Hi,

I have two questions on bar codes. We have some non bar code labels that
we use on our LTO and SDLT tapes that contain special characters like
'.' and '_' (underscores). For example:

full.### (8 chars)
DB2_c.### (9 chars)

We never bothered to look into getting bar codes for these because we
never expected to be using that many, but this has since changed. We
would like to order some bar coded labels for these, but I'm concerned
about the use of these characters and the overall length. All our
current bar code labels are 6 characters max and are typically of the
form:

FUL###
ATL###
AT####

etc, etc. where there are no special characters.

We could shorten some of these, but with something like DB2 versus DB,
you need the separator so your first one for DB2 will be DB2.001 and not
DB2001. Also, with clone tapes I like to use the '_c' for reference. I
guess I could just go to single letters with numbers like: A0010, B0001,
etc. etc. but I prefer pneumonic references that have more letters so
you know what they are and you don't have to look them up in some goofy
reference table.

Questions:

1. Does anyone know if ATL P1000 libraries or STK L80 libraries with bar
code readers would be able to read bar codes with these characters or
this length?

2. If so, does anyone know any companies that make bar codes of this
length. I think the company we work with now has a 6 char max, but
wanted to check on question 1 before challenging them on this.

Yeah, we could get our own software, but we would need labels pre-cut to
the exact size and thickness for those SDLT slide style and LTO stick
style. Kind of a pain so seemed easier to just buy them.

Thanks.

George

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