Short Barcodes
What is this?
If your collection has barcodes with a standard length, any barcode that is not that length may be an indicator of a problem.
Why is this trouble?
A shorter barcode in the catalog may or may not match the barcode that is actually on the book. It may be an indicator of data corruption (where some characters disappeared), or of being typed incorrectly into the system.
Even if a slightly shorter barcode does match the book (maybe due to being a mistyped duplicated barcode), I recommend replacing that barcode with a standard one to make new problematic barcodes apparent on this report.
NOTE that some barcodes may appear shorter because their checksum is a space character. Most applications (such as search and checkout) will still work correctly if the space is missing from the barcode in the system, so you may choose to target barcodes with 11 or fewer characters for correction first.
Exceptions
Some systems use shorter strings of numbers as temporary barcodes until the resource is received and barcoded.
Some libraries use shorter identifiers as "barcodes" for non-circulating collections.
How to Find
If you are in Alma, there is an analysis to search for this issue in the "Looking for Trouble" folder. Go to the "Barcodes" folder and look for the "Short" analysis. By default, this report look for barcodes that are shorter than 13 characters but longer than 8 characters. You can adjust to what is appropriate for your own collection.
If you can search or filter your barcodes by regular expression, you
can build an expression to match barcodes that are too short. For example
if your barcodes should be 13 characters but may be shorter than 8 characters,
you can use an expression like
/^.........?.?.?.?$/
(8 copies of . followed by four copies
of .?).