| Kevin Kidd <kiddk_at_bc.edu> wrote:
| > Frustratingly, for all the talk here and elsewhere of the features of next generation catalogs, I rarely find >anything that convinces me that librarians understand that collecting/harvesting and re-using user (and usage) >data is the key to most (if not all) of the services we want these new catalogs to provide.
|
| "Kyle Banerjee" <kyle.banerjee_at_gmail.com> wrote:
| This is because our field is so damn schizophrenic. On one hand,
| librarians love the services that rely on these methods and are
| constantly saying we should learn from them. On the other hand, there
| is extreme ideological opposition to tracking any kind of behavior,
| even anonymously. Even looking at web logs can cause a stink at a lot
| of places.
Well, there are ways of analyzing usage data without revealing who is doing what. BibTip works without identifying individual users.
That said, we have to shed this ridiculous fear of using user data, and I mean NOW. The idea that we can use a "throw -it-up-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks" approach to adding new services is, frankly, idiotic. Do we really think that we can add a blog, a wiki and a few tags to a catalog and then say that we're giving users what they want? Puh-leeze. You say we need real relevancy ranking in our catalogs? Then you need to understand how users are using your data. Google has very effective relevancy rankings because it analyzes link relationships among web sites, i.e. it leverages collective intelligence.
Collective intelligence is the key to everything. We need to understand this sooner rather than later.
In developing new systems, our vendors are, for the most part, giving us what we are asking for. Unfortunately, we are not asking for the right thing...
----------------------
Kevin M. Kidd, MA, MLIS
Library Applications & Systems Manager
Boston College Libraries
Phone: 617-552-1359
E-Mail: kevin.kidd_at_bc.edu
Blog: http://datadrivenlibrary.blogspot.com/
Received on Fri May 16 2008 - 17:04:12 EDT