on the shelves; or, to put it another way, it means that relatively untrained people can go down your shelves, putting the right barcodes on the right books. In Texas, they have Barcode Parties with the PTO. Elsewhere, there are Trustee volunteers, Honor Student Projects, faculty afterschool task forces (with plenty of refreshments), and Adopt-a-Shelf schemes. Not to mention the solo librarian just doing it, her- or himself.

One of the best strategies I know is to think of putting on the SMART barcodes in two passes. In the first pass, the trick is to establish a rule that nobody looks more than 10 or 15 seconds for the next item. At the end of the first pass with the SMART barcodes, you end up with sheets or rolls with 1 or 2 barcodes here or there...items that couldn't be easily found (checked out? missing? mistake on the shelf list card?). Whatever, 2 weeks or 2 months after that first pass, someone really familiar with the collection (you?) makes a second pass and hopefully brings down the number of unmatched barcodes to 99.999%. Or sometimes a third or fourth pass is necessary to get you there.

In an upcoming Q&A we'll deal with how barcodes are configured, what you need to tell book jobbers about barcodes, and the makeup of various barcode standards.