I've done some preliminary investigation of ways in which authority data can be used to enhance searches in VuFind. VuFind has a mechanism for providing context-sensitive recommendations for the current search, so it's not hard to do things like name authority lookups based on keywords in an author search, or subject authority lookups based on keywords in a subject search.
I don't claim that my work so far is particularly ground-breaking -- it's just a proof of concept -- but you can see it in action in this video from ALA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7vvR8qaiuQ&feature=player_embedded
My current demos rely on OCLC APIs for obtaining authority data (derived largely from the research of Ya'aqov Ziso, Ralph LeVan, and Eric Lease Morgan -- see http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/2481), but the same principles could just as easily apply to separate searches within a local authority index. Better local authority support in VuFind is one of my current backburner projects.
Obviously, displaying a box of authority recommendations isn't as powerful as having the authority data immediately and directly impact the search results... but it's a start. It would certainly be theoretically possible to embed relevant authority data into bibliographic records at index time in order to allow direct impact at search time... but I suspect that the overhead of doing so would outweigh the benefit for most users.
- Demian
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Ed Jones
> Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 11:55 AM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: [NGC4LIB] Schizophrenia
>
> Like many libraries, we now have two catalog interfaces: a "classic"
> one, operating on principles that have governed online catalogs for
> decades (alphabetical browse indexes for authors, titles, subjects,
> etc., augmented by last-in/first-out keyword indexes), and a more
> "Google-like keyword-based search interface that provides relevancy-
> based result sets and is more forgiving of input errors. (It retrieves
> holdings and location data from the "classic" catalog in real time.)
> Both interfaces support refining the result set along various
> dimensions. Authority control serves different functions in the two
> interfaces. In both it controls the forms of access points. But in
> the "classic" catalog it serves identification and navigation functions
> as well as a search refinement function, while in the Google-like
> interface (which consists of our bibliographic data but not our
> authority data) it is able to support only the refinement function.
>
> Can "Google-like" (keyword-based) catalog interfaces support the
> identification and navigation functions of authority control? So that
> someone knows, for instance, that Rossiiskaia akademiia nauk is the
> Russian Academy of Sciences, or that the works on the American
> Revolution will be found under United States--History--Revolution,
> 1775-1789? Are these functions invariably tied to browsing, or is there
> some way to "privilege" authority data in "Google-like" interfaces, so
> that the presence of keywords in an authority record is factored into
> the relevancy ranking? Perhaps separate searching of authority and
> bibliographic files for the same keywords, with discrete result sets
> presented to the user (each set relevancy-ranked)?
>
>
>
>
> Ed Jones
> Assistant Director, Assessment and Metadata Services
> National University Library
> 9393 Lightwave Avenue
> San Diego, California 92123-1447
>
> +1 858 541 7920 (voice)
> +1 858 541 7997 (fax)
>
> http://national.academia.edu/EdJones
Received on Thu Jul 22 2010 - 13:00:46 EDT