Solved: The Case of the Missing Books

Fayetteville State University implemented StackMap in February 2019 and since then has noticed a massive improvement in shelf organization and a decrease in questions from patrons. We talked to Velappan Velappan, Head of Access Services, about how StackMap has changed their library culture for the better. 

We have a lot of work study students here, around 25 to 30 students every semester and their main role is to shelve the books. Students usually work 10 hours a week, and they usually have to shelve one cart of books, after they’re done, one of us staff members will go see how they did the shelving to make sure they were doing it right. Before StackMap, we saw that if 100 books were shelved, around four or five of them were not in the right spot. But now, we show students the ‘map it’ function and they’re able to take the books to the right spot. Now we can say that 100 percent of books are correctly shelved. StackMap improves stack maintenance, and now we don’t have to worry about a book missing. 

Aside from decreasing the number of misplaced books, StackMap is also helping patrons get the hang of call numbers, and as a result, library staff is receiving fewer questions about call numbers. 

This morning, I was looking at Gimlet, our desk service software, which keeps track of patron questions at both the circulation and reference desks. When I entered “Call_Number_Location”, I saw that in 2018, there were 112 questions about call numbers, and 2019, I see there were only 45 inquiries. In 2020, we’ve only received four call number questions so far. Down the road, I want to see if the numbers keep going down. 

—Velappan Velappan, Head of Access Services at Fayetteville State University