Innovative Interfaces: making the most of the data we have
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Innovative Interfaces Making the most of the data we have Winona Salesky | Digital Initiatives Librarian | The University of Vermont [email protected] | http:// cdi.uvm.edu / |http://
description
Overview of the changing face of the library OPAC
Transcript of Innovative Interfaces: making the most of the data we have
Innovative InterfacesMaking the most of the data we have
Winona Salesky | Digital Initiatives Librarian | The University of [email protected] | http://cdi.uvm.edu/ |http://thedil.wordpress.com/
What role does metadata have a in a web 2.0 world?
More familiar sites
Where does the library fit in?
“Let’s face it — the obsession with which a library describes an item is second to none. ”
- Peter MurrayDisruptive Library Technology Jesterhttp://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils/
What does all that rich metadata look like to our users?
Limitations of traditional library interfaces
• Lack scan-ability
• Limited search functionality
• Difficult to create complex search strings
• Difficult to manage large results sets
• Difficult to make connections between related materials
• Does not take advantage inherent flexibility of digital formats and the extensive nature of the metadata
Scan-ability
Creates a hierarchy of importance by:• Grouping related items together• Making important information look different• Making clear distinctions between items• Provide visual clues for site functionality• Paying attention to white space
Limited search functionality
• No spell check, or spelling suggest
• No stemming
• Limited to no relevance ranking
• Little or no ability to refine results set
Additional limitations
• Difficult to create complex search strings
• Difficult to manage large results sets
• Difficult to make connections between related materials
• Does not take advantage inherent flexibility of digital formats and the extensive nature of the metadata
Leveraging our metadata
Facets
Topic
FormatTemporal
Author
Genre Geographic Area
Facet: One of the sides of a body that has numerous faces. -OED, online
Some advantages of facets• Increased avenues for discovery• Allows users to easily “build” complex searches• Prevent empty results sets• Integrates keyword searching with browse-ability• Always a visible “path” so users never feel lost• Allows users to expand and narrow results set• Easier to explore the true extent of the collection• Recognition over recall• Easy to add new facets, categories, or items
Some limitations of facets• Use of facets will make inconstancies in
metadata obvious to users.
• Some facets become unmanageable with large results sets.
• Facets work better on some fields than others.
Some examples:• Flamenco
• http://flamenco.berkeley.edu/
• NCSU• http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/
• MyResearch Portal VuFind• http://research.library.villanova.edu/ http://www.vufind.org/
• WorldCat• http://www.worldcat.org/
• Scriblio • http://lamson.wpopac.com/library/
• UVM Center for Digital Initiatives • http://cdi.uvm.edu/
Something a little different
An Innovative Interface
http://well-formed-data.net/experiments/elastic_lists/
Other projects to keep an eye on:• Blacklight
• University of Virginia
• eXtensible Catalog • A University of Rochester/Mellon funded project
• Evergreen• Open source ILS led by the Georgia Public Library Service
• Koha• Open source ILS
• LibraryThing for libraries• Providing tagging, reviews and more for integration with library catalogs.
• AquaBrowser • A Medialab Solutions project
• Primo• From Ex Libris
Barriers to change
• Inflexible vendor based systems
• Non-transparent data formats
• Data inconsistencies
• Lack of technological expertise on a library-by-library basis
Where to next?
