ALA: Stacks Management

Innovations in Library Stacks Management: See presentations in ALA Connect

Nancy Kress, UNLV
Shelve more with less - with Lean

Started the Lean concepts at U. Chicago, but works with large or small libraries.
Problem: Books circulate and are returned at the very same time when students are unavailable to shelve them. YOu can introduce rolling due dates and take other measures, but it is the user that detemines our processes.

Lean (pioneered by Toyota) to create efficiency and add value for the customer.
Value is defined as anything the customer is willing to pay for.

Do more with less, but less what? Less:
correction: any form of mistakes or errors
waiting: work process has stopped (i.e. email messages piling up while we're here)
inventory: again email example.
excessive motion: excess people
transportation: excess supplies.

How is lean applicable to libraries. See the supermarket analogy. Just-in-time marketing. What are all the steps involved in getting the watermelon to you from the time the seed was planted? But what is important to you as the customer is that the

Lean:

• Specify value by specific service or product. Service provided for which the customer is willing to pay. Product - book. Right time: now, on the shelf where the catalog says it is: Right Price: Free.
  Wasteful Shelving Activities: correction (checking for errors). Shelve it right the first time. Spend more energy shelving the item up front. and sample the items to see if they are shelved correctly.
  
• Identify value stream: activities required to provide the product or service. use process mapping to identify all the steps in the process.
  Wasteful shelving activity: Sorting the books. These don't help get the books to the shelves in order. UNLV cut shelving time by 20 hours
  Wasteful shelving activity:
  
• make value flow: completion of tasks along the value stream with no delays or stoppage. Objective is to get the book back to the shelf. As the book travels to truck to sorting, etc., it goes to places where there is no oversight.
  Wasteful shelving activity: moving carts. Get an assembly line. Is the department laid out in such a way that they can get from return to shelf with minimal traffic. Do a spaghetti map: use a string to see how long that distance is. How can you shorten the distance?
  
• Let customer pull value: The customer identifies the product or service they need and gets it when they need it. Don't produce something until the customer asks for it. Customer is the trigger for movement (when they ask for the book you get it, as is reserve, paging, remote storage - move away from browsing)
  Wasteful Shelving Activity: inventory - any form of batch processing. A full book cart is considered a batch. Determine how many items can be shelved in an hour and only put that many items on the cart. Reduce doubling efforts as books won't have to be returned to "sorting"
  
• Perfection: the complete elimination of any activity along the value stream that don't add value.

Simple, yet counter-intuitive (to libraries) ideas can help save a lot of time. Started only with a stop-watch. Did five runs to test process and saw changes to be made immediately.


Donna Resetar, Valparaiso University
Automatic Storage and Stack Arrangement at Valparaiso University
Largest university chapel in the country?

Students wanted periodicals shelved together. Christopher Center opened in 1997.
300,000 volumes in the ASRS; 300,000 volumes in open stacks.
ASRS server links barcode with bin number. Item can go back to differnet bin when returned.
Bound periodicals prior to 2003 are in ASRS; serial sets, census publications, older reference sets.
Keep monographs on open shelves.
Doubled capacity with relatively same footprint as older building.
Current and bound periodicals on the shelves together in call number order.
Now half-height shelving in reference; photos of liaison librarian in the relevant section of the reference collection.
ASRS items reshelved once overnight.


Johnny Weyand, Widener Library, Harvard University
Wayfinding Assessment

Wayfinding should includePleasant interactions, be efficient, natural, and empowering.

Maps are good, but not enough. Neither are signs.

Signs should be:
concise
clear: full sentences take longer to process; use simple language and avoid jargon
color: naturally captivating
consistent: use similar patterns everywhere
current: change at least annually
contrasting: font size will help process information
cost-effective

design matters: get feedback. someone with empathy should be involved in the design process.

Listen to feedback.
Watch patrons navigate, especially at major decision points.
ask patrons questions.

ALA: Stacks Management