I am all in favor of providing interfaces for exploratory browses. I
think it's very important, and something our current systems do very
poorly.
Now, looking at things that happen to be alphabetically close to what
I'm _really_ looking for is just one of many ways to provide an
exploratory browse. It is not clear to me that it is the best one. It is
not clear to me that it is of such value and importance that it must
non-negotiably be present in every catalog interface---that implementing
alphabetic browse lists should take precedence over other types of
innovative browse interfaces that are systems are not but could be
providing.
Why is an alphabetic browse so important? Sure, you might happen to see
things that it turns out are useful to you, but this is true of a
keyword search too (a keyword search on 'bach' would reveal the bach
festivals too!), as well as many other types of interfaces we could be
spending our time developing. It is not unique to an alphabetic browse.
One reason an alphabetic browse might be important is that our
cataloging practices are in fact built on the assumption that alphabetic
browse will be the _primary interface to the catalog_, in the form of a
card catalog or even a printed catalog. So there are practices built in
to aid the user doing an alphabetic browse. This is a good point, and it
may make alphabetic browse a priority after all (the case is more
obvious with LCSH than it is with author/work identifiers, although both
were designed for an alphabetic browse). However, I think it's also a
point well worth interrogating. Alphabetic browse is no longer the only
way to access the catalog, or the way our users may prefer. How can we
provide the guidance our catalog traditionally has tried to provide in
this new environment? It may not be by doing things the way we've
always done them (at the points of both metadata creation and systems
interpretation). That we have many more possibilities open to us should
mean that we can provide even more guidance in even better ways.
Jonathan
Michael Fitzgerald wrote:
> At 03:29 PM 7/23/2007, Andrew Nagy wrote:
>> I struggle to understand why someone would want
>> to "browse" by author. Viewing a list of names
>> won't help you find what you are looking for
>> unless you know the exact, or close to, the name
>> of the author. In which case you would just do
>> an author search for that person and then in the
>> results you can narrow down to the exact author you want.
>
> You are assuming that this is a search for one
> specific name. But instead it's a *browse* - a
> survey of the territory. There are all kinds of
> interesting things to be learned. Maybe relevant
> now, maybe more relevant later. If I approach the
> task with a prepared mind, the multitude of
> information that enters my field of vision gets
> processed and connections start being made.
>
> Using my local OPAC, I find that browsing an
> author list around the name "Bach" brings up much
> wonderful information that I hadn't thought of
> when starting the search. I learn that there is a
> Bach-Institut in Göttingen (it shows a see
> reference to Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institute
> Göttingen - and a follow-up search on that allows
> me to further browse around that area of the
> alphabet); I am reminded of the Bach-Gesellschaft
> (which has a see also reference to Neue
> Bachgesellschaft); I learn that there are several
> different Bach Festivals. A search that steered
> me directly to "Bach, Johann Sebastian,
> 1685-1750" would not give me the opportunity for
> the serendipitous learning that is vital to research.
>
> The problem that I encounter in my case is that
> my results are cut off at 10,000 - so as soon as
> the screen hits good old J.S. Bach, that's it. No
> scrolling forward. I suspect this limitation is
> only present in the public version of the catalog.
>
> Your example of Whitman allows me to discover
> that there is a Walt Whitman Foundation - I
> browsed from the start of the Whitman names and
> saw "Whitman Foundation" with a see reference to
> "Walt Whitman Foundation". There is NO such
> mention when you arrive on the fourth page of
> Whitmans and look at "Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892".
> Ditto for the entry for "Whitman Collection
> (Library of Congress)" and "Whitman House
> Foundation" both of which have similar see
> references. I also learn that there was a "Thomas
> Jefferson Whitman, 1833-1890" responsible for a
> collection of letters titled "Dear Brother Walt".
> Also "Whitman, Louisa Van Velsor, 1795-1873" who
> was Walt's mother and who also collected
> correspondence (Wikipedia describes her as
> "barely literate" but Britannica instead says
> "little formal education" and there's much more
> to be learned here:
> <http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_94>).
> I was quite unaware that these relatives existed
> and that their names would be listed as *authors*
> in a library catalog. All of this could be *very* relevant and *very*
> useful.
>
> Browse is good.
>
> Mike
>
>
> mike at jazzdiscography.com
> www.jazzdiscography.com
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Digital Services Software Engineer
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Tue Jul 24 2007 - 07:25:41 EDT