I've been intrigued by this discussion and surprised that few apparently
have studied the history of the book. (I only had one class in it
myself, so I'm not an expert.) A major concept in the field is the idea
of "paratext," i.e., everything that surrounds the text itself. Readers
(and browsers) draw lots of meaning from typeface, tactile qualities,
book size, etc., and particularly from the cover. Even when we're
browsing a shelf of books without dust jackets, we make judgments about
the books via visual cues (color, size, condition, etc.). We're not
just reading titles. When the dust jackets are present, we make more
informed judgments. The images, blurbs, and overall look of the book
jacket serve to distinguish each book from the next in various ways.
Sometimes we get false cues, of course, sort of like the way that some
movies are effectively advertised as a different genre via the trailer.
(For a hilarious take on this, see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFlish881qY)
If you were physically browsing a library shelf, and each book was in a
uniform archival box with a title/author/year label, how would this
change your experience and your success? What if the video store were
set up like this too? How does this relate to an OPAC that effectively
does the same thing?
Thanks for listening on a Monday morning.
Jonathan
********************************
Jonathan H. Harwell
Collection Development & Assessment Librarian
Zach S. Henderson Library
Georgia Southern University
PO Box 8074
Statesboro, GA 30460-8074
(912) 478-5114
fax (912) 478-0289
jharwell_at_georgiasouthern.edu
http://mesoj.edublogs.org ( http://mesoj.edublogs.org/ )
Subject Specialist for Foreign Languages, Music, Sociology, &
Anthropology
>>> Kyle Banerjee <kyle.banerjee_at_GMAIL.COM> 6/27/2008 9:32 PM >>>
> The problem here is that as a general principle: You're not smarter
> than Amazon. (I don't mean you personally, Kyle.) Amazon is not a
> small bookstore, but far larger than any library, so by your
reasoning
> it should have even fewer covers than a library. And Amazon and
other
> ecommerce sites do *exhaustive* testing. They do A/B tests all the
> time. Make a cover smaller—do sales go up or down? Make it larger—up
> or down? Round and round.
I do not doubt that covers increase sales, and for bestsellers where
recognition plays a greater role, there's an argument that they
perform a useful function as well. However, in research libraries
where people are accessing old literature, for soil surveys, committee
reports, technical texts, and the like, the utility factor for covers
drops.
> Amazon knows what works. And what works selling a book ought to have
> some relationship to what works browsing it.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that showing covers also causes people
to borrow more books. However, I think this has more to do with them
just enjoying the experience of using the catalog more the same way
that drawing cool graphics on a can causes more people to drink the
soda pop inside.
Whenever a library has a renovation project, use goes up
significantly. From a functional point of view, nothing has changed.
But people are more likely to ask for services if they think your
building is nice. Same rules apply in the virtual world. This is not
the same as improving service.
If you're wondering why I would accept that book covers increase use
but I still think they are a waste of time, it is because I think the
demand for them is implicitly based on the questionable assumption
that greater demand for services is good.
The goal must be to get people what they need, and this is not the
same as maximizing use. If we can assess the quality of our services
by the demand for them, we can reasonably infer that McDonald's serves
the best food on earth.
Not that we can't learn plenty from Amazon. Many of their methods seem
very appropriate for popular collections consisting mostly of high use
materials. Even research and special collections can learn from them
-- for example, the search inside function is a powerful discovery
tool. Even if all Amazon cares about is increasing sales, that
particular utility makes it easier to determine if you're looking at
the book you actually need.
kyle
Received on Mon Jun 30 2008 - 08:29:55 EDT