Nathan-
While it is true that NCSU Endeca usage statistics over the past 18
months have shown that the relative percentage of use of the
classification and subject heading /facets /has risen relative to other
facet selection (language, library, format, author, etc.) and continues
to constitute well over 50% of /navigation/ requests, this does not mean
that this is necessarily the most utilized patron search behavior in our
catalog. May 2007 statistics show that keyword searches with no
additional faceted navigation still constitute 48% of Endeca searches
(see my ALA PowerPoint at
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/endeca/presentations.html for the May stats).
We aren't keeping statistics on users who continue to do "known item"
searching through the older Web2 search interface, which may be viewed
as the lower of the two search boxes on the main screen at
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/ or in "Search begins with..."
selections from the drop-down search window at the top of the Endeca
results screen. So we don't know the real percentage of users who are
doing controlled subject searches in our catalog.
For users who are interested in resource discovery, rather than
known-item searching, it is true that the subject facets in Endeca and
other faceted catalogs (Scriblio, LibraryThing, SOLR, Encore) present
useful tools for expanding or narrowing searches. The use of controlled
vocabularies here also serves to collocate materials which keyword
searching may otherwise scatter and to bring in materials that may have
been missed in a straight keyword search. I think all of the Endeca
team members here recognize the value of controlled vocabulary in
subject discovery, but this extends to launching controlled subject
searches based on full subject strings from "known item" result sets as
well, something most of us have been able to do for some time. I think
that it may still be important to provide more than one method for
getting users to the information they need in the catalog.
Charley
Rinne, Nathan (ESC) wrote:
> I have looked a little bit at Andrew Pace's PowerPoint that he gave at
> the first meeting of the LOC working group on bibliographic control at
> Google headquarters and from what I can gather there, people who use the
> faceted Endeca catalog really take advantage of LCC classification and
> LCSH structures - more so than the other options. I get the impression
> that a lot of people who use this system seem to like it and find it
> useful. Am I wrong to think that a big part of their liking it probably
> has to do with the fact that these descriptive and vocabulary -
> controlled structures (LCC and LCSH) are being taken greater advantage
> of, being presented to them in a way that's easy to use, and hence, in
> this way, are increasing access?
--
__________________________________ __________________________________
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Charley Pennell mailto:cpennell_at_unity.ncsu.edu
Principal Cataloger for Metadata voice: (919)515-2743
Metadata and Cataloging Department fax: (919)515-7292
NCSU Libraries, Box 7111
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
Adjunct Librarian, Memorial University of Newfoundland
World Wide Web: http://www.ibiblio.org/hillwilliam/chuckhome.html
__________________________________ __________________________________
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Received on Thu Jul 12 2007 - 12:16:26 EDT