thermal labels

[Patricia Palmer <pepalmer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here is some more information on thermal printers and labels.

Our supplier has been the Moriah Data Corp.  They moved and changed names
in the past year:
ABA Moriah
6594 Commerce Court
Warrenton, VA  20187
540-349-3166
fax 540-349-0993

Our contact is Mike Mouganis, VP Sales.

Labels:  1.125" square polyester labels with Heavy Adhesive
(that's what they call the acrylic adhesive) -- no stock number
Printer:  SATO 8400 Thermal Transfer Printer
Ribbons:  SATO Premier I

No auxillary tools are required for application, just your eyes and a
steady hand. They are truly smudge- and tear-proof!  We put them to the
test with our students and staff.  The thermal transfer process "burns"
(for lack of a better word) the ink into the polyester label.  Using paper
clips and pencils, I couldn't scratch the black lettering off.  I hid a set
of printed labels from our first batch in the library stacks.  They're on
the top shelf where we don't normally keep books.  No fading is evident
from 1995.  Adhesive is still strong.  Labels set after 24 hours and can be
repositioned at first, though we discourage this.  

Silk is the only problem material for strong adhesion but fortunately, we
don't get much of it.  They will adhere to the silk and stay that way
unless picked.  We have had to replace labels on these.  It adheres and
stays on other cloths, commercial binding products, and paper covers
beautifully. I'd have to say I'm happy with it.

We have an in-house labelling program developed by our Automation staff
after OCLC Microenhancer changed the ways labels were exported from OCLC.
Now we manually input call numbers and print.  We label around 3500 items a
month. The bindery prints call numbers on spines so it's only hardbacks and
non-bound material that we label.

Cataloging staff create the item record in NOTIS, inscribe on the verso of
the title page.  Preservation staff create the labels in the Marking Unit,
staffed by students and supervised by the Binding Manager.  The current
OCLC labelling program has catalogers making the labels
which is why we don't use it.  I've offered the Marking Unit to Cataloging
but they don't
want to do it.  This organizational flow limits our choices for label
software.  It's not a problem now but I do want to find and implement a
more efficient method.

I also want to go to laser printed labels now that we have a laser printer
in our department and am starting to investigate conversion and commercial
software that could help us.  I'm interested in what others are using to
generate labels.  

 Patricia


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Patricia Palmer				phone: 804.828.2287
Head, Preservation Services		fax:   804.828.1051
Virginia Commonwealth University
Box 842033				email: pepalmer@xxxxxxx
Richmond, VA  23284-2033
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