Basic Monograph Shelf Preparation

Scope: Describes shelf preparation steps for fully cataloged basic monograph items (printing spine labels, applying spine labels, property stamping, inserting security strips).

Contact: Sara Biondi

Unit: Monograph Acquisitions

Date last reviewed: Jul 12, 2024  

Date of next review: Sep 20, 2024 

Triage books for any special cases, refer to documentation on those cases: 

If book is very floppy, needs to go to Preservation, or for commercial binding. 

If the book is small, needs to go to Preservation.  

If a book has inserted materials, discs, etc., it should have basic shelf preparation completed before going on for additional treatment with Preservation. 

Printing Spine Labels with SpineOMatic (Alma)

Note: you must have the driver installed for the Zebra printer as well as SpineOMatic. 

• Open SpineOMatic.

Open

• Click the purple diamond to expand the window.

Open

• The first time you open SpineOMatic, you will need to set and save your settings.

Choose the correct Zebra printer and split/top offsets for your bay’s Zebra printer, click Print Test to do a single label test to confirm. (If your print does not work, please look for a different Zebra printer in the drop-down, often there is a second choice that is correct.)

Click Save to save your settings for future printing.

• Scan/enter the barcode on each item into the barcode field one by one 

[additional screenshot to come]

• Enter up to a 100 barcodes/print job

• Click Print button to print this list of labels – a long label strip will print from printer, with spine labels & barcode numbers. 

  • Tear off printed strip, as you would a piece of tape or receipt paper (from the side, not straight down or by pulling the labels toward you).

  • (If the roll of labels or black tape runs out mid-job, replace it and the job will continue printing automatically.)

Label, stamp, target 

Applying labels 

Starting with first book, place call number label on bottom of spine, about .5” from bottom of spine, matching barcode on book with barcode on printed strip from printer to verify that label matches book. 

• Primary goal is for location on the spine to be consistent with all the other books – don't really care about obscuring information on the spine. OK for label to wrap, but NO TEXT on the label can wrap around the spine – if any digits would wrap, it must be placed on the cover, in bottom corner nearest spine. 

• When book spine is too narrow, place it on the “bottom left corner” of “front cover” (cover that does not have barcode on it) 

• If you encounter an error – flag errored book and stick label to error flag 

Bad example (call number is too long to fit on spine, and must be placed on cover instead): 

Property stamping 

Stamp the top edges of the book pages with property stamp. 

• If stamp does not fit, stamp inside “front cover first page” (inside the cover that has the label on it)  

• Stamp should never obscure text or photos. 

Targeting (applying security strips) 

Security strips are placed in the last page or two, as close to the “gutter” as possible (as far in towards the spine as possible), find the nearest white page/low print so that it “hides”. 

• Security strip should not obscure any text or image in the book – location of the strip is fluid (and in rare exceptions can be left off if there is no possible location) - but it can almost always be fit in someplace 

• What if the item is too “short” for the security strip? 

  • OK to cut them down “a little bit”, but cut too short and they don’t work anymore. 

When label, stamp and target are complete, deliver books to correct location in Shipping & Receiving (S&R). If going to a BIN, please make sure to complete the acquisitions work order [link to come] before delivering to S&R.