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Next Generation Library CatalogsLibrary Catalogs:

From Traditional to Next-Generation

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References Breeding, Marshall, “Next-Generation

Library Catalogs,” Library Technology Reports, v.43, n.4 (Jul/Aug 2007), available online at http://www.techsource.ala.org/ltr/ (accessed 11 Sep 2007)

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Traditional Library Catalog Scope of the Library Catalog Purpose of the Library Catalog Underlying Standards Problems with TLC

Next-Generation Library Catalog Federated Search or Metasearch Delivering Content to the User Enriched Content Faceted Navigation Web 2.0: Enabling User Contributions Other Features Putting Them All Together

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TraditionalLibrary Catalog

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Traditional Library Catalog Books – includes print and electronic books Multimedia materials – CDs, DVDs, etc. Newspapers, magazines, and professional &

scholarly journals – described at title level, not individual issues/articles

Others – such as musical scores, microfilms, etc.

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What is the purpose of the library catalog?

To find sources that correspond to a search criteria …

To identify sources … To select sources that satisfy an

information need… To acquire or obtain access to

sources…

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Underlying Standards

Descriptive Cataloging: AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, version 2)

Subject Cataloging: Library of Congress Subject Headings Library of Congress Classification Scheme

Encoding: MARC21 (MAchine Readable Cataloging) –

Bibliographic, Authority, Holdings, Classification & Community

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Problems with the Traditional Catalog Complex search interface

Not consistent with user interface conventions Unable to rank results by relevancy

Limited in scope Oriented to print material Unable to deliver online content

Lacking in social network features

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Next Generation Library Catalog

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Federated Search or Metasearch Traditional Catalog -

search individual information resources separately

Next Generation – search multiple information resources simultaneously

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How does the federated search work? Back-end communication through search protocols to send

query and receive results ANSI/NISO Z39.50 (http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency/ )

XML Others

Front-end processing and presentation of result sets Presents results in a standard format and structure De-duplication – i.e. consolidation of identical entries from

multiple targets Sorting and display

Sample Site

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Federated Search Issues

Speed of performance limited by slowest responding target Time-outs Minimal no. of targets Limiting no. of items requested

Sorting & ranking Based on initial set of records retrieved

Separate from the Library Catalog

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Enriched Content Contents include:

Cover art images, such as book jackets, movie cases, etc. Table of contents

MARC or Non-MARC Searchable or Not

Summaries Reviews

Sources: Syndetic Solutions (http://www.syndetics.com)

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Faceted Navigation Using facets to narrow down results Facets derived from bibliographic information

in the Library Catalog Visual appeal Sample Sites

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Web 2.0: Enabling User Contributions User ratings & reviews

Expression of opinions regarding works in the catalog

User tagging Assigning of informal terms to items of interest “Folksonomy” as a supplement to traditional

subject headings provided by libraries Blogs & RSS

Means to deliver information to users

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Other Features Keyword Searching

Google-like simple search box Relevancy

Most important items appear first followed by those of diminishing relevancy

“Did you mean …?” Detect common spelling errors Suggest a term that will work

Recommendations “Users that borrowed X also borrowed Y”

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Putting Them All Together

New discovery & delivery interface providing access to all of the content and services offered by a Library Through harvesting additional contents into local index Through incorporating federated-search into interface

Interface characteristics Simple search box AJAX technology to dynamically request and present

additional information without having to redisplay the entire page

Incorporate features such as Relevancy ranking, Popular choices, Faceted navigation, Tag cloud, “Did you mean …?”, User-contributed content, Enriched content, etc.

Sample Site

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Q & A

Thank you!

Alex FraserDoctoral StudentGraduate School of Library and Information ScienceDominican UniversityRiver Forest, Illinois