[Nhcoll-l] barcode printers

Wed Dec 22 17:14:15 EST 2021

Hi Hannu, Joachim, Tom, and others,

Thanks very much for your responses! I sent this call for help right before
leaving for holidays so I won't have a chance to process all of the helpful
information I received until I return. To your good points, Joachim and
Tom, these barcodes will supplement but not replace existing tags and
numbering systems on our specimens, and are mostly intended to assign true
UUIDs to our specimens and to make the images automatically renamed by a
camera control software that can read barcodes. Our registrar and
conservator are well-versed in planning for perpetuity and are extensively
involved in this process.

Best,
Catherine

<https://www.smm.org/>

*Catherine M. Early, PhD*

she/her

*Barbara Brown Chair of Ornithology*

e: cearly at smm.org

https://catherineearly.wixsite.com/home

We envision a world where everyone has the power to use science to make
lives better,
and we are committed to using STEM as a tool to advocate for justice and
equity.

On Fri, Dec 17, 2021 at 3:53 AM Tom Schiøtte <tschioette at snm.ku.dk> wrote:

> I agree with Joachim. The barcode technology may become obsolete, and
> collections with only barcodes may run the risk of becoming eternally
> enigmatic. For small labels (slides, small insects etc.) you could perhaps
> limit the clear text to only a catalogue number, if you are VERY confident
> that your catalogue will be readable into the far future. A few years ago a
> colleague of mine had to give up on reading or translating a punched card
> collection catalogue. Technologies become obsolete, the roman alphabet is
> likely to last for a very long time yet. Museums prepare in principle for
> eternity.
>
>
>
> Tom Schiøtte
>
>
>
> *From:* Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> *On Behalf Of *Joachim
> Händel
> *Sent:* 17. december 2021 10:15
> *To:* hannu at bioshare.com; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [Nhcoll-l] barcode printers
>
>
>
> At the risk of being old-fashioned....
> Barcodes should at best be a addition to classic labels and never the only
> labels on an specimen.
> You should be able to read the basic data without using a machine.
>
> Best wishes
> Joachim
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Joachim Haendel
>
>
>
> Center of Natural Sciences Collections
> of the Martin Luther University
> - Entomological Collection -
>
> Domplatz 4
> D-06099 Halle (Saale)
> Germany
>
> Phone:  +49 345 - 55 26 447
> Fax:  +49 345 - 55 27 248
>
> Email: joachim.haendel at zns.uni-halle.de
>
>
>
>
>
> >>> Hannu Saarenmaa 17.12.2021, 09:45 >>>
>
> Catherine & All
>
> First, abandon 1-dimensional barcodes.  These are i) error prone.  Human
> eye cannot see if the starting or stopping bar is missing.  It is too easy
> to print such labels which look good but have been cropped from their
> ends.  ii)   1-dimensional barcodes plenty of space on a herbarium sheet or
> similar.  They unusable for small insect labels.  iii) When digitizing the
> collection, 1-dimensional barcodes (such as code39 etc) are hard to detect
> by machine from the images.
>
> Only use 2-dimensional QR codes, or similar. All the problems which listed
> above can be avoided that way.   Human eye can immediately see if the QR
> label has technical problems.  QR codes are smaller and prettier.  QR code
> can instantly be recognized and read by machine from a 135 MB TIFF image.
>
> What you encode in the QR code is your choice.   UUID is fine but needs a
> resolver.  A web address, as recommended by the European CETAF organization
> may be better.  I let GBIF, DiSSCo and iDigBio to comment about that.
>
> Best regards, Hannu Saarenmaa
> Bioshare Digitization www.bioshare.com
> <https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bioshare.com%2F&data=04%7C01%7CTSchioette%40snm.ku.dk%7Caa35a7ff51344c2d731208d9c13e0ab1%7Ca3927f91cda14696af898c9f1ceffa91%7C0%7C0%7C637753296138318798%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=s52hpaaUWt6kFI6B20ugqlBf7M4oMC8axe47SuvN%2Fws%3D&reserved=0>
>
> On 2021-12-17 00:44, Catherine Early (she/her) wrote:
>
> Hello NHCOLL members,
>
>
>
> I have never used barcodes for digitizing but will be submitting a
> proposal that should include them, so I'm looking for some advice. We will
> be barcoding a diverse collection of vertebrates, shells, and plants, and I
> want to use these barcodes to assign true UUIDs (example:
> https://www.uuidgenerator.net/
> <https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.uuidgenerator.net%2F&data=04%7C01%7CTSchioette%40snm.ku.dk%7Caa35a7ff51344c2d731208d9c13e0ab1%7Ca3927f91cda14696af898c9f1ceffa91%7C0%7C0%7C637753296138318798%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=Ki2t2k5mnlOVOUP0JcIGCOFxb524WGvld3pCpiA13kw%3D&reserved=0>)
> and not a sequential set of letters and numbers determined by humans. Can
> you recommend a barcode printer (and compatible adhesive paper) that 1) can
> serve in multiple storage settings (both dry and alcohol) and 2) can encode
> UUIDs? We would like to print them in-house instead of sending off for
> someone else to print them for us as we will need to print duplicates when
> we find different preparations of the same specimen (e.g., skeleton, skin,
> soft tissues) in different parts of our collection.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Catherine
>
>
>
>
> <https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smm.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7CTSchioette%40snm.ku.dk%7Caa35a7ff51344c2d731208d9c13e0ab1%7Ca3927f91cda14696af898c9f1ceffa91%7C0%7C0%7C637753296138318798%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=%2BmcPbEFxgsRy3OHoOrh4FJHibawLQZZ1zCdkWVPfY%2FM%3D&reserved=0>
>
> *Catherine M. Early, PhD*
>
> she/her
>
> *Barbara Brown Chair of Ornithology*
>
> e: cearly at smm.org
>
> https://catherineearly.wixsite.com/home
> <https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcatherineearly.wixsite.com%2Fhome&data=04%7C01%7CTSchioette%40snm.ku.dk%7Caa35a7ff51344c2d731208d9c13e0ab1%7Ca3927f91cda14696af898c9f1ceffa91%7C0%7C0%7C637753296138318798%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=zP243svJCgKgmt94nQwOm1ycg3KO6daiA6urZm9Et%2F0%3D&reserved=0>
>
>
>
> We envision a world where everyone has the power to use science to make
> lives better,
> and we are committed to using STEM as a tool to advocate for justice and
> equity.
>
>
>
>
>
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> --
>
> Hannu Saarenmaa, director
>
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