I bet Google is already doing some analysis of text in for ranking
results not only in the Book Search service, but to enhance their web
search.
_alejandro
Eric Lease Morgan said the following on 03/11/2009 10:15 a.m.:
> To what degree can our descriptive cataloging practices be enhanced
> considering the increasing availability of full text content?
>
> Take, for example, the size of a book. Currently we describe its
> physical dimensions and number of pages, but does that really tell me
> how long the book is? With the availability of full text a "catalog"
> can denote the number of words in a document -- which is a much better
> indication of length. This book, The Prince by Machiavelli is 31,234
> words long (short). Whereas this other book, War And Peace by Tolstoy
> is 565,454 words long (very long). Moreover, War And Peace is 18 times
> longer than The Prince.
>
> There are other possibilities for descriptive cataloging. How about
> intended grade level or "readability"? There exist well-established
> tests used to score the grade level and/or readability of a document.
> [1] Our word processing programs use these tests to grammar check your
> writing. The United States government uses these tests to ensure its
> population can read its documentation. Given full text it is possible
> to score individual library items and/or whole library collections.
> Want to read a book for intended for a 5th grader? You are a college
> student, and therefore these books may be apropos.
>
> Why not classify the author to a greater degree? I only want a list of
> items written by women.
>
> Examine parts of speech. Use a parts of speech application to count
> things like the number of nouns, pronouns, various types of verbs,
> adjectives, etc., in a document and then say, "This document contains
> a larger than normal number of active verbs; this book as an action
> book."
>
> "I want to read a very short, action-packed book, written by a man who
> lived in the 19th century but whose story takes place in the Middle
> Ages, and I'm only in the 7th grade so please suggest something
> accordingly." Given adequate descriptive cataloging details such a
> query would be trivial. Given the full text of a book, creating these
> details would be trivial as well. We have full text. Hmm...
>
> Once all of these things are represented in our "catalog", not only
> can we apply them to searches, but we can also apply analytics
> services against the search results. "Your search for author=plato
> returned the following 29 items. Click here to display: 1) a timeline
> of when they were written, 2) a histogram illustrating each document's
> length, 3) a spider chart connoting the degree each discusses core
> philosophic concepts". Not only is the content of our metadata records
> too string-based as opposed to key-based, it is also weak in terms of
> quantitative data. Thus mathematical analysis is difficult, if not
> impossible. Remember, computers are great when it comes to math.
>
> Much of our time is spent figuring out new ways to automate old
> processes, when we should also be spending some of our time learning
> how to use our tools to provide totally new and different services. A
> "'next generation' library catalog" will be an embodiment of such
> things.
>
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readability_test
>
>
--
_________________ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
*Ing. Alejandro Garza González*
Coordinación de proyectos y desarrollo de sistemas
Centro Innov_at_TE, Centro para la Innovación en Tecnología y Educación
Tecnológico de Monterrey
Tel. +52 [81] 8358.2000, Ext. 6751
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Received on Wed Nov 04 2009 - 13:11:02 EST