[NHCOLL-L:4374] Re: Barcodes vs. RFID's

[John E Simmons]

Regardless of whether people prefer barcodes or RFIDs for use in their
collections, before you invest in either, the more important question to ask
is, "which technology will be supported by industry in the short-term and
long-term?"

Museums are at the mercy of industry for many (perhaps most) of the products
we use (e.g., many of our favorite sizes of glass jars are out of production
because the industry has replaced them with PET containers; permanent inks
and technical pens are disappearing in a wave of less permanent ink in
disposable pens, and so forth).   Considering how much more efficient RFIDs
are for inventory, as their unit price comes down, barcodes are doomed to
disappear.  I have seen some industry forecasts that give barcodes less than
a decade before they are extinct (meaning no one will be making or
supporting barcode readers or software).

--John

John E. Simmons
Museologica
128 E. Burnside Street
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823-2010
simmons.johne at gmail.com
303-681-5708
www.museologica.com
and
Adjunct Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
19 Deike Building
University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-2709
jes67 at psu.edu

On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 1:54 PM, Del Re, Christine <delre at mpm.edu> wrote:

>  We at MPM would like to know which other museums are now using barcodes,
> or RFID’s on/in individual collection items?  Does anyone favor one system
> over the other?  Also, for those using barcodes, is the preference to link a
> generic barcode number to an artifact via a data base, or to make the
> barcode the actual artifact number?
>
>
>
> Any thoughts or references would be appreciated
>
>
>
> Chris
>
>
>
> *Christine** **del  Re **|* *Senior Conservator &  Conservation Section
> Head *
> *Milwaukee Public Museum*
> *800 W Wells Street*
> *Milwaukee, WI 53233*
> *(414) 278-2780*
> *delre at mpm.edu <gruber at mpm.edu>*
> *www.mpm.edu*
>
>
> Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>
>
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