Some brief searching on Google Local over at SEO by the SEA for major libraries brought up some disappointing results. I’m not overly surprised with the findings.
I’ll probably look at some more libraries to get a better sense of what is going on with Google Local Search and libraries, but it appears that the smaller the city, the less relevant the results may become. Many libraries don’t have a web site associated with them, and if they have a web page on a site, the link displayed may go to the front page of that site. But some or the results are mystifying, like the link to the University of Virginia for the University of Delaware result.If you run a Library, I believe that you can submit information about your library to the Google Local Business Center even though it isn’t a “business.” That may help information about your library show up correctly in Google Local listings.
Another problem we have here is that many buildings don’t have real street addresses but instead name the address after themselves. The library is 100 Library and the Administration building is “Hannah Administration Building”. All mail is processed by the university so it is just as easy to sort by building then address but as you can imagine even if you know the address there can be major problems mapping directions. I’m sure this choice made sense when the central mail delivery was designed but with online maps and GPS becoming popular it’s becoming more problematic. I’ve had multiple calls for street addresses to put into their car GPS system only to have to tell them there is no real street address. I usually had to find a nearby intersection or try to use Google Maps and some browsing to find something resembling lon/lan coordinates. Not fun.
I think in the future when people choose locations for new buildings or expansion, the ability to easily map the location will become more and more important in the decision making process.