Barcoding Project: Location Barcodes

After the University of Alberta Museums and Collections Services staff members applied barcode labels to the locations in the Print Study Centre, the rest of the Art Collection’s storage spaces had to be addressed.  There are two major levels of storage spaces that require barcodes:

1. Shelf/drawer-level barcodes, for smaller objects that reside on a shelf, in a drawer, or on a surface that is part of a larger storage unit. For example, a large rack unit may have 10 smaller racks on which framed artworks may be hung.
2. Wall and room-level barcodes for objects too large to fit on a shelf or in a drawer, or that are hung on a wall. This might include a large sculpture or an object with its own case. These objects would be assigned a location at the wall or room level. 

The same label template used for location barcodes in the Print Study Centre was used for the remaining Art Collection storage locations. Shelves and drawers in the storage spaces were primarily metal, so labels were attached to magnets and placed on the corresponding drawer or shelf as they had been in the Print Study Centre. Wooden shelves and drawers, of which there were very few, had the adhesive barcodes attached directly to the front surface.

For room and wall-level barcodes, a sheet with barcodes for each wall and for the room overall was created. In each storage room, the corresponding sheet is now kept in a central location for use by staff members.

Some locations associated with the Art Collection did not receive a physical barcode. These locations are for public art on campus, as well as both on-campus and off-campus loans. As these locations are not under the authority of the University of Alberta Museums and Collections Services, a number of dynamic reports were created with Crystal Reports and linked to the database. This way, staff members who require barcodes for these locations can print them on demand and use them without leaving a barcode label in a public location where it is at risk of being accidentally removed. A central binder will also contain these reports, which will be updated regularly, for staff use.