[Michlib-l] Making the Move to Plastic Cards

[Laura Orlowski]

Hi everyone;

The Camden Twp. Library is considering the idea of moving to plastic patron
library cards with keytags (currently we use handwritten paper cards).  The
switch from paper to plastic could be pretty simple, but we are also toying
with the idea of changing the format of our patron barcodes.  Right now,
our patrons receive a barcode, which is used for local checkouts and
MeLCat.  Then they have to modify the barcode to use our Overdrive group,
and then modify the barcode yet again to use our RBDigital/Zinio group.  I
have already contacted MeLCat, Overdrive & RBDigital to find out how
difficult this process may be - all say it is fairly easy.

So my questions to you are:
1. Has anyone else faced this situation?  If so, what did you decide to
do?
2. What company did you use to purchase your plastic cards/keytags?
3. What procedure did you use to switch your patron barcodes to the new
numbers?
4. Pros & Cons to changing patron barcodes?

Any suggestions, comments, etc. will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
-Laura Orlowski, director
Camden Twp. Library
camden at monroe.lib.mi.us
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