Optimizing at the Library: Part One

Hello, and welcome! For the past four years, I’ve spent a lot of time organizing and shelving materials at the library, both as a volunteer and while being paid. I also have a Computer Science background and have a natural tendency to muse about how to execute my daily tasks more efficiently. Shelving is pretty mind-numbing and repetitive, so naturally this is an area in my life where I’ve spent some time optimizing.

Right now I want to talk about how I’ve optimized my path for a sweep, or tidying-up, of my library. My library focuses its services on babies, toddlers, kids, and their parents, so it can get messy very quickly, especially after a storytime. In order to sweep a library most effectively, you need to be familiar with its patterns, so here’s a (not-to-scale) diagram of my library’s patterns:

Part of the sweeping process in my library is collecting any materials that are no longer shelved in their proper place. These materials might be from (lovingly) ransacked displays, knocked off the shelves, or materials people looked at but didn’t want to check out. They can also be from a section that was perused so vigorously that the materials can’t just be straightened up anymore.

At my library, my sweep starts and ends in the staff area. Before I tell you how I go about my sweep, how would you go about it? You need to address every messy area, check all bookdrop bins, and at least visually inspect every pathway between bookshelves.

The first rule of paths is that a longer walk = more work. Therefore, ideally, I want to visit each part of the library as few times as possible. Also, books are heavy. So in order to use the least energy, I want to have the heaviest cart for the least distance. These are big clues for how I want to perform my path.

The solution I decided on starts with me heading to the farthest, messiest part of the library from the staff area: the room all the way on the right of the image. That way, during the time I carry materials, I get steadily closer to the staff area. From there, I travel like this:

With this path, I can visually check each aisle for misplaced materials, and pick up any items in the messy areas as I pass through them, and I don’t have to push heavy books for that long. My cart is heaviest right outside the staff area, which is just what I want.

Do you agree with my optimization? What is your path solution for this layout? Are there any insights you’ve gained from this post that you want to use in your own solutions? Would you reposition the bookdrop bins if you were in charge? Feel free to let me know at marisa[at]yxaj.dev.

Thanks for reading!