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.
.@UoYLibrary & @UoYITServices used Google (& dark magic) to produce a real time availability system https://t.co/YqBBAB0ees @Jisc @jamesclay
— Ruth MacMullen (@thehearinglib) March 6, 2017
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 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.
I did wonder how Google was measuring the “busyness” of the place.
“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.
Up in Stirling, well not at all busy, for all we know the library is empty, but somehow I think not.
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.