Barcoding microfiche

What experience do you have with barcoding silver halide or diazo
microfiche?  Our Microtexts Dept wants to barcode every new fiche.
They plan to attach the 1/2" x 2" barcode to the eye-readable
header. I am concerned about the reaction of the barcode's adhesive
with the polyester/emulsion of the fiche.  Is there potential for
damage?  Are there any published studies, reports that suggest that
this is unwise? If there are no chemical reasons to impede this
effort, what other problems might occur?  Since the barcode is going
to double the thickness of each fiche, it would seem to me it would
cut the housing capacity of each fiche cabinet in half.   Plus, it
seems to me, that if all the barcodes are applied to the
eye-readable header, the arrangement of the fiche within the drawers
would be very bulky, top heavy and hard to manage.   If you have had
experience with this, let me know.

Perhaps there are types of tags or barcodes that facilitate
automated circulation, but don't present damaging side effects.  Can
you suggest any?

This effort seems time-consuming and potentially damaging.  Most of
the fiche involved are commercially mass-produced reformats of
popular journals.  Replacement fiche should not be impossible to
procure--at least, not impossible for the next decade or two, but
after that?   And, if we began to barcode our older diazo and silver
fiche collections, I fear that replacements would be harder to
obtain should our copy be damaged by this process. But, what are
your thoughts?

Becky Ryder
Preservation Librarian
University of Kentucky Libraries
606-257-3493

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 9:39
                 Distributed: Sunday, November 5, 1995
                        Message Id: cdl-9-39-004
                                  ***