I received this question the other day and I have a guess but not an answer. Can anyone help? If so, please post it as a comment. Thanks.
I have a random, totally irrelevant question that I think you would be the perfect person to answer. I was looking through my library card collection (I have about 8), and I noticed that all the card numbers start with the number 2. I was wondering if you could look through your collection (which is much larger than mine) and see if you notice the same trend. I was also wondering if you have any information as to why this is so.
–Bud
(My guess is that it has something to do with the company that the cards/barcodes come from. Many of mine start with a “2” but others start with a “4” and cards from the Denver Public Library start with a “D”.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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Ours all start with 1000.