[Michlib-l] People counters

[Derek Barth]

I formerly worked at a college library where we had these devices.  We went
through three different units in the 9 years I was there, largely due to
malfunctioning.  There would be many days where we did not get a count at
all, or the counter stopped working, perhaps, at 9 a.m. and we got no count
the rest of the day until we were checking the numbers that night and saw,
"Hmm, we only had 12 people in here today?"  One time it broke and we
shipped it to somewhere (Asia?) for repairs.  We had no door counter for
about 6 weeks then.

Our doors to the library proper is where the counter was, so anyone just
visiting the lobby for the circulation department--book returns, etc,, did
not get counted.  Conversely, anyone in the real library would get counted
on entering, on going to the circ area, on re-entering, on going to the
washroom in the lobby area, on re-entering, on going outside to make a
phone call (some people were polite), on re-entering...  We had some summer
Saturdays when I would check the number on opening, resetting it to zero,
and an hour later, knowing only two people had entered the building, would
look at the counter and see, maybe, 24 showing.

That was a nice number for making our reports look good, but if your goal
is a useful count of people, you would be far better off to assign someone
to go around and count heads every hour or so to tell you how many people
are truly using the facility.  We did this and used those numbers in
planning staffing, etc., far more than the door counter numbers.

Even if your counter only counts people going one way, there will still be
numerous re-entries that keep the number highly inaccurate in terms of
telling how many folks actually used your library on any given day.

I truly don't think these things to be that useful.

Derek Barth
Bath Township Library
















On Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 1:32 PM, Donna Winter <
dwinter at livoniapubliclibrary.org> wrote:

> We started using battery operated people counters that stick to the door
> frame and use beam break technology at the beginning of the year. They
> count both ingress and egress, so we divide by 2 to get a truer number.
> Since they are on our "regular" width doors, it's pretty rare that more
> than one person goes in at a time, unless it's an adult carrying a child.
> We decided to go low tech with ones that we record the count monthly and
> reset them manually.
>
> There are higher end ones that will wifi counts to you, but we didn't want
> to spend that many bucks at this time.
>
> I ordered through wecountpeople.com Brand name is TotalCounter.
>
> ------------------
>
> Donna Winter, Automation Services Librarian
> Livonia Public Library
> 32777 Five Mile Road
> Livonia, MI 48154
> ph: 734-466-2675
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The Petoskey District Library is also interested, so please include
> > me on any responses.
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > Mary Sue Prantera
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > From: michlib-l-bounces at mcls.org [mailto:michlib-l-bounces at mcls.org]
> > On Behalf Of Leo Papa
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 11:42 AM
> > To: 'Brandon D. Richards' <brichards at hlpl.lib.mi.us>;
> > michlib-l at mcls.org
> > Subject: Re: [Michlib-l] People counters
> >
> >
> >
> > The Canton Public Library is also interested in this information, so
> > please include me on any responses.
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> >
> >
> > Leo Papa
> >
> > Department Head, I. T.
> >
> > papal at cantonpl.org
> >
> > 734-394-1207
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > From: michlib-l-bounces at mcls.org [ mailto:michlib-l-bounces at mcls.org
> > ] On Behalf Of Brandon D. Richards
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 10:27 AM
> > To: michlib-l at mcls.org
> > Subject: [Michlib-l] People counters
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Good afternoon! If anybody is willing, we're currently looking to
> > gather recommendations for people counters. We're mostly concerned
> > with getting an accurate count (people don't get counted twice,
> > people walking side-by-side get accurately counted, etc) and having
> > a simple way to retrieve and reset the data. Thanks!
> >
> >
> > Brandon Richards
> > Technology Coordinator/Trainer
> > Houghton Lake Public Library
> > 4431 W. Houghton Lake Dr.
> > Houghton Lake, MI 48629
> > Phone: 989.366.9230
> > URL: www.hlpl.org
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Michlib-l mailing list
> > Michlib-l at mcls.org
> > http://mail2.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
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