Post on 27-Mar-2015
Roy TennantCalifornia Digital
Library
Roy TennantCalifornia Digital
Library
Points of Pain, Peculiar Possibilities, & A Patron Paradise
Points of Pain, Peculiar Possibilities, & A Patron Paradise
or, A slightly arbitrary set of hair-brained
ideas
or, A slightly arbitrary set of hair-brained
ideas
Pilgrimage to Mecca
Our users are increasingly using the Internet for their information needs…can you say “Google”?As the younger generation grows to adulthood, library funding and support may be in jeopardyWe’re dying out here — even if it isn’t immediately apparentBut not all gloom and doom — signs of dissatisfaction w/Internet information offers us a window of opportunityWe can and should trade on our reputation
Life in the ‘Hood
What You Can Do For UsIn a nutshell: make every library LOOK HUGE and FEEL PERSONAL
Build infrastructure and services that no single library can build — create BUILDING BLOCKS from which we can create services
Know when to be out front and when to let us be out front
Offer compelling central services that drive users to their local library
What Can We Do?Out Google Google:
Return Google results along with a good deal more
Build on our strengths:
Centralized metadata (WorldCat)
Dispersed service points (local libraries)
Think imaginatively
Ripoff good ideas from wherever they can be found
What do libraries want?
What do library users want?
How can we get that for them (us)?
The Basic Questions
To provide for the information needs of a clienteleTo build useful collections and provide effective services
To be used
What Libraries Want
To find what they wantTo find as much or as little as they needTo experience as little pain as possibleTo not have their time wastedTo have the option to control their experience and make informed decisionsTo be effectively advised
What Library Users Want
Basic User TruthsOnly librarians like to search, everyone else likes to find
A cite in the hand is worth 10 in the database
Good enough is just that
Pain avoidance is a powerful motivator
Library catalogs suck as information finding toolsThere are too many possible sources to search them separatelyThere is little advice about which resource to searchThere is no advice about which is better (we know, but we’re not telling)
Points of Pain
Why Library Catalogs Fail as Information Finding Tools
They are unable to search the entire universe of information
Local catalogs often lack books that can be requested
They have too little information about items
Most are Unable to accept multiple metadata formats
Many have hostile user interfaces (complexity is often a sign of lazy or incompetent design)
Union catalogs often have multiple records for the same item (which to request?)
What Better Case for FRBR?
FRBR: Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records, from IFLA
A recasting of bibliographic description into levels:
Work
Expression (translations)
Manifestation (editions)
Item (copies)
Both RLG and OCLC are experimenting with it
A&I Dbs
OAI Repos.
WorldCat
The Web
DL Colls.
Other
Integration Engine
Making the Pie
Making the Pie: Metadata
Metadata: cataloging by those paid better than librarians
Metadata: Structured information about an object or collection of objects
We must become very, very proficient with metadata — creating, harvesting, transforming, serving; your Metadata Switch is very important work
MARC is just the beginning, and unless we’re careful, will be too limiting; we must be proficient with Dublin Core, MODS, METS, etc.
File System
StoredEncodedin TEIXML
SearchIndexFull Text
UC PressDatabase
LibraryCatalog
METSRepository
MODS record
UC Press record
Structure
RecordsCreated
File System
StoredEncodedin TEIXML
Stored
SearchIndexFull Text
Project
Profile
SelectedFields
Extracted
SearchIndex
UC PressDatabase
LibraryCatalog
METSRepository
Project
Profile
SelectedFields
Extracted
MODS record
UC Press record
Structure
RecordsCreated
SearchIndex
Userqueries
File System
StoredEncodedin TEIXML
Stored
SearchIndexFull Text
UC PressDatabase
LibraryCatalog
METSRepository
Project
Profile
SelectedFields
Extracted
MODS record
UC Press record
Structure
RecordsCreated
SearchIndex
XSLT
User requests book
Resultsin XML
File System
StoredEncodedin TEIXML
Stored
SearchIndexFull Text
UC PressDatabase
LibraryCatalog
METSRepository
Project
Profile
SelectedFields
Extracted
MODS record
UC Press record
Structure
RecordsCreated
SearchIndex
XSLT
METS record in XML
File System
StoredEncodedin TEIXML
Stored
SearchIndexFull Text
Javaservlet
User requestsbook segment
UC PressDatabase
LibraryCatalog
METSRepository
Project
Profile
SelectedFields
Extracted
MODS record
UC Press record
Structure
RecordsCreated
SearchIndex
XSLT
File System
StoredEncodedin TEIXML
Stored
SearchIndexFull Text
Javaservlet
Booksegmentreturned
“Ingesting” — centralized by an individually tailored process“Harvesting” — centralized by a process applicable to an entire class of resources“Crawling” — software-based HTTP fetching“Dynamically Queried” — broadcast search at the moment of user need
Methods for Encompassing Resources
Making the Pie Principles
We never metadata we didn’t like (metadata R Us)
Decentralize metadata maintenance whenever possible
Centralize metadata searching whenever possible — Federate, then slice and dice
Metadata can be both mined and enhanced
Slicing the PieSlicing can be pre-selected or dynamic
By:
region (e.g., Australia)
topic area
format type
ease and rapidity of access
When to Slice the PieBefore searching:
Select general topic area
After searching:
Results clustering
Search within results
Slicing the Pie PrinciplesStrive to serve only that which will feed the hunger
Few will want the whole pie; some will want it sliced; others will want to slice it themselves
Slicing must happen regardless of how it was made
Serving the Pie
Provide ways for users to “drill down” in search results
Guide the user to useful subject terms
Cluster search results
Rank by:
Numbers of holding libraries
Usage, e.g., “click through count”
Weights assigned by librarians, or reflected in book reviews
Serving the PieWe need ways to keep librarians happy without enraging patrons (e.g., “advanced search” option)
Searching is an iterative process
A good search result is not the end, but the beginning (e.g., provide ability to format a bibliography, download or print the citations)
Serving the Pie PrinciplesBest served by those who know the consumer
Global services can (and should be) locally branded to maximize service delivery options for end users
Software “skins” are not new
No more business as usual!Out Google Google (Google w/ added value)Get good at sucking things upBe good producers and consumers of metadataWork together more broadly and deeplyBe user focused, but not user drivenHire out of our ranks, read out of our profession, get out more!
Things We Must Do
RecapHelp us LOOK HUGE and FEEL PERSONAL
Think building blocks, extensibility, flexibility, skins, richer and more diverse metadata
Federate, then slice and dice
Free WorldCat!