Re: pens for marking CDs

From: Lynn Ewbank (lynn.ewbank@MAIL.STATE.AR.US)
Date: Thu Apr 25 2002 - 12:31:15 CDT

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    Message-Id: <200204251728.g3PHSVx04499@sitelicense.arizona.edu>
Date:         Thu, 25 Apr 2002 12:31:15 -0500
From: Lynn Ewbank <mailto:lynn.ewbank@MAIL.STATE.AR.US>
Subject:      Re: pens for marking CDs
To: mailto:IMAGELIB@listserv.arizona.edu

    <pre> Guenter-

    Good point.

    We outsourced our digital project. John R. Stokes, Jr., then of JJT, Inc., won the bid. During the testing and calibration phase, we decided to have complete sets of our images delivered on

            Mitsui CDs
            Exabyte 8mm data cartridges (170M AME Mammoth)

    We also had a set delivered on Kodak CDs because we anticipated outsourcing reproduction prints from our images at some point. It seemed easier to have the vendor make the extra copy than for us to do it later.

    Both CDs have serial numbers that are ####-####-####. After shipment 2 returned, I decided to add a field to the database that designates the manufacturer (in this case Mitsui and Kodak). This was done to enable the capacity to search for the Kodak CDs if and when we needed to quickly gather the CDs for outsource printing. But I think you make a good point for having the manufacturer as well as serial number as these will probably only be unique to the manufacturer.

    Lynn

    -----Original Message----- From: Guenter Waibel [mailto:mailto:guenter@UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU] Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 10:34 AM To: mailto:IMAGELIB@listserv.arizona.edu Subject: Re: pens for marking CDs

    I know I'm sounding anal now, but I've heard people claim before that CDs have unique serial numbers generated by the manufacturers, and I feel somewhat cautiously doubtful of that statement's implications. That serial number would probably be only unique to a specific manufacturer, not across the board for all manufacturers. If you need to switch to a new manufacturer (as many of us had to with some popular CD-Rs not being produced anymore), you could potentially get the same numbers again. Somehow I even doubt that they would be unique to one manufacturer - it seems to me that the process of creating unique id's across different plants etc would be somewhat daunting. All of this to say that I'd be very hesitant to use this id as my only identification for the CD. Lynn seems to have a system of the disk no and another Id, which seems like a very prudent approach.

    I happily stand corrected, though. Any thoughts? Does anyone have the inside scoop on how those numbers are created and in what context they are positively absolutely unique?

    Cheers, Guenter

    >We have labels on the CD cases for our photodigitization project because
    >everyone told us not to label or mark on CDs. Each CD does have a unique
    >serial number generated by the manufacturer. I keep a database of
    >information that includes an ID #, the disk #, collection initials, photo
    >numbers on the CD, shipment #, batch #, manufacturer's serial #, QC
    >performed (checkbox), loaded (checkbox to indicate that the images have
    been
    >loaded on our image server), and comments.
    >
    >This has worked well for us. When we want to retrieve a CD, we check the
    >database and can tell immediately which ID# it is. CDs are stored in
    >numerical order by ID #.
    >
    >Lynn
    >Lynn Ewbank, CA
    >Photo Archivist
    >Arkansas History Commission
    >One Capitol Mall
    >Little Rock, AR 72201
    >Phone: (501)682-6896
    >Email: mailto:lynn.ewbank@mail.state.ar.us
    >Website address: http://www.ark-ives.com/photo
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >-----Original Message-----
    >From: Hannah Frost [mailto:mailto:hfrost@STANFORD.EDU]
    >Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 4:14 PM
    >To: mailto:IMAGELIB@listserv.arizona.edu
    >Subject: Re: pens for marking CDs
    >
    >
    >Some folks say that using a water-based ink pen is OK, but in general
    >writing on CDs should be avoided if at all possible. I believe all CDs (at
    >least the good ones) have a unique number assigned by the manufacturer and
    >located on their inner hub, which you can use to create a separate index to
    >their contents.
    >
    >________________________
    >Hannah Frost
    >Media Preservation Librarian
    >Stanford University Libraries
    >
    >
    >
    >At 04:46 PM 4/24/2002 -0400, you wrote:
    >>I feel odd asking the listserv about pens, but this does have to do with
    >>imaging, indirectly.
    >>
    >>I was in the process of backing up our image files onto CD and looked at a
    >>CD I had burned 6 months ago. The ink from the permanent ink pen I had
    >>used (Kaiser - Schreiber) has bled from the letters into the surrounding
    >>white on the label layer. I don't know if it's limited to the label layer
    >>or it has/will bleed into the CD substrata (I can still use the CD, so
    this
    >>is not an impending crisis). I was wondering if this is a common
    >>experience or if there are other pens I should be using. Perhaps the PEC
    >>Pens?
    >>
    >>Feel free to reply directly to my e-mail.
    > >
    > >--Larry Wentzel
    > >--Digital Preservation Coordinator
    > >--Penn State University Libraries 

    --
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Guenter Waibel
Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
Digital Media Developer http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/
Digital Imaging SIG Chair, MCN http://www.mcn.edu/visig_subscribe.taf
mailto:guenter@uclink4.berkeley.edu
Phone   510-643-8655
Fax     510-642-4889
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    </pre>

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