Suma

Bret Davidson | Jason Casden

NCSU Libraries

by Joyce Chapman, Suma Community development and data analysis specialist.

Could we collect more detailed data, more easily, with fewer errors, and manage it all more consistently?

And could we build more sophisticated and intuitive analysis tools that are totally reusable for all data by lots of people in our institution?

Could we then use data about space and service usage to make better decisions (even small ones)?

The web has had this for years

An open source tablet-based app (well, toolkit) to aid library staff in assessment of how patrons are using library spaces.

In other words…the gathering, storing, exporting, analyzing, and visualizing of data across spaces/activities/time.

Show all the reference transactions in the learning commons between 11 PM and 1 AM on weekdays that are less than 5 minutes in length.

Staff scheduling
Building hours
Service desk service patterns
Study room reservations
Technology and furniture use
Use of specialized spaces (e.g. Graduate Commons)
Comparing branch and main libraries, at different times of day
Special Collections researcher services
Turnaways (e.g. Technology Lending)
Combine with other data: circulation, gate counts, tech lending, reserves, online services