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Home → Item Cataloging and Holdings Management → Processing New Items → Print Spine Labels

6.2. Print Spine Labels

Last Updated 12/19/2025


Printing Spine Labels for Newly Cataloged Items

On This Page

Printing Spine labels requires configuration of your browser, your printer, and your Evergreen settings. Staff can create templates to ensure consistency.

Configuring Your Browser

Hatch

Spine label printing does not work well with Hatch, so it is recommended that you remove Hatch completely from the workstation where spine labels will be printed. If you need Hatch for other functions, create a second Chrome profile without Hatch to be used specifically for cataloging and spine label printing.

Headers and Footers

Before printing spine labels, you will need to turn off print headers and footers in your browser.  You should configure your browser so that Chrome does not add headers and footers to items printed on certain printers. 

You can turn off these headers and footers using the following steps:

  1. In the Chrome menu, click Print… to open the print preview screen.
  2. Click More Settings.
  3. Uncheck Headers and footers.

The Label Printing Interface

To set-up printing in Evergreen, you will need to open the Label Printing interface. There are four different places where you can print labels:

In the Holdings Editor

  1. In the Holdings Editor, go to the Defaults tab and check the box for Print Item Labels on Save & Exit.
  2. Add items or call numbers and items, Save & Exit.
  3. Print Labels will open in another tab.
  4. Make any edits needed for call number spacing under the Call Number tab.
  5. The Print Labels interface will always open after Save & Exit until you uncheck the box.

From Item Status

  1. Go to the Item Status List View by selecting Search > Search for items by barcode or Circulation > Item Status.
  2. Scan or enter one or more barcodes.
  3. Select the items needing labels (you can print all or a subset).
  4. Under the Actions menu, go to Show > Print Labels.

From Item Buckets

  1. Place barcodes in bucket for label printing.
  2. Go to the Item Buckets page (Cataloging > Item Buckets).
  3. Open the bucket used for label printing.
  4. Select the items needing labels (you can print all or a subset).
  5. Under the Actions menu, go to Show > Print Labels.

From the Bibliographic Record

  1. Go to the Holdings View tab in a bibliographic record.
  2. Select the items needing labels.
  3. Under the Actions menu, go to Show > Print Labels.

Creating and Using Print Templates

Catalogers may print labels by using or modifying the default template, creating and saving their own templates, or importing templates created by another cataloger. Catalogers may use multiple templates to accommodate special print jobs, such as narrow books.

To create a template, type a name for the first template into the Template field and click Save, then make any changes needed to the template. Create as many templates as needed. Be certain to save each template after any changes.

To create templates without navigating into a specific item record first:

  1.  Navigate to Item Buckets.
  2. No need to open a bucket, just select "Print Labels" from the Action menu in the Item Bucket Interface.
  3. Click on the Templates tab.
  4. Make edits.
  5. Save.

Troubleshooting print issues  

  • Make sure your printer drivers are up to date.
  • You can change font, size, and weight. These fonts generally worked well: Arial, Arial Black, Garamond, Courier, Comic Sans MS, Verdana.
  • Set margins to none and make sure options for background graphics and headers and footers are deselected.
  • To try to resolve blank labels in between printed labels:
  • Double check your Label Template and printer configuration. Pay special attention to your gap height.
  • Try adjusting your scale in the print dialog. Scaling back to 95 may eliminate blank labels in between printed labels.

Note: There are a number of devices that can print spine labels with Evergreen.

External Training Resources

Several other Evergreen consortia have training videos and recordings available to help with spine label set-up:

  • The BC Libraries Cooperative video on printing spine labels in a sheet.
  • Lynn Floyd presented at the 2019 Evergreen conference and her Powerpoint presentation (called Labels, Labels, and More Labels) is downloadable from this page: https://evergreen-ils.org/conference/2019-evergreen-international-conference/2019-presentations/

Knowledge Tags
printing  /  print templates  /  spine labels  /  Item Cataloging  / 

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