I guess the first question is "what format of bar code do they need to
produce?". The second question is "why in the world would you want the
hassle?".

The typical bar code used in RM applications is Code 39 or 3 of 9. Eons
ago (ca. 1992 or 1993), I needed to bar code an entire records center.
Back then our resources were limited and the software that we were
using was very primitive and we could not generate 30,000 bar codes
without great pain and suffering. We looked into having labels
generated commercially and were quoted prices in the $1.00 per label
range.

So we poked around Egghead Software (at that time, a brick and mortar
store) and found Avery LabelPro, which came with a Code 39 bar code
font. And, wonder of wonders, since it was an Avery product, we were
able to use off the shelf labels and also design our own box labels
with the software, then mail merge all of the box numbers (this is
where my techie friends came to my rescue). We dumped all the box
identifiers (old and new) and box locations into an Excel Spreadsheet.
We then sorted the spreadsheet by location, cut the file into
digestable parts, and dumped out comma-delimited text files. We then
did a mailmerge into LabelPro and started printing. It took a while (I
recall babysitting a LaserJet IID for several hours a night for a week
or so), but we then had a set of labels for the whole warehouse. I was
also able to print all the location barcodes for the whole warehouse.
The cool part was that we had everything printed in location order (the
old system tied the box number to a permanent location), with the old
ID, the new ID and an eye-readable initial location on the label. Then
all we had to do was barcode the whole warehouse...

I want to say that the whole printing exercise cost us (in cash outlay)
less than $500 (software, labels and toner cartridges). I was salaried
and the tech guys loved the challenge -- and we all got some nice
recognition for the cost savings.

Avery LabelPro doesn't exist anymore, but it looks like Avery has a
software package called DesignPro that has bar codes. If you don't need
anything fancy, you can poke around the internet for Truetype code 39
barcode fonts, but I'm suspicious of the "free" downloads that pop up
in Google. Your organization may also already have a barcode font that
hasn't been deployed. Microsoft Word incorporates templates for most of
the Avery labels these days.

As I recall, there are a couple tricky things with barcodes for some
RMS systems. Many barcodes have hidden characters that indicate that
the label is a location or a box or a file. You have to make sure that
you format the string properly (again, where my tech friends came in
handy). Many readers also want a string start and string end character
in the bar code, so you want that formatted properly.

If you need to play with the bar codes and see what is behind them, I
strongly recommend what used to be called a "wedge" scanner (one that
looks like a pen and taps -- "wedges" -- into the keyboard interface).
What you can do is open up a Command Prompt window (the old C:\ DOS
screen) and run the pen over the bar code. What will display at the
Command Prompt is the entire string in the bar code. Since the pen
simply decodes the barcode into ASCII characters, you can also use the
pen to input the barcode into a field in your RMS system, in many cases
(your mileage may vary).

What this buys you is barcodes on the cheap -- if the expected outcome
is to be able to generate (in advance) a ton of barcodes for various
purposes (passing out in advance to departments or doing a huge
backfile conversion) that you have on hand for when they are needed
(without having to "reserve" the file numbers or box numbers in the
system), then this is probably the way to go. If you need to produce
one barcode at a time, then you want to look at adding in one of those
small roll fed label printers. 

Eventually, we had one of our tech guys write a little program that
generated and kept track of the barcodes that we passed out (we always
sent out the barcodes to our internal clients in advance) so that we
wouldn't accidentially duplicate a barcode that someone else had. The
little database kept track of who we sent the box numbers to so that if
a box wandered in without a transmittal, we knew where it came from. I
suspect that most RMS systems today do all of what I've described
natively and the investment in the proper module is probably well worth
the expense.

Apologies to those of you horrified by the primitive stroll down memory
lane. But hey, you want to be cheap, you gotta do it the hard way. (I
also just spent a half hour hand wrapping file folder color codes, so
it's been a real retro day for this techie geek.)


Patrick Cunningham, CRM
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"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

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