Most systems provide a keyword search of bibliographic records ONLY (not
authority records) as the default search when the user does not choose a
more specific search from a list that is labelled something like "author" OR
"title" OR "subject." Therefore, common practices in system design skew the
results on user studies. No one has built a system yet that offers users a
search for a known item with a fill in box for author, if known, and title,
if known. No one has built a system yet that will then match that search
against authority records, in case the user has searched on a variant of the
author's name and/or a variant of the title. So we don't know if users
would actually prefer the latter to a brute keyword search of bibliographic
records. Our current OPAC software is the result of system designers
deciding what most users want and then providing that without prior
investigation...
"Read more about it" (smile) in my paper on FRBRization at:
http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/715/
Martha Yee
myee_at_ucla.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu]On Behalf Of Tim Hodson
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 7:37 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Using controlled vocabularies to enhance
search/browse
Amazon had (i haven't checked recently), an annoying habit of assuming
that you had spelt something wrong, correcting it for you and giving you
those results. It wouldn't be until you tried to browse the results that
you would start to think "hang on these aren't relevant" and look at your
search term to then find it was not as you typed it.
NCSU (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/searchcollection/) don't redirect the user,
but they do use the subject headings as prominent refinement tools. I
realise this isn't quite the same as redirecting a natural term to a
thesaurus term, but it is easy to use, and above all understandable to the
user. However, a basic search for 'sermons, english' (7894 results)is not
the same as clicking on the subject heading 'sermons, english' (5599
results).
Another case where redirection is used is in the Wikipedia.
Disambiguation pages highlight possible different meanings, and where
redirection is automatic, you have a 'redirected from...' message at the top
of the page.
Perhaps the UI metaphor for redirection from non-preffered terms should be
to say, 'you searched for ..., this is what we have ...'
As a slightly related point, How many users use the authority system
searching? surely most users use a search based on keyword searching? -
this would add weight to the idea that NCSU has it right by using the
controlled vocabulary to allow a user to broaden or narrow their search,
rather than using it as a search target in it's own right.
Tim
http://informationtakesover.co.uk
On 09/06/06, Walter Lewis <lewisw_at_hhpl.on.ca> wrote:
Megan Manchester wrote:
> Wow, Jenn, this is really great. I had wondered if
> anyone was doing this.
Authority systems with keyword searching of non-preferred terms that
either
a) take you directly to the preferred terms or
b) stop and show you the preferred term leaving it another click
away
are definitely a piece of the puzzle that needs to be addressed in any
NGC (see how easy it is to fall into TLAs).
I've been a big fan of them in our local work as well.
Caution: be careful about taking the user to a result, the path to
which isn't evident on screen. In other words, if I search for "Canata"
and you return all the "Canada" results that may be great. But if you
*really* wanted "Kanata" then the words "stupid system" might well
escape our user's lips. For you, "stupid system" might then refer to a
search interface from vendor X, while the "preferred term" on my site
might be Vendor Y.
I think we need to *try* to ensure that the results page gives *some*
clue(s) as to how we went from your precisely spelled search values to
our finely crafted result set, especially when the part in between is
otherwise indistinguishable from magic.
Walter Lewis
Halton Hills
--
---
Tim Hodson
informationtakesover.co.uk
www.timhodson.co.uk
Received on Fri Jun 09 2006 - 13:56:37 EDT