{"id":630,"date":"2023-06-06T18:55:40","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T23:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/?p=630"},"modified":"2023-06-06T18:55:40","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T23:55:40","slug":"how-much-do-we-want-to-pay-for-a-floor-map-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/2023\/06\/06\/how-much-do-we-want-to-pay-for-a-floor-map-service\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Do We Want to Pay for a Floor Map Service?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In my post a few days about, “Mapping Options for Librarians,”<\/a> I put together quick list of features I’d like to see in one product (neither of the two leading solutions for libraries for creating and presenting library maps do all that I wish they could). I also made a claim that libraries may not want to spend too much on such mapping services. I’d like to unpack that a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I recall correctly, the first commercial product that came out to meet the specific needs of libraries offered to provide links from call numbers in catalog records to online maps that would show on a relevant floor map the shelf location for that item. That seemed like a neat trick at the time when libraries were as much about books on the shelves as they were about their online collections. Now, at least at our library, the balance of our collections has tilted far more toward online (there are three times as many ebooks in our collection as print ones). In the past, finding a book usually meant getting a call number and being confronted by the task of finding where on the shelves that book would be found. Now, it’s likely (but still debatable) that the bulk of our book usage by students at our college is with our ebook collection, not our print one (how to prove this point is beyond the scope of this post and, most likely, beyond my abilities).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other locations in our library that were once highly used are now no longer as central for researchers: the print journal collection, the microfilm machines (there’s now only one and it’s kept in our Access Services offices), the photocopiers. We are seeing more than ever demand for individual and group study spaces, which is why we are moving to compact shelving to gain back some space for seating. The range of service points and specialized locations in the library has shrunk somewhat, making the need for highly detailed maps to help with wayfinding less important than the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t get me wrong, though. Students at my library struggle just as hard to find the location of the study room they or their friends booked, and that service is just as popular as ever. And students still are challenged by the task of locating a print book; it’s just that now, that’s a task they are doing less often than in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m happy that we found the LibCal service to be one that is priced right for us, even though the features offered by StackMap are mostly superior and better designed. Given our flat budget and rising prices for e-resources that we have to have, it’s hard for me to make an argument for paying as much for a mapping service with costs that equal what many of our database subscriptions cost or what our LibGuides subscription costs’ those are resources that are heavily used. I’m sure any maps we put online (and print out for signs, flyers, etc.) will indeed be useful and used, they just don’t rival other things we have to pay for in terms of importance to our users’ needs and habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my post a few days about, “Mapping Options for Librarians,” I put together quick list of features I’d like to see in one product (neither of the two leading solutions for libraries for creating and presenting library maps do … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}