My academic library's public interface has begun displaying GOOGLEBOOKS
bookcovers when they are available. At first I just thought the
bookcover displays helped to make the catalog more attractive and added
a little additional information about the resource. That made them seem
worthwhile to me, even given the inconsistency in their availability and
some occasional mismatches. However, last week a reference librarian
told me she had just used the bookcover display to get back to a
specific one of several similar sources she had used previously, and now
I have a new appreciation for the potential of such images displayed in
the catalog to add to, (although certainly not replace), our current
ways to support the "identify" user task.
While I offer this as anecdotal evidence, I think it will be great for
research to be performed to uncover more about user behavior in relation
to new catalog features such as these. Even though the rapidly
developing improvements to OPAC interfaces constitute a moving target
and will be difficult to study in reliable ways, such research is badly
needed to direct the developments more effectively. Thanks,
Jimmie
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Chris Thiessen
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 5:00 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Zoomi and your library OPAC
Hi, I'm the creator of Zoomii. A pair of helpful people referred me to
this
thread. It's been a very interesting discussion to read.
I suppose my main response to Tim Spalding and others would be that
covers
*are* good for discovery, because they're designed to communicate
something
about the book, not just grab random attention. (like Audrey Laplante
described for music) Their easy recognition, which Tim pointed out,
also
aids discovery, because when you see a book you recognize and love on
the
shelf, you tend to look at the ones around it to, which are most often
similar in subject or author.
Library patrons don't spend all their time searching at a terminal and
then
going to the specific books, or exploring the area near a found book, or
browsing a favorite section, or just browsing randomly. In fact, I'd
guess
most patrons do all these things.
That means they're voting with their feet. The books on shelves satisfy
a
need the conventional electronic catalogs do not, and vice versa.
I don't think remote access changes that.
(Not to say that something like Zoomii satisfies as much as a real
bookshelf; it doesn't... yet. :)
Received on Wed Jul 02 2008 - 09:21:16 EDT