GIS in the management of library pick‐up books
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830410543520 |
| Pages | 209-216 |
| Date | 01 June 2004 |
| Published date | 01 June 2004 |
| Author | Jingfeng Xia |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
GIS in the management
of library pick-up books
Jingfeng Xia
The author
Jingfeng Xia is a Masters Student in the GIS Program,
Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary,
Canada.
Keywords
Geographic information systems, Libraries, Shelf space,
Collections management, Books
Abstract
The management of library “pick-up books” – a phrase that
refers to books pulled off the shelves by readers, discarded in the
library after use, and picked up by library assistants for
reshelving – is an issue for many collection managers. This
research attempts to use geographic information system (GIS)
software as a tool to monitor the use of such books so that their
distributions by book shelf-ranges can be displayed visually. With
GIS, library floor layouts are drawn as maps. This research
produces some explanations of the habits of library patrons
browsing shelved materials, and makes suggestions to librarians
on the expansion of library collections and the rearrangement
potential for library space.
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Introduction
In order to create greater effectiveness in dealing with
library management concerns such as
reconfiguration of space, acquisition of material and
control of usage, it is essential to obtain accurate
information on book use in a library (Nkereuwem
and Eteng, 1994, p. 37). The convention in collecting
and analyzing such information has been to conduct
scientific surveys (McGrath, 1971; Morse, 1978).
The problem with such surveys is that they might not
show the overall picture of collection utilization in a
library if they are carried out at unsuitable times or
with small samples, or if analytical strategies are
applied unsuitably. A full survey involving all a
library’s collections would be quite expensive in terms
of time and labor involvement. Further, no survey
can provide a dynamic mechanism for librarians to
maintain a continuing set of data to monitor book
usage in the long term.
One solution is an automated tool that includes
a database containing data on book use (which can
be entered manually by people or scanned in by a
device), an analytical mechanism to manipulate
data, and an integrated interface to show the data
in a dynamic and visual form. Working with this
tool, librarians will be capable of controlling the
necessary information regarding book utilization,
and of making management decisions accordingly.
This project is an effort to use ArcView, the
most popular geographic information system
(GIS) software in the world, to develop a book
management tool that links a database to visual
maps. The maps represent the floor plans of the
MacKimmie Library at the University of Calgary,
with individual book shelf-ranges as the map
features, whereas the database contains data of in-
library book use. A multiple-week observation was
designed to record the call numbers of all books
that were used in selected collection areas of the
library and to enter the numbers into the database.
Upon analysis of the raw data, ArcView links the
resulting figures to each individual feature (e.g.
shelf-ranges) on the maps and draws the use
frequencies of the books with different shades of
colors. The tool is capable of providing
information to indicate the actual extent of book
use in the library, and immediately reflects any
updates in the database.
Library Hi Tech
Volume 22 · Number 2 · 2004 · pp.209-216
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830410543520
Received 9 November 2003
Revised 8 January 2004
Accepted 9 January 2004
The author wishes to thank the librarians and
librarian assistants at the MacKimmie Library for
allowing the recording of numbers of library pick-up
books, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful
comments on the first draft.
209
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