Bernie Sloan said:
> It's difficult to imagine this working with the Universal Library.
> That resource has such primitive searching capabilities...almost as if building
> the collection was top priority, without much thought given to how to access
> what's in the collection.
This is the whole point: I genuinely believe that if people saw the utility and ease of such a tool (and Bernhard's work is a very important part), I think they would demand it. Of course, the entire system can be improved, e.g. the rules of LCSH cross-references are still based primarily on string searching instead of keyword searching, reflecting its origins in the print and catalog card world. It needs about 100 to 1000 times as many cross-references, but even beyond this, the institution of fuzzy searching, creative ways of sorting results and other novel methods may make it much more palatable to the general public than it is now.
Also, what's important is that to implement it, you don't need the entire LCSH imbedded into a computer system: what is vital are the LCSH terms in each record. Theoretically, every item in the Universal Library is physically in a library somewhere, and probably there is a record for it with LCSH. So, the intellectual part of the job is almost already done: all that is needed is to match the bibliographic record(s) to the digital items. A tall order certainly, but something that can be done relatively easily with a minimum of training.
An example of how it could work: From Bernhard's database, we search "Historical criticism"
http://www.biblio.tu-bs.de/db/lcsh/page.php?urG=%7C1&urS=Historical criticism
the user sees the cross-reference to "Historiography" and chooses WorldCat
the user browses Worldcat in various creative ways (currently very few available, but improving), and finds:
http://worldcat.org/oclc/392622&referer=brief_results
there now needs to be a link from this record to the Universal Library (among several others, undoubtedly!)
http://www.archive.org/details/origianandgoalof012567mbp
I think people would find this immensely useful right at this moment, and I'm sure everybody could suggest several ways it could be improved. But quality metadata is crucial. Take a look at the spelling of the title in the Internet Archive example.
James Weinheimer
>
> Bernie Sloan
>
>
> Weinheimer Jim <j.weinheimer_at_aur.edu> wrote:
> Bernhard Eversberg wrote:
>
> > .... when not counting GoogleBooksearch as well as WorldCat and all
> > libraries in English-speaking countries.
> > The trouble is that to do a successful LCSH search you need to have
> > a valid term first and type it in correctly.
> > Lacking one, you might want to browse in an index tosee what's
> > available:
> > http://www.biblio.tu-bs.de/db/lcsh/
> >
> > Once you find a promising term here, the display catapults you into
> > Google or WorldCat right away. And yes, LibraryThing too, although with
> > a somewhat lower chance for success. As of yet...
>
> I think this is such an important project of Bernhard's that I use it instead
> of the official LC version. As an example of how it could work, I would suggest
> you look at the Online Books page under a specific heading, e..g. Wrongful
> imprisonment
> http://onl
> inebooks.l
> ibrary.upenn.edu/webbin/book/browse?type=lcsubc&key=Wrongful%20imprisonment
>
> The user sees the cross-reference to False imprisonment, then you click on it
> and you see the Broader and Narrower terms, plus links to specific items, some
> of which I don't understand how they were retrieved, but all quite pertinent to
> the search.
>
> With more and better cross-references (based on how people really search,
> taking tips from logfiles, social tagging, other thesauri or subject headings,
> along with other resources), plus some creative thinking, I believe that users
> would prefer this to "relevance ranking" although it too, could be
> retained. Imagine this system with all of Google Books, Microsoft Live Books,
> and the Universal Library, plus other materials as well.
>
> Finally, if this were connected to a "concept server" (where the
> concept gets a number instead of a text string), many other thesauri and
> subject heading systems could be included and the use increases enormously for
> everyone.
>
> James Weinheimer
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo!
> Search
Received on Mon Dec 17 2007 - 10:26:03 EST