Fix a worn out Toronto Public Library card

I’m on a roll this week - a record number of posts (3 in 7 days…).

The bar code on my library card has been worn out for a while.  My last few trips, its probably taken about a minute for me to play around with the positioning of the card on the library’s scanner to get it to read correctly.

Years ago, I’d read how my friend Chris created a custom library card with all of his family’s card numbers on it.  Although I’m sure the instructions he provided would work (I suspect the library’s barcode readers handle many formats), the bar codes his method created didn’t match the one on the card.

Here’s how to get one that matches:

• The format is Codabar
• The Start and Stop character is ‘A’
• The Toronto Public Library’s account number already has a check digit, you don’t have to add one
• Many online generators exist.  I used abarcode.net

I printed mine and stuck it to my old card with packing tape.