Developing Confident School Library Users with StackMap

It’s not easy to transition from one classification system to another, for librarians or library users. Librarians have to learn a completely different navigation structure on top of their other responsibilities and users go from one unfamiliar numbering system to another. This was the daunting task that Cory Stevens faced when she left her librarian job of over 20 years and started working as the Director of the Edsel Ford Memorial Library at The Hotchkiss School. She talked to us about how StackMap enabled her to master the Dewey Decimal Classification immediately and how the app has been a boost of confidence for staff and students alike. 

We have a really confusing library, and I’m new to Dewey so I use StackMap all the time to make it look like I know the library well. It definitely helps me a great deal, especially coming out of a Library of Congress building where I was for 22 years. I knew Library of Congress so well. If you wanted art, I would say “N”. But Dewey is a completely different animal. StackMap also helps with cutter numbers, and the way cuttering works in this library is sometimes the call numbers aren’t as detailed as the numbers I’m used to in Library of Congress.

StackMap gives a new user that same ability that an experienced user has on day one. I’ve been at Hotchkiss for less than a year, and I’m still learning the library layout. StackMap has made me less stressed out. We have five levels of books and that’s a lot. StackMap has been really helpful for me; it’s a big time saver. We don’t have a huge staff; we usually only have one person around at a time. So it’s great to be able to direct the students with confidence and show them how to use StackMap because we can’t always leave the desk and go up to the third floor with them easily. 

The students we have at this school are very independent, it’s just part of their makeup. They want to understand how something works rather than have someone do it for them. So anything that helps them with their independence and confidence works well with the culture at this school. 

My job helping students find a book would take much longer without StackMap, there’s just no question. When we show the students StackMap, they know not just which row, but which section in that row. It saves them so much time. The confidence thing is not inconsequential — to send a 9th grader who’s away from home into the stacks is a victory for them.

—Cory Stevens, Director of the Edsel Ford Memorial Library at The Hotchkiss School