[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Spine Label Printers?

[Daniluk, Judy]

Some of our libraries are happily using the Dymo 400 Turbo (with single-column label stock),  but one library tried a Dymo 450 TwinTurbo and was not able to get it to work with Evergreen.  

 

One library is exporting data from Evergreen in csv format and then using Microsoft Word’s Mail-Merge feature to print multi-column labels.

 

Judy Daniluk

Technology Consultant, North Texas Regional Library System

jdaniluk at ntrls.org     817-201-6778(cell)    

 

From: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Joe Atzberger
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 12:30 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Spine Label Printers?

 

Some libraries have been surprised by the amount of noise a given printer generates, something not typically listed in catalog or web retail.  Single-label thermal printers tend to be the friendliest in that regard, and small and quiet enough to fit at most workstations.  Great for replacing damaged labels at the circ or reference station.

 

I'm not sure about your library's situation, but if they are going to print in large volumes, you should also consider a laser printer.  Thermal printers can do high quality (i.e., reliably scannable barcodes), but the 51 labels-per-minute of the Dymo 450 (current version of the 400) is still about a fifth of that of the HP LaserJet 4050 (8.5ppm @1200dpi x 30 labels per page = 255 labels-per-minute).  To be fair, I should also say that Dymo makes "turbo" and "dual" versions of their LabelWriter, but they're still not that fast.

 

Regarding stock and durability, a combination of standard office-quality labels and super-adhesive "label protectors" like these <http://thelibrarystore.com/product.jsp?path=-1|23268|83632|83679|83681&id=15211>  seems to be more effective starting with higher quality adhesive labels on big print runs.  The reason is that the HQ labels tend to be thicker and jam in the printer more often, and still don't match the protector's grip.  The permanence of the label may not be as important to your libraries as it was to my former clients (K-12 schools and juvenile prisons), but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

 

--Joe

 

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 11:46 AM, Amy Terlaga <terlaga at biblio.org> wrote:

Hi all—

What is your library system using to print your spine labels with Evergreen?

One of our libraries (going live in March) is looking for a low-cost spine label printer recommendation and we’d like to hear the good (and bad) experiences out there …

Thanks!

Amy

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