I think what's critical to remember here is that the LibraryThing data
is a separate dataset from our OPAC data. The reason "Little Lil and the
Swing-Singing Sax" doesn't show up via the LT "similar books" is because
there isn't any LT data for it. I had a similar example from a coworker
about a Chinese language book. The LT data skews towards books for
adults, written in English. In an ideal world, keyword searching would
also search tags, we'd be able to generate links between books that are
in LT and books that are in our catalog but not LT and I'd be able to
find the money in my budget to buy all of our patrons LT accounts so we
could make sure the overlap between our catalog and LT is 100%!
You're right that it's not perfect. I can't run Novelist comparisons
because we don't have it, so I can't speak to your Bridget Jones
example, but I see what you're saying. There's always room for
improvement in every catalog. As Tim said, this isn't the be all and end
all for NextGen Catalogs, but it is a step in the right direction.
Glad to see that people are playing with our catalog!
kate
---------------------------------
Kate Sheehan
Coordinator of Library Automation
Danbury Library
170 Main St.
Danbury, CT 06810
203.796.1607
ksheehan_at_danburylibrary.org
http://www.danburylibrary.org
http://www.myspace.com/danburylibrary
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Fitzgerald
> Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 12:02 AM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] LibraryThing for Libraries debuts
>
> Just glanced a little at this using the Bridget Jones example. Got to
> say that NoveList seems to do a much better job in a lot of areas -
> the Danbury site claims it is showing me "similar books" but why are
> they supposedly similar? Because one reader somewhere said so? There
> aren't any categories to define what you'd like to match on. With
> NoveList, if I want *only* books matching Bridget Jones on "office
> romance" I can do that. Danbury gives this book a single subject
> heading - NoveList has over a dozen for it.
>
> Searching for "jazz" I find Chris Raschka's "Charlie Parker Played
> Bebop" - OK, fine. That's a children's book about jazz. So let's see
> what's similar - a bunch of pretty generic children's books. But not
> a single one about jazz, even though Danbury owns several relevant
> titles (for example, those that use the LCSH Jazz musicians -- United
> States -- Biography -- Juvenile literature). So what makes the
> choices given "similar"??? "Kiss The Cow!" - WTF? Oh, just because
> they are both tagged "picture books" - oh great. Other tags are
> "jazz" and "music" but I don't see similar books matching those.
> Pretty useless at this point, if you ask me. Now, NoveList isn't
> perfect on this book (well, to begin with, it's not really a novel!)
> but I do manage to get to a similar book in "Little Lil and the
> Swing-Singing Sax", which looks to be very apt. And lo and behold,
> that's actually IN the Danbury library catalog but it doesn't show up
> as being similar.
>
> Personally, if this were my library OPAC, I'd really like an option
> to turn OFF the tags and similar books stuff. Way too much noise, red
> herrings, blind alleys, and not enough quality information. I don't
> think throwing a pile of new information (i.e., tags) is what is
> needed. We need to do a better job of handling what's already there.
>
> Mike
>
> mike at jazzdiscography.com
> www.jazzdiscography.com
Received on Tue May 15 2007 - 07:02:36 EDT