gvsi / librarymapping

Library Mapping Project

LibraryMapping

About

How do students locate books on the Main Library shelves? Based on the high number of enquiries received at the Main Library helpdesk, we know that the answer currently is, 'with difficulty'.

The Main Library has six floors, contains over 3 million books, uses several classification systems and has a central staircase that stops on the second floor.

This project will address this issue by building on the successful implementation of Primo and Alma. It will integrate DiscoverEd search results with an application showing the location of the item within the Library. An item's shelving bay will be pinpointed on an interactive map. The application will also highlight facilities within the Library on maps e.g. printing, study spaces, toilets, and computers for study.

The application will be easy to update with new maps and location information, to adapt as buildings change. The Main Library will be the first location to be mapped with the other libraries made available in due course.

The application will improve the student experience and free up time for helpdesk staff. It will also enable the collection of usage statistics for items before they are issued. The application will be developed by the Library Digital Development Team in consultation with the helpdesk staff in the User Services Division.

System set-up: MySql Ruby on Rails Apache

Geolocation: To enable uncomment line 3 of map_display.js

librarymapping's Issues

Design the logo

The logo will be shown on both the map and the admin panel. It should be easily associated with the library mapping project.

Implement selective update of changes

Instead of looping through all the elements in the canvas and querying the updates, detect which ones have been changed and only update those accordingly

Design the admin panel interface

The admin panel should be easy to operate. It provides the following functions:

1. Login / Logout
2. Click new item, drag from the toolbar to create new elements
3. Select to edit or delete elements
4. Undo / Redo the edit on the map
5. Select the floors on the map
6. Edit attributes of an element in toolbar - Save or cancel
7. Hide the toolbar

Setup database schema

Agree on the database design and create Rails migrations.

Map "Library of Congress" sections to numbers

e.g
Folio A --> 0
Pamphlet A --> 1
A --> 2
AA --> 3
...
AZ --> X
Folio B --> X+1

Also create a script that converts a book (e.g. Folio A 1234) to its number representation (e.g. 0 1234)

Implement multiple canvases for floors

Create a query that matches a book to a database shelf object

The query should map book (e.g. QA 1234) to a database shelf object that contains that book within its range (e.g. QA 1200 - QA 1300).

Design the icons

The icons can be used for distinguish different areas, for instance, the study area, the computer tables, the meeting rooms and so on.

Design the elements

Elements can be dragged to canvas in the admin panel to outline what can be found in one area.

Finish implementation of load SVG into canvas

We have to load these dynamically

Implement scrollable and zoomable canvas

Canvases are statically sized and we need a way to scroll and zoom within the Fabric.js canvas

Save changes to canvas in database

Allow custom attributes in canvas elements

There needs to be a way to define custom fields non-related to the representation of elements onto the canvas. These include fields like the range of the books in the shelf.