A few days ago, there was an item the BBC website:
Coronavirus: Library books rearranged in size order by cleaner
The title says it all, but one has to look at the photo to appreciate the result.
During the lockdown, a team of cleaners went through the shelves and re-arranged all books in the order of their heights!
This may be shocking for regular users of the library.
But that set me thinking:
When books are arranged in topic-order (typical for a scientific/technical library, which uses a coding, e.g. the UDC), the result is an arrangement with random heights. However, this is very convenient for people (students/teachers/readers) to find books on a particular subject, field, or topic.
However, this means that the vertical spacing between shelves is dictated by the tallest book, and hence lots of empty space is also 'stored'. This may be considered a waste of space - a scarce resource in many places.
Suppose the whole library arranges books by height. That means, jumbled up w.r.t. subject, etc..
But on a given shelf, there will be books of almost the same height. That means, we can adjust the empty space above them to the minimum, and thus store more books! The library will now need less overall space. Or, in a given space, we can store more books.
There is another advantage of this. Serendipity and happiness will increase.
Consider the scene: I visit a library, I go through the indices (necessary now), and find that the book on Thermodynamics that I want to access is on Shelf 23B4. I go there, and find the book I need. However, there is a good probability that surrounding that I find a novel that I wanted to read (say Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days). I am happier, and my life is richer.
As a result of this, engineers may look at fiction, they may also read some sociology! You can extend this and imagine yourself in such a library. Communication between scientists, engineers, sociologists, economists, and laypeople will improve.
Does any small library want to try this out? I will help out. And, the reduction in space will be nicely quantifiable!
Coronavirus: Library books rearranged in size order by cleaner
The title says it all, but one has to look at the photo to appreciate the result.
During the lockdown, a team of cleaners went through the shelves and re-arranged all books in the order of their heights!
This may be shocking for regular users of the library.
But that set me thinking:
When books are arranged in topic-order (typical for a scientific/technical library, which uses a coding, e.g. the UDC), the result is an arrangement with random heights. However, this is very convenient for people (students/teachers/readers) to find books on a particular subject, field, or topic.
However, this means that the vertical spacing between shelves is dictated by the tallest book, and hence lots of empty space is also 'stored'. This may be considered a waste of space - a scarce resource in many places.
Suppose the whole library arranges books by height. That means, jumbled up w.r.t. subject, etc..
But on a given shelf, there will be books of almost the same height. That means, we can adjust the empty space above them to the minimum, and thus store more books! The library will now need less overall space. Or, in a given space, we can store more books.
There is another advantage of this. Serendipity and happiness will increase.
Consider the scene: I visit a library, I go through the indices (necessary now), and find that the book on Thermodynamics that I want to access is on Shelf 23B4. I go there, and find the book I need. However, there is a good probability that surrounding that I find a novel that I wanted to read (say Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days). I am happier, and my life is richer.
As a result of this, engineers may look at fiction, they may also read some sociology! You can extend this and imagine yourself in such a library. Communication between scientists, engineers, sociologists, economists, and laypeople will improve.
Does any small library want to try this out? I will help out. And, the reduction in space will be nicely quantifiable!
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