I don't think 'crawlable' means that the data should appear in Google
searches. Crawlable could allow us to create any number of services
based on library data. In fact, a giant database of library data would
allow us to do some fascinating data mining (cf WorldCat identities).
Most popular books, based on library holdings (with any gradations you
would like: public/academic/rural/urban). It would allow us to create a
public 'xISBN'-type service that would let any catalog hook up its
works. We could mine the subject headings for most popular works about a
place, and add them to Open Street Map (an open map like Google maps,
but without copyright restrictions). I can't begin to imagine all of the
services one could create, but searching would be the least of it.
kc
Weinheimer Jim wrote:
>> Really, I think a lot of our "we need a search like Google's" could be
>> remedied if we just optimized our current OPACs to be crawlable.
>>
>
> It would be nice if it were that simple, but Google's algorithm (the entire strength of Google) is based on trillions of links to all different sites (the page with most links to it by the most linked = #1). There's nothing like that option in the library, and even Google's algorithm isn't so hot in Google Books.
>
> Google's ranking by "relevance" (a semi-propagandistic term since it means something quite different from the normal sense of "relevance") would need to be recreated in the catalog, but how? By items most checked out (most popular?) By getting into publisher databases and trying to arrange by printing statistics? Or by retail statistics and best-sellers?
>
> Or by "rate this book!" Let's say that Nietzsche's "Thus spoke Zarathustra" got 200 votes while Kant's "Critique of the Pure Reason" only got 50. What would somebody conclude?!
>
> While some of these tools are interesting, I'm not sure which ones really belong in a library....
>
> Jim Weinheimer
>
>
>
--
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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 Tue Mar 17 2009 - 11:41:22 EDT