By: Erik Vlietinck
Mon, March 24, 2008 - 5:40:00

We tend to collect an incredible amount of media, books, folders and other “things” that we can’t throw away because they can have some value for later use. For example, I collect and save my editorial and other work on off-line media. At the time I used 5"25 MO-discs, but these days I use Verbatim’s Archive DVDs because they’re specially created for archival purposes.

My only problem with archiving has always been how to manage it properly. I’m alone in a SOHO environment so you would think I can’t possibly have a problem, but then again, so small office is a miniature version of a large one --it has the same problems, only on a much smaller scale than a big office. As many content creators (no matter which content you create), I archive my content because I could need it for research in the future.

And while I try to be a thoughtful and anticipating person when I’m saving my files to an archival disc, I have often ran into problems when I needed a file seven years later: I simply couldn’t remember whether disc “Data Archive of December 2004” or disc “Data Archive of December 2004 #2” contained what I was looking for.

Barcodes to the Rescue

One solution to this problem is to use a disk management application such as DiskLibrary or similar software. However, I’ve learned that using such an application isn’t going to cut it by itself. The reason is that the naming convention you’re using—the one I used in the example above is exemplary-- sometimes won’t tell you enough to find back the medium you need; especially not when the name on the medium’s label isn’t exactly the same as the disc’s name.

An easy solution to this problem is to use barcodes. Barcodes have different advantages. The first is they can be auto-generated easily by database applications such as FileMaker Pro (with the appropriate plug-in), or with label programs such as SOHO Labels and the label printer’s software.

If you have a Dymo LabelWriter or another label printer, you can print these barcodes on labels and stick them on your files, folders, and media. There’s no need to remember using the same name on the file digitally as there is on the medium, folder or paper file. You do need a barcode scanner but you can have one for under 150 Euros easily.

With barcode labels and a barcode scanner you don’t need to enter the barcode more than once --you’re printing it on the label, which you can copy over and over again without risk of making stupid errors. If you stick your label on the medium, folder or file, and then scan the barcode to the digital folder or file you’re creating (for example, in InDesign’s or Pages’ “Save As” dialogue), you simply can’t make a mistake and you won’t end up with a file that is going to be mislaid as soon as it gets archived.

Using Leopard's Spotlight Comments

On a Leopard system you can even add barcode information to Spotlight comments. If you have a 2D barcode scanner this works wonderfully well as these barcodes can contain whole paragraphs --remembering an actual phrase is far more difficult than being able to scan it. You can actually create a comment label, print it, and enter it in the Spotlight Comments field by scanning the barcode on the label. Later, when you need to find back the exact comments, you scan the label and instantly find the exact file it relates to. With Comments barcodes you can also group files without having to group them in one folder. This is handy when you regularly use the same file for different projects.

The other way around, i.e. the barcoding of files and folders to find physical media and files, should work as well. The way to do this is to keep a record of where you store the actual files, folders and media and enter the location in your digital database. The database could be a “real” database such as Bento (on a small scale) or FileMaker (on a larger scale), or even the Leopard Spotlight Comments field (on an individual scale).

If you have only a limited number of storage spaces where you can find back the physical media, files or folders, you can label these locations with a descriptive name ("shelf 1 - left"). If you have a more complicated storage organisation you can once more use a barcode to designate the storage location by a code. The latter case seems a bit over the edge to me, as you will in the end have to link the barcode to a description of the storage location anyway, but if your organisation is large enough, a barcode may again avoid errors in entering and finding the location names as these have to be linked to the barcode (and therefore entered) only once.

If your organisation is really large, you may have to resort to RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). With RFID (and up to a certain scale, with barcodes) you can fully automate storage and archival.

For content creators such as writers and designers, barcodes go a long way. The equipment needed to use them and set up an (semi-) automated management system is inexpensive enough to be affordable by most small to medium-sized businesses in these markets.