Collection Shifts and Seamless Updates

In March 2017, Case Western Reserve University began rolling out StackMap across its library systems. We spoke with Rob Myers, the Associate Director for Library Operations at the Judge Ben C. Greene Law Library, about how StackMap makes collection changes smoother and more efficient.

We love StackMap. We particularly like that it provides range numbers along with maps of the various floors and the precise locations within the library. Now, when a patron asks where something’s located, we can quickly print out a map of the floor, location, range, and call number of the item. Without StackMap, we wouldn’t have been able to present people with the range numbers that they should go to.  

The law library is about 27,000-square feet, and we have about 300,000 volumes. This year, we are going to be embarking upon a fairly large shift of our collection on several floors. On the back end of StackMap, we can make changes on the fly. So, any shifting that’s done in a single day can be reflected that same day. It's seamless for our patrons to locate things. Unlike in the past when we've done shifts, StackMap enables us to quickly update the new locations of material so patrons always know where their material is located. We wouldn’t have been making actual changes previously, and librarians would just have to go and relearn the collection. Now, everybody can stay up to date to where things are actually physically located.

StackMap has become routine. I don’t know how we lived without it. 

- Rob Myers, Associate Director for Library Operations, The Judge Ben C. Greene Law Library, Case Western Reserve University