Navigating a Major Urban Central Library with a Fresh Design

The Central Library is a focal point of the Austin Public Library system. It’s a 200,000 square foot building that incorporates several community-based features such as shared learning rooms, a teens-only lounge, and an event center that hosts weddings and author readings. However, it’s creative circular design creates some stack-navigating obstacles. We spoke with Reference and Collection Development Librarian Betsey Blanche, about how StackMap empowers patrons in a uniquely innovative space. 

We went from a three-story building to a six-story building. The move came with a lot of physical layout changes and a lot of things are a little confusing. One of the beautiful things about our building is that it has an atrium that runs through the center. We get a lot of natural light that way but that also means that the floors go in these big circles, so it’s a little easy to get disoriented and lose your way. 

We only have one or two staff people per floor. It’s nice to enable customers to find their own way when they want to. We are a Dewey Decimal library and we have repeating numbers depending on where you are. For example, we have the same sets of call numbers in three different places, and we just needed a tool to be like, there are some books in that call number in this space and in that space, but here’s the little StackMap pin for what you’re looking for, go to this floor and you can find it in that area.

We also have nonfiction split across two floors, so we really needed a tool to help our customers figure where they needed to go once they found something in the OPAC. We were able to add some landmarks in the StackMap maps to give people their bearings. We have this big sculpture in the atrium and we added that to the maps, and people can use that as their starting point. 

StackMap gives people a tool of their own to help them figure out where they’re going next. It gives people a sense of what corner of the building they need to go, what floor, and what the layout of the stacks will look like in the area they’re trying to find. I just saw that we are over 100 uses of StackMap in the building per day. Knowing that was really gratifying because it’s one of those things that you give to people as a tool but you have no way of knowing if they used it unless you see it opened on an OPAC. So, it was nice to see that a lot of people who need extra help are finding their way. 

- Betsey Blanche, Reference and Collection Development Librarian