Yes, but to paraphrase you, I think it would help rather than hurt.
Mike
>>> Jonathan Rochkind <rochkind_at_JHU.EDU> 11/03/2010 11:10 a.m. >>>
I seriously doubt simply creating a site map is going to make your
library come up first for your users when they search on the title of a
book, as I tend to agree is probably simply what they're searching for.
I'm not even that confident it will make your site come up first if they
search "[title] in a library" or "[title] in library near [your town]".
OCLC has already done the equivalent of a 'site map' with Google, it got
what we can see.
Jonathan
Mike Kmiec wrote:
>>>> Jonathan Rochkind <rochkind_at_JHU.EDU> 11/03/2010 5:34 a.m. >>>
>>>>
>> Wait, how can this be proven? I think it may likely be true, but I
>> think WorldCat is making a good effort to put this stuff out there, I'm
>> not sure how to do better. Not just for people actually manually going
>> to worldcat.org, but the "Find In a Library" links on Google Books, as
>> well as Google search for "[something] in a library". Although hmm, this
>> last no longer has worldcat on the first page of results, it definitely
>> used to; Google "juice" is a complicated thing. (Saying "just put it on
>> google" is easier said than done, if you want it to actually come up in
>> searches_0.
>>
>
> I think OCLC efforts to get this information out there are admirable, but the end results are sub optimal.
>
> Just performed a Google search for 'mister pip'. On the first page, I have results for a few reviews, the publisher site, Google Books, Wikipedia, Amazon, the Man Booker Prize page, and LibraryThing. I can get to WorldCat through Google Books - two clicks away - so there's a connection...but I have to really know it's there.
>
> Then, using what Jonathan suggests ('mister pip in a library' which, to be honest, I don't think people looking for specific titles will search like this...more likely, they will just search on the title) the first page shows a blog post, Amazon, East Riding Library in the UK, Edmonton Public Library in Canada, Hennepin County Library in the US, Open Library, a library forum based in Canada, and LibraryThing. No hint of WorldCat. I have to go to page three, result number eight to get a WorldCat hit.
>
> Side note: I go one step further, search for 'mister pip in a library', and tick the 'pages from New Zealand' box. I get a review, the catalogue listing from Waimakariri District Libraries, a blog or two, the New Zealand Book Council site, and four e-commerce listings. So nation-wide, we need to do some more work.
>
> But at this point, since I know I want 'Mister Pip in a library' (and I know where I live) I do a search for 'wellington library'. First hit is Wellington City Libraries, and I can perform a catalogue search right from there. Now there are heaps of other issues with this approach - multiple clicks, multiple searches, potential OPAC user interface issues, and so on - but I found what I wanted and more or less how I wanted it.
>
> OCLC has a business relationship with Google. I have to believe that they can influence the Google 'juice' in some way, especially if the benefit of WorldCat is making more people aware of library collections and holdings world-wide.
>
>
>> But anyway, you definitely shouldn't assume that having something in
>> worldcat.org is _sufficient_ to make something visible on google or to
>> researchers.
>>
>
> Couldn't agree more. We are competing for eye space and attention spans here, and unfortunately that shifts things into a commodity market. This means considering other methods to get the information out there, or better yet, different approaches entirely (read this as 'context over content', which is where I think the value of libraries really lives.)
>
>
>> But it seems like a pretty attempt anyway, which helps
>> rather than hurts. I doubt you're going to do better "on your own" for
>> free. If another vendor or consortium or cooperative can do better at a
>> better price/quality point.... I'd really really like to see a
>> marketplace where we have the opportunity to find out.
>>
>
> There will always be a cost to getting our information out there, so I don't think that's anything new. There are other options - creating a Site Map so each collection item's page can be crawled by Google/MSN/Yahoo. Fairly low cost barrier to entry there. Yes, there may be a technical hurdle here if one's discovery system doesn't easily provide persistent URLs, but I know some catalogue vendors are creating tools to do such things as another sort of export. And I'm sure there are some technically-minded types out there that have already written code that generates Site Maps for particular catalogues, so it's a matter of getting them to share it.
>
> As for doing better, it would seem the public library of a district of fewer than 50,000 people on the South Island of New Zealand has done pretty well on their own.
>
> Mike
>
>
Received on Wed Mar 10 2010 - 17:51:31 EST