Limited Staff + StackMap = More Resources in Patrons’ Hands

The Supreme Court of Nevada Library isn’t your typical library. It serves mostly “pro se defendant” patrons, otherwise known as people without legal representation. The library operates on a somewhat unusual call number system — a challenge that’s only compounded at their unstaffed Las Vegas satellite location. Integrating StackMap has helped relieve this staffing issue and also ensure all materials are more accessible. We talked to Patrick Cox, Library Technician, about how StackMap helps alleviate a legal library’s inherent difficulties. 

We have kind of a unique library. I think 90 percent of our patrons are pro se. They’re going through the legal system and are representing themselves. They’re here doing research for their cases. The rest of our patrons are attorneys. 

Legal libraries tend to be slightly different than most regular libraries. Whereas most libraries would have a normal A-Z classification system, here, everything’s under the same LC call number, KF. That means all materials have the same starting point, which makes finding them more difficult. This is where StackMap helps us because it pinpoints the location of the material, so it’s less of a needle in the haystack situation. 

StackMap has helped tremendously with our satellite library in Las Vegas. We have two supreme courts, one in Carson City and a smaller one in Las Vegas, which isn’t staffed and is sort of a self-regulated library. Carson City is nine hours away from Las Vegas, and we send staff out there probably once every two months. Before StackMap, sometimes patrons would have to wait until a staff member was going out to Las Vegas or if we had a copy in Carson City we would ship it to them. Now, they’re able to use StackMap to find materials in that library.

We’ve also integrated StackMap into our meeting rooms’ technology. So, when people sign up online to use the meeting room StackMap gives them a visual representation of that space.

StackMap Room Mapping in Nevada Supreme Court Law Library’s LibCal

—Patrick Cox, Library Technician, Supreme Court Library of Nevada