Is there any space in the library?

In my previous blog post I asked the question

So do you already have such a system in place, does it do what it’s supposed to do, what would you do differently?

Using the power of the Twitter I received a few responses, one was from Ruth MacMullen.

The University of York Library has a page outlining availability of seating. When I checked the page you could see there was minimal seating available.

The University of York Library has a page outlining availability of seating.

The information is not live and is updated hourly.

What I didn’t realise when I wrote my previous blog post (and used an image of Costa) was that Google was also providing a similar information view on the University of York Library. It is this information which is used to inform the availability page.

Google was also providing similar information

I did wonder how Google was measuring the “busyness” of the place.

busy

“based on visits to this place”

So to compare I did look at how busy Google thought other university libraries were.

Down in Plymouth, at roughly a similar time, not so busy.

Plymouth

Up in Stirling, well not at all busy, for all we know the library is empty, but somehow I think not.

Stirling

As I said in my previous blog post was that historical data is useful in predicting future usage, but if you could combine it with live data as well, you might provide a better experience for learners.

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