One challenge faced in the setup of the library last term was how to
allocated shelves for items belonging to a collection.
My colleagues and I were given a list of shelves and bays to
be allocated to items within the fiction collection. It based on the allocation
of items within the former site We stuck to it to begin with, but as we worked along, we
found that some letters required fewer bays. Other letters required more bays.
We were making changes using pen and paper.
Then we finding that there was no balance. Sometimes we
would end up with empty bays or sometimes there were none left. Pen and Paper amendments were not going to work at all for
me. It only made me and colleagues more confused.
I went to Excel and wrote the original list, then our list
with amendments, The numbers had to balance on both columns (in filling the
total number of bays available) otherwise I had to start again. I also did this
for a set of letters that needed to be re shelved.
The numbers balanced and we had our shelf allocation done
with no fuss. I was happy and everyone was happy.
I decided to repeat the approach for the Non Fiction
Collection because we ended up with more bays allocated than originally
planned. We actually got the room to fit some more in. I applied some
mathematical formulas (basing it on original percentages) and again done with
little stress.
We did make some changes along the way but it was never going to
be an issue.
If your stuck with allocating shelves and bays, never be
afraid to use excel and let it do the number crunching for you.
