Your Book Nest
You can print your own library barcode labels in an afternoon with three things - a pack of blank Avery 5162 labels from an office store, a label PDF generated by your library software, and an ordinary inkjet or laser printer set to print at 100%. You do not need pre-printed barcode sheets from a library supplier, and you do not need to meet their 3,000-label minimum orders. If you are weighing that route, why library barcodes cost so much has the full price comparison.
What you need
- A pack of blank Avery 5162 labels, or a compatible generic. Matte, not glossy.
- Library software that generates the label PDF for you. If yours does not, the mail-merge fallback is covered below.
- A printer and a sheet of plain paper for the alignment test.
Buy blank Avery 5162 sheets
Avery 5162 labels are 4" wide by 1⅓" tall, 14 to a US Letter sheet. The same size is sold under other Avery codes (8162, 5262, 5962) and by generic brands - anything listed as 5162-compatible fits the same template.
The size matters more than the brand. Most library software targets the smaller Avery 5160 (1" tall, 30 per sheet), which crams the number in fine print. The bigger 5162 label has room for a large-print code a volunteer can read at arm's length plus a scannable barcode underneath - and blank stock costs the same commodity price either way. Your Book Nest's labels are designed for 5162 for exactly that reason.
On price, a 25-sheet pack of 5162 (350 labels) is $13 direct from Avery, and a 100-sheet box (1,400 labels) is $33 on Avery's current sale, $65 at list. Generic compatibles run cheaper still. For a few hundred books, one pack covers the whole collection with sheets to spare.
Choose matte stock. Glossy labels and glossy tape reflect light straight back into a barcode scanner, which is the most common reason a freshly printed barcode refuses to scan.
Generate the label PDF
This is the step your software should do for you - lay each copy's code and barcode into the 5162 grid and hand you a PDF. In Your Book Nest, the Labels page lists every copy that does not yet have a printed label; print turns the queue into a PDF sized for 5162 sheets, with each copy's three-word code in large print above a scannable barcode.
If your software has a label generator, use it, and check which template it targets before buying stock. Some tools gate the generator behind a paid tier - Libib's sits in its Pro plan - so confirm your plan actually includes it.
Print a test sheet on plain paper first
Before a single label sheet goes near the printer, print page one of the PDF on plain paper. Two settings matter.
Print at 100%, called Actual Size in most print dialogs. Fit to Page is the classic first-timer mistake - it shrinks the page by a few percent, and that tiny drift compounds row by row until the bottom labels print across the gaps.
Then hold the test page against a blank label sheet, up to a window or a bright light. The printed text should sit comfortably inside every label outline, top row and bottom row alike. If it does not, the culprit is almost always scaling - check the 100% setting and test again.
Print the real sheets
Load the label sheets the way your printer's manual says - usually the label side facing the right direction in the manual-feed tray, a few sheets at a time. Keep the same Actual Size setting as the test. Let the sheets cool for a moment before peeling; laser printers run hot enough to soften the adhesive briefly.
Stick each label somewhere consistent - the same spot on every book, so a volunteer knows where to look without hunting. If you cover labels for durability, use matte label protectors or matte tape, for the same scanner-glare reason as the stock.
When your software will not make labels
Plenty of small-library tools stop at assigning numbers. TinyCat, for instance, has no built-in label printing - the standard advice on the LibraryThing forums is to export your catalogue and mail-merge it into Avery Design & Print or a Word label template.
The mail-merge route works, and for a one-off batch it is a reasonable evening's work. The friction arrives with batch two: you own the merge template, the export, and the number sequence, and you repeat all three every time a box of donations comes in. A generator that tracks which copies already have labels removes that whole chore, which is the real argument for software that does this natively.
How Your Book Nest helps
Your Book Nest generates and prints the labels as part of the flat $60-a-year plan - no add-on, no paid tier for the generator, no per-label charge.
Every physical copy gets its own three-word code, like oak-bat-tree, which is the label's large-print hero line - a volunteer reads it aloud and types it into whatever is at the desk, a phone included, no scanner required (more on that in whether a small library needs a barcode scanner). A scannable barcode prints underneath it, so the labels are ready if you add a scanner later, and a copy's existing barcode from a previous system can be kept alongside in its own field.
The Labels page works as a print queue. It remembers which copies already have a printed label, so after the first big print run you come back and print just the new arrivals - and a scuffed or peeling label can be reprinted at any time. Half-used sheets are not wasted either: tell it which labels on the sheet are already gone and the PDF starts on the first blank one.
The home page is a live demo with no sign-up - add a book and see the copy codes it mints.
Where this is heading
Today the label sheets are sized for US Letter Avery 5162. A4 Avery sheets, for libraries in the UK and anywhere else on A4 paper, are on the roadmap, alongside the rest of what I am building next.
