Wambold, Sally wrote:
> Please forgive my ignorance, but how is keyword searching in a library
> catalog different from keyword searching on the web? Are you saying
> that keyword searching has different varieties? And how does OCLC World
> Cat on the web fit into all of this? Doesn't it provide access to
> individual libraries through a web interface?
>
>
It's not that the keyword search itself is different, but there are
fewer words to work with when you are searching metadata. So if you
don't happen to hit on the words in the title or subject headings, you
don't get a hit. Keyword searching in a full text gives you many more
opportunities for success, including the fact that text will often
contain the same concept expressed with a variety of different terms. So
if I do a search on "solar power" I get some hits that also use the term
"solar energy," such as the Wikipedia page that has the sentence: "Solar
power is often used interchangeably with solar energy..." Some of these
hits have been engineered, of course, with the alternate terms added to
the web page to assure hits. But in libraries we store those alternate
terms in authority records, and the references are often not included in
the search. The search term is "solar energy" not "solar power," yet
"solar power" is used for "solar power plants" so that's what I get with
a search on "solar power." (This may not be the best example, it's just
what I could come up with quickly.)
There are also fewer repeats of words that would allow you to add a
weight for the word's importance. That's not really 'keyword searching'
but the ranking of retrievals. With very few words and no links, there's
very little to allow you to give a rank value to a record.
I can find WorldCat pages in Google if I limit to world.org. They aren't
yet making it to the first few pages of general Google results. I notice
that Wikipedia treats ISBNs as a search over HTTP, not as a link, so
that wouldn't get Worldcat moved up in the ranking. Another thing,
however, compare this: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/289704 with this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita. WorldCat is great for getting you
to a list of libraries, but there are other sources that are richer in
terms of information about the book. And when I go into WorldCat with an
ISBN I don't get the "Work" page, I only get the manifestations. I can
click on the title to get to the work page, but I only discovered that
by accident.
All of this rambling is to say that we need to make some changes. It
would be good to brainstorm on the easiest, fastest way to get library
data to the fore in internet search.
kc
--
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Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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Received on Thu Aug 21 2008 - 13:34:03 EDT