StackMap Support Makes Mapping Magic Happen

This public library in Connecticut has six branches and a main downtown location. Such an expansive and widespread collection means that managing titles can be a challenge. We talked with the library’s Technical Services Manager, about how they use StackMap to make title location more systematic.

We have a four-story library with books here and there and a history center, and really, it can be hard to find things. In addition, we recently redid some of the floor plan of the main floor and a lot of moving around. This tool just really helps our patrons locate the material with more ease. We’ve moved the collection around a lot in the past year or two, and people weren’t sure if things were downstairs or upstairs, so StackMap helps to focus their search.

StackMap also helps to show where the special collections are located. Since they’re in a different physical space, you can’t tell by the call number that this book is located in the History Center. So, when you see it in the map you know that you have to go up two flights of stairs. With StackMap, you’re not roaming around in the main floor trying to find it, even though there are books on the main floor with similar call numbers.

The majority of our books are in the Library of Congress. Then we have children’s books, the picture books, and then also the History Center, which is in the same category as the Library of Congress but in a different a place. So, we had to find a way to get all of these variations into the map. I don’t know what Jun [their Implementation Specialist at StackMap] did, but he worked his magic so we can have the F1000 in two different places but you can tell if the F1000 is going to be upstairs or downstairs.