I work in the mending unit at my school’s library, and we’re having a lot of problems with the ink on the book labels fading to the point where you can no longer read the call number nor the title of the book. We were using Smart Labels (which is a heat-based type printing machine), those started fading after several years. We switched to foil-back laser printer labels in the past two years, and problems are already apparent. The labels are peeling off the book but the foil part is not, which makes it very difficult to remove the foil and put on a new label. The ink is scratching off and fading in other instances. Is it a problem with our laser printer or a combination of the ink and the labels? Is there a better way of labeling library books that is long lasting and not so time-consuming and costly?
