I think we need to be more specific with these things. Do we know
that "80%" of users are happy with Amazon's interface? Not really,
of course, but judging by their popularity, we can assume that many
users are happy _enough_ with it---for the task of finding a book to
buy.
But what is it they like about it? What is it about Amazon that is
better than Random Sample Library Catalog? Ideally, we'd actually
gather some data from actual users; but we can potentially accomplish
something just by speculating too, so long as we speculate humbly
knowing that we might be wrong and looking at the other side. But
it's not enough just to assume 'we need to be more like Amazon', for
all possible values of 'like Amazon'.
After all, what is it that makes Amazon different from a typical
library catalog? Now they've got some full text, but that's a fairly
recent phenomenon (and in my personal experience, it doesn't help
much for most of my typical searches)---and the talk of "we must be
like Amazon" began before they had fulltext. So what is it that
Amazon does? Just provide un-fielded keyword searching of metadata?
We can do that--we DO do that. But it still doesn't make our catalogs
work well.
Cause I agree that it's indisputable that our catalogs aren't
currently working very well, and it's indisputable that we must "move
toward the user." What this means is less clear and more disputable.
I am skeptical of most attempts to "move toward" what (people
believe) 'Amazoogle' does. I think it's often based on a
misconception of what Amazon/Google/etc actually DO, as well as a
lack of clarity about _which_ aspects of what they do work well, and
how to translate that into the environment of a library catalog.
Ironically, I in fact fully expect Amazon/Google etc. to move
_toward_ certain things that the library catalog _used_ to be pretty
good at, but isn't anymore, things that can't be done simply by
'dumbing down' the interface. We need to smarten up the catalog, not
dumb it down. Our catalogs are already pretty dumb.
--Jonathan
At 8:39 PM -0500 6/12/06, Dale Poulter wrote:
>I agree that Amazon search interface lacks many of the features that I
>would like to utilize. The issue is that 80% of the users are happy with
>that interface. That actually makes our jobs more difficult in that we
>must design the interface to be very simple, fast, Amazon/Google like but
>be able to translate the search and (through some magic) provide the user
>what they want and need. This may be using faceted searching, topic maps,
>or the unknown X system. The bottom line, in my opinion, is that either we
>move toward the user or the user will continue to move away.
>
>
>
>--On Tuesday, June 13, 2006 10:29 AM +1000 Alexander Johannesen
><alexander.johannesen_at_GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>>On 6/12/06, Laura Akerman <liblna_at_emory.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> Amazon's search capabilities are infuriatingly lacking! - for example,
>>>with a search for classical music (try prokofiev 2nd piano concerto), or
>>>an artist or author with a common name, or a title with common words.
>>>Granted I'm usually looking for something a bit obscure, not the latest
>>>Mariah Carey record. And any kind of subject searching - forget about
>>>it.
>>
>>Some time ago I wrote an article about Topic Maps in which I used my
>>frustrations with Amazon.com (*) as an example for those of us who
>>need a little bit extra from their interfaces, and let's face it ; if
>>you're into classical or baroque music, you're stuffed! I don't know
>>how many times I've struggled to find even the basics, like different
>>renditions of the same piece of music. Drives me nuts, and drives me
>>away, too.
>>
>>
>>Alex
>>
>>(*) http://shelter.nu/art-007.html, scroll down to "Music"
>>
>>--
>>"Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know."
>> - Frank Herbert
>>__ http://shelter.nu/ __________________________________________________
>
>
>
>--Dale
>
>---------------------------------------
>Dale Poulter
>Systems Librarian
>Library Information Technology Services
>Vanderbilt University
>Suite 700
>110 21st Avenue South
>Nashville, TN 37240
>(615)343-5388
>(615)343-8834 (fax)
>(615)207-9705 (cell)
>dale.poulter_at_vanderbilt.edu
Received on Mon Jun 12 2006 - 21:56:26 EDT