Collection space management is an important endeavor to any collection that is heavily composed of physical material. Books on shelves covering vast areas of stacks can quickly get out of hand, space wise, if solid technology and practices are not implemented in its management. Weeding and stacks expansion can be great tools, but will prove increasingly less efficient as the collection becomes more chaotic. Shifting is the only tool that can restore order in this case. With this understanding, it is a great advantage for any library professional and library administrator to become aware of good practices and applications of shifting technologies in order to take control over and guide the user environment in their own institutions. Operations, such as shifting large physical collections and developing effective techniques to do it, have not been, and continue to remain an important topic neglected by the library field today. A new paradigm of space management, developed through extensive planning and field applications and designed from the ground up, for shifting large physical collections is outlined here—called the MEL Space Management System, or in short, the MEL System. Surveyed in this chapter is a review of this driving technology and its applications, covering the NITA Methodology Stage-I, Stage-II, and Stage-III in its developmental process.
Can Requirements Be Creative? Experiences with an Enhanced Air Space Management System