While at the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS), we used barcodes when we
moved our objects from one storage space to another. The museum had/has
Multi-MIMSY, and the company, Willoughby & Associates, incorporated bar
coding into their system at that time. This made the movement of objects
much easier and allowed us to have interns scan barcodes and we did not have
to worry about people accidentally inverting accession numbers and thus
moving the wrong object.

I know that the Museum of Jewish Heritage, A Living Memorial to the
Holocaust (MJH) also in New York City, also uses Multi-MIMSY and bar codes
their objects as well. Barcoding can be an efficient way to move numerous
objects at one time and also for general maintenance.

There are issues about how to attach barcodes to objects. Both museums I
mentioned above found creative ways to do so. N-YHS used archival "ziploc"
bags and placed the bar code on a piece of paper inside of the bag (which
also carried the title of the object or any other identifying name and
arabic accession numbers). They attached the bar code to the frame of the
painting, or simply placed the barcode beside the object in storage. This
allowed the bar code to travel with the object during its movement. For
smaller objects the bar code was placed on the outside of the object's
storage box. It may also be a good idea to have numerous copies of the bar
code inside of the bag and when the object moves, the art handler can simply
pull out an extra copy, jot down the new location and turn it into the
registrar for the change of location.

MJH's collection which is mostly paper objects placed the barcode on the
outside of the object's storage folder. Books were given their own blue
board boxes and the barcode was attached to the outside of the book.

I hope this helps!
Kimberly Terbush
804-338-9010

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