To old hands, I am in the process of designing my bar-code label and I realize that a central element is the "call number" in most libraries, i.e. the number used to find the physical address of the book once returned to shelves. Since we have a new (and small) library with no "manual card" heritage, we have been looking at ways at using Koha to simplify operations and, essentially, to eliminate the need for a call number. In many libraries I have seen operating (Montreal municipal library is one) each book has essentially two stickers: a small one on the edge that show a call number (often on two or three small lines - no bar code) and another sticker on the third cover, with one bar-code and printed lines. The explicit purpose of the edge sticker is to permit rapid return of books to their proper shelve by a human clerk. The shelves are then organized by genre (French Novels, English Novels, Dictionaries, etc.) physically stored in shelve islands. We found that this type of organization is optimized for borrowers browsing books on the shelves. It is the normal way to operate most libraries, however, one has to accept that a lot of the space of the library is organize for people moving around and not as a simple storage area for books. Also this type of storage is wasteful of shelve space simply because there is no separation of books by format size, thus every shelve has to accommodate the largest format and shelves have to be reachable by the shorter borrowers. Our major constraint is we are very limited in space, so we are considering replacing physical browsing mostly by virtual browsing, since Koha allows this type of regrouping. Also, we want to store books on shelves barely higher than the book format they will support. There will be no other regrouping than the sorting into three sizes. The size being self evident will not need a marker and since we will use the combination First-Author-Last-Name + Main-Title to do the physical sorting, we think we can eliminate the edge sticker entirely. Are we crazy ? Are we going to hit a brick wall ? I would appreciate any comment, especially from old hands who have seen it all. Michel Virard BHQ Montreal Canada mvirard@symtec.ca
Dear Michael, This sounds terrific - however has a lot of problems in real life. Unfortunately books are physical, not virtual. Coming quickly to mind hard to read surname, first name easily from the book cover, dust jacket etc. Some names seem "foreign" - which is the first name. This has to be done by a casual, minimally trained person sometimes a teenager working after school to return books to the shelves. Especially with 2-3 trolleys to shelve in a given time frame. Also there are many in between sizes for books, so even with 3 "sizes" there will be some wasted space. Also how will you identify which sequence the book will be in - fiction and nonfiction are often shelved separately. Children's books are usually shelved separately too. I have worked in a library where children and adult nonfiction were shelved in the one sequence and I am unaware of any complaints. However, today, I don't think this could be done in a public library - due to the legal unsuitableness of some material for children. How will the untrained shelver know adult, junior, fiction, nonfiction etc etc let alone separate collections, historical - nonbook formats too. The easiest is a clear label with fairly short indications of the shelving sequence- some Dewey and other numbers are excessively long for shelving. I agree that there is a large element of storage in libraries and that users can cope with a fixed location point that doesn't relate to like subjects together. However, it is less convenient for users or browsing. 2 little cents. Cheers Jean Truebridge Jean Truebridge Information Services Officer W.J. Tuckfield Memorial Library jtruebridge@adavb.com.au Australian Dental Association Victorian Branch Inc PO Box 434 Toorak VIC 3142 Australia Ph. (03) 9826 8318 Fax (03) 9824 1095 wwww.adavb.net Please note: any information contained in the e-mail is strictly confidential. It is intended for the addressee only and may not be used or disclosed without the permission of the ADAVB Inc. If you have received this email by mistake or are not the intended recipient please contact the sender immediately. Please consider the environment before printing this email. -----Original Message----- From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz]On Behalf Of Michel Virard Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 5:41 AM To: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: [Koha] No edge label - Is is realistic ? To old hands, I am in the process of designing my bar-code label and I realize that a central element is the "call number" in most libraries, i.e. the number used to find the physical address of the book once returned to shelves. Since we have a new (and small) library with no "manual card" heritage, we have been looking at ways at using Koha to simplify operations and, essentially, to eliminate the need for a call number. In many libraries I have seen operating (Montreal municipal library is one) each book has essentially two stickers: a small one on the edge that show a call number (often on two or three small lines - no bar code) and another sticker on the third cover, with one bar-code and printed lines. The explicit purpose of the edge sticker is to permit rapid return of books to their proper shelve by a human clerk. The shelves are then organized by genre (French Novels, English Novels, Dictionaries, etc.) physically stored in shelve islands. We found that this type of organization is optimized for borrowers browsing books on the shelves. It is the normal way to operate most libraries, however, one has to accept that a lot of the space of the library is organize for people moving around and not as a simple storage area for books. Also this type of storage is wasteful of shelve space simply because there is no separation of books by format size, thus every shelve has to accommodate the largest format and shelves have to be reachable by the shorter borrowers. Our major constraint is we are very limited in space, so we are considering replacing physical browsing mostly by virtual browsing, since Koha allows this type of regrouping. Also, we want to store books on shelves barely higher than the book format they will support. There will be no other regrouping than the sorting into three sizes. The size being self evident will not need a marker and since we will use the combination First-Author-Last-Name + Main-Title to do the physical sorting, we think we can eliminate the edge sticker entirely. Are we crazy ? Are we going to hit a brick wall ? I would appreciate any comment, especially from old hands who have seen it all. Michel Virard BHQ Montreal Canada mvirard@symtec.ca _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
If you are not concerned about browse-ability for users, then your idea sounds fine. But to add to Jean's comments, I think that instead of using an author/title combination for your call number you may want to use a simple sequential number system. By doing this, all new items will simply be shelved at the end of the range and you won't need to shift your collection as often (you won't have to move books off a crowded shelf to make room for a new item that belongs in the middle of the sequence). In fact, if your items have barcodes, then you could use *that* number to shelve by (as long as they're sequential); but the barcode will need to be on the spine so that you can easily see it when the book is shelved. Otherwise, you're pulling out books to look at the barcode all the time, not very efficient and hard on the books. Maybe one barcode on the spine and one on the inside of the book? The Remote Storage Facility at the University where I work shelves items by *trays,*with multiple books in each tray. The books still have their own individual barcodes and call numbers because they were originally in the publicly accessible library, but the tray number is how the item is now physically located. This type of sequential shelving works fine for staff-use, but not for patrons/users, especially with our 40-foot shelves. You can view their FAQ here: <http://www.library.uiuc.edu/circ/oak/MoreOSInformationforLibraryUsers.htm> Jennifer D. Miller Librarian, Family Resiliency Resource Center Graduate Student, Library and Information Sciences University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/No-edge-label---Is-is-realistic---tf4058351.html#a1156... Sent from the Koha - Discuss mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Hi Michael The public librarians in the audience are startled by your question - because we know that something more than 90% of our patrons choose what to borrow by browsing. And clearly they wouldn't cope at all well with your system. But having looked at your website, I think you're talking about a special library whose clients are the staff of your organisation? And that's a completely different scenario. You're really talking about a warehouse where items are selected from a catalogue. I suspect that your users are very adept at identifying what they want to look at, and that display of stock and browsing appeal are not at all relevant. I also suspect that stock turnover is not particularly high (a handful of items to be returned each day, rather than several trolleys full?). If this is so, I don't see any reason why your logic shouldn't be carried through to its logical conclusion. Go for it! And let us know how you get on. Rosalie Blake PS I can think of public library borrowers who would be delighted with this system - after all we could identify "the big reddish book that was shelved on the bottom shelf in the third bay". Which is something of a problem with our way! Michel Virard wrote:
To old hands,
I am in the process of designing my bar-code label and I realize that a central element is the "call number" in most libraries, i.e. the number used to find the physical address of the book once returned to shelves. Since we have a new (and small) library with no "manual card" heritage, we have been looking at ways at using Koha to simplify operations and, essentially, to eliminate the need for a call number.
In many libraries I have seen operating (Montreal municipal library is one) each book has essentially two stickers: a small one on the edge that show a call number (often on two or three small lines - no bar code) and another sticker on the third cover, with one bar-code and printed lines.
The explicit purpose of the edge sticker is to permit rapid return of books to their proper shelve by a human clerk. The shelves are then organized by genre (French Novels, English Novels, Dictionaries, etc.) physically stored in shelve islands.
We found that this type of organization is optimized for borrowers browsing books on the shelves. It is the normal way to operate most libraries, however, one has to accept that a lot of the space of the library is organize for people moving around and not as a simple storage area for books. Also this type of storage is wasteful of shelve space simply because there is no separation of books by format size, thus every shelve has to accommodate the largest format and shelves have to be reachable by the shorter borrowers.
Our major constraint is we are very limited in space, so we are considering replacing physical browsing mostly by virtual browsing, since Koha allows this type of regrouping. Also, we want to store books on shelves barely higher than the book format they will support. There will be no other regrouping than the sorting into three sizes. The size being self evident will not need a marker and since we will use the combination First-Author-Last-Name + Main-Title to do the physical sorting, we think we can eliminate the edge sticker entirely.
Are we crazy ? Are we going to hit a brick wall ? I would appreciate any comment, especially from old hands who have seen it all.
Michel Virard BHQ Montreal Canada mvirard@symtec.ca _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
participants (4)
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Jean Truebridge -
Jenn/Yana -
Michel Virard -
Rosalie Blake