Right, I get that there will be legitimate variations, but:
http://tinyurl.com/26xc63
is just a typo (at least by the context it appeared in the word cloud
which was from a search for 'illinois')
-Ross.
On Dec 21, 2007 10:05 AM, Prestamo, Anne <anne.prestamo_at_okstate.edu> wrote:
> We implemented AquaBrowser last summer. http://boss.library.okstate.edu
> <http://boss.library.okstate.edu/> We were astounded at the number of
> "variant spellings" that appeared the Word Cloud, and initially thought
> that our catalogers would be deluged with requests to make corrections
> in our records. As we investigated further we realized that a lot of
> the spelling variants are legitimate spellings that in our case come
> largely from two sources: 1) the ~90,000 records for Early English
> Books online; and 2) the SyndeticsICE searchable tables of contents.
>
>
>
> My favorite example is "McShakespeare", which appears in the Word Cloud
> if you do a search for "Shakespeare". "McShakespeare" comes from the
> ToC for Screening Shakespeare in the twenty-first century / edited by
> Mark Thornton Burnett and Ramona Wray. Here's the ToC. "McShakespeare"
> appears in the Chapter 9 title.
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
> 1 'If I'm right' : Michael Wood's In search of Shakespeare
>
> Richard Dutton
>
> 13
>
> 2 'I see my father' in 'my mind's eye' : surveillance and the filmic
> Hamlet
>
> Mark Thornton Burnett
>
> 31
>
> 3 Backstage pass(ing) : Stage Beauty, Othello and the make-up of race
>
> Richard Burt
>
> 53
>
> 4 The postnostalgic Renaissance : the 'place' of Liverpool in Don
> Boyd's My kingdom
>
> Courtney Lehmann
>
> 72
>
> 5 Our Shakespeares : British television and the strains of
> multiculturalism
>
> Susanne GreenhalghRobert Shaughnessy
>
> 90
>
> 6 Looking for shylock : Stephen Greenblatt, Michael Radford and Al
> Pacino
>
> Samuel Crowl
>
> 113
>
> 7 Speaking Maori Shakespeare : the Maori Merchant of Venice and the
> legacy of colonisation
>
> Chatherine Silverstone
>
> 127
>
> 8 'Into a thousand parts divide one man' : dehumanised metafiction and
> fragmented documentary in Peter Babakitis' Henry V
>
> Sarah Hatchuel
>
> 146
>
> 9 Screening the McShakespeare in post-millennial Shakespeare cinema
>
> Carolyn Jess-Cooke
>
> 163
>
> 10 Shakespeare and the singletons, or, Beatrice meets Bridget Jones :
> post-feminism, popular culture and 'Shakespea(re)-told'
>
> Ramona Wray
>
> 185
>
> Table of Contents provided by Blackwell Book Services and R R Bowker LLC
> (c) 2007.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Anne Prestamo
>
> Associate Dean for Collection and Technology Services
>
> 216 Library
>
> Oklahoma State University Library
>
> Stillwater, OK 74078-1071
>
> Phone: 405-744-9755 FAX: 405-744-7579
>
> Email: anne.prestamo_at_okstate.edu
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Ross Singer
> Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 8:44 AM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
>
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Aqua Browser in beta at U. Chicago
>
>
>
> While I've never particularly liked the visual display from
>
> AquaBrowser (or, similarly, Grokker), one thing I found interesting
>
> was, through the spelling variation feature, how many /misspellings/
>
> were in the search result data. If UChicago were to then set up a
>
> policy to fix typos when they find them, this is actually a really
>
> useful feature for maintaining data integrity (and shaming the library
>
> by pointing out stupid typos until the data is fixed).
>
>
>
> -Ross.
>
>
>
> On Dec 21, 2007 4:55 AM, Stephens, Owen <o.stephens_at_imperial.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> > I also have some doubts about the usefulness of the visual browser
> (aka
>
> > word cloud), but I think that probably U. Chicago would acknowledge
> the
>
> > mixed feelings about this, based on the study they did on AquaBrowser
>
> > (http://califa.org/uploadfiles/report_%20final_%202006_10_03.pdf)
>
> >
>
> > "The word cloud elicited the most mixed responses. Although several
>
> > subjects used the
>
> > word cloud to eventually identify new materials, few felt they
>
> > understood how it worked.
>
> > Despite finding it confusing, some subjects found it compelling enough
>
> > to want to
>
> > continue to experiment with it. Our study indicates that the
> suggestion
>
> > of related terms to
>
> > users can help them find new materials, and that if not all terms in
> the
>
> > word cloud were
>
> > relevant, holding the user's interest in these alternate possibilities
>
> > may be important."
>
> >
>
> > I also think that focussing on the word cloud (although as the report
>
> > says - the word cloud unsuprisingly attracts attention) detracts from
>
> > the rest of the product, which, as far as I can see, is doing much of
>
> > what other products in this space are doing or trying to do:
>
> >
>
> > Faceted browsing
>
> > Relevance ranking
>
> > RSS feeds of results
>
> >
>
> > I'm not clear from Nancy's criticism whether she simply disliked the
>
> > word cloud, and this, for her, over-rode any other positives, or
> whether
>
> > she felt that the implementation of these NGC type features was
>
> > particularly weak in AquaBrowser compared to other systems out there
>
> > (and if so, it would be good to explore which are the strongest
>
> > implementations and how do they differ)
>
> >
>
> > Note that the word cloud can be 'closed' so that the user doesn't need
>
> > to see it, but you then lose all the functionality that has been put
>
> > into the word cloud, which includes the spelling alternatives - I
> think
>
> > this is probably a mistake, and it would be nice to have the spelling
>
> > suggestions as text as well as in the visual display (my instinct is
>
> > that pulling out the spelling function from the cloud would make the
>
> > cloud more useful (less clutter), and the spelling alternatives more
>
> > obvious)
>
> >
>
> > Overall I like the implementation, and I applaud U Chicago both for
>
> > trying something different, and doing it relatively well. However, I
> do
>
> > have some (hopefully constructive) criticism.
>
> >
>
> > Firstly, when I clicked through to the 'more' on the Author facets, I
>
> > found it frustrating that the default sort order was relevance rather
>
> > than alphabetical. I feel that once a user has clicked 'more' here,
> then
>
> > they are likely to be going be looking for someone specific (why else
>
> > click on the author facet?) and so alphabetical listing will make that
>
> > easier to navigate.
>
> >
>
> > Secondly, when I click through to the Author facets, I still don't get
>
> > the chance to see all the authors connected to my search, so if the
>
> > person I'm looking for hasn't written much, I may go away thinking
> that
>
> > the library hasn't got anything by them.
>
> >
>
> > To take a slightly contrived example:
>
> >
>
> > I'm looking for books by Alfred Emerson (a Professor of Zoology at U
>
> > Chicago) - I rather naively search for 'Emerson'. Unsuprisingly a lot
> of
>
> > the hits are about/by RW Emerson. The author facet lists 5 authors,
> none
>
> > of whom are Alfred Emerson, but I see that there are '3882 more', and
>
> > click through. I find what seems to be a randomly ordered list of
>
> > authors (most of whom are even 'Emerson', nevermind 'Alfred Emerson' -
>
> > it takes me a few moments to realise they are listed by the number of
>
> > items related to them, and slighly longer to find the 'alphabet' sort
>
> > option. After re-sorting, I find that there is still no 'Emerson,
>
> > Alfred' listed. I find the 'and more - not shown' note, but there are
> no
>
> > options to see the 'not shown' hits.
>
> >
>
> > OK - so if I search for 'alfred emerson' in the first place, I find
> the
>
> > right stuff, and perhaps the example is bogus - but in the end it bugs
>
> > me that I can't see all the authors related to my search results - why
>
> > not, if that's what I want to do?
>
> >
>
> > Going back to the 'sort alphabetical' vs 'sort relevance' - it would
> be
>
> > nice if it remembered my preference on a facet by facet basis - each
>
> > time I go back to the author facet I have to resort alphabetically (in
>
> > the above example, if I narrow my search by LCSH facet of 'Q -
> Science',
>
> > then go back to the 'Author' facet to find Alfred, then he is in
> there,
>
> > but the facet has resorted by relevance, and so he isn't easy to spot
> .
>
> >
>
> > Happy Christmas to all...
>
> >
>
> > Owen
>
> >
>
> > Owen Stephens
>
> > Assistant Director: e-Strategy and Information Resources
>
> > Imperial College London Library
>
> > Imperial College London
>
> > South Kensington
>
> > London SW7 2AZ
>
> >
>
> >
>
> > Tel: 020 7594 8829
>
> > Email: o.stephens_at_imperial.ac.uk
>
> >
>
Received on Fri Dec 21 2007 - 10:24:01 EST