Using Card Print to generate library cards

The built in module Card Print can be used to generate library cards for classes of students. These can then be cut up and given to the borrowers to stick into their planners or kept in their wallets/purse for example. It may also be helpful to keep a class list of each borrowers in the library and laminate them in the event that a student forgets their library card.

We have videos available to help you use Card Print

The steps below explain how to generate library cards for a class of students.

·Click Modules / Label Print / Card Print from the menu at the top of the management page.

·The Card Print box will display. From here, choose whether to produce reader cards for all or only selected groups using the radio buttons.

·It may be required to alter the barcode format, order or the school name before generating the library cards. If this is the case, click on the Options tab to configure these settings. The options on this tab are described in more detail at the bottom of this topic.

·Click Generate to create the library cards when the desired groups and options have been chosen.

·The library cards will be displayed in a PDF window and can be saved or printed.

When generating a large number of cards/labels a message may come up advising that “this process is taking longer than expected please check the Output folder in a few minutes” to check this section go to Database – Output see this section for more details

Card Print options

On the options tab, it is possible to control the barcode formatting options, the order the library cards are printed in, whether to include the borrower photograph and whether the school name displays on the library card.

Barcode Format

The barcode formatting part controls the format that the barcodes generated through Card Print are output in.

When using Automatic, the default barcode formatting options as specified through Settings / Barcodes / Automatic Barcodes are used.

If Manual is selected, this allows you to specify a length of the barcode by entering a value into the length text box. For example, if a barcode needs to always be padded out to 5 digits then enter 5 in the length box. If any barcodes are shorten than the length entered in the box then they would be padded out using zeros, to this length. e.g. 00005

The Character text box can be used to append a letter to the beginning of a barcode. For example, if a barcode needed to be appended with a letter B then enter this letter into the Character box. If a borrower barcode is 10, then when the library cards are generated a letter B is appended making this library card B10.

A mixture of lengths and characters can be used.

Specifying No Formatting means that the application will not format the barcodes in any way. The barcodes of the borrowers that are printed will be exactly as they are stored in the system.

Including Photographs

This controls whether the reader cards include the photograph of each borrower (assuming on is present on their record).

To include a photograph for each borrower on the print out, click the Include Photograph check box. The photos must already be added to the system using the WebCam feature or similar method.

Sort Order

The options in the combo box all you to control the order that the reader cards are shown in when printed.

To specify a sort order, the desired Sort Order from the list in the combo box.

School Name

This controls the school name that is output onto the reader cards.

To generate library cards including the school name that the system has been licensed for, leave the option System Default selected. To enter a custom name, click Custom School Name and enter the value in the text box.

There is also a video showing how to generate reader cards in the Video Tutorials section. Be sure to check this out for a visual demonstration.