Re: The next generation of discovery tools (new LJ article)

Good idea to use studies in conjunction with "reasonable speculation." And we also have a body of experience that isn't speculation and isn't formalized as studies. That experience should also be used. For example, our users have taught us that some of them want to be able to limit searches to musical scores and others want to limit searches to numeric data sets (census data, survey data, etc.).  We don't know this from a study and we aren't just speculating about what users might want. We have an existing body of experience embedded in our staff--basically an oral tradition--and we are using that knowledge (and speculation and studies) to guide our decisions.

Matthew Beacom
________________________________________
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries [NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Lundgren,Jimmie Harrell [jimlund_at_UFLIB.UFL.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 9:46 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] The next generation of discovery tools (new LJ article)

Here I'd like to mention that we need not rely entirely on reasonable speculations. There is some data available showing what users have chosen to use as facet limits. One observation I had made from Josh Greben's statistics he made available online previously on Mango in Florida is that users like to limit by the genre/form facet. It was almost decided not to include that facet and some systems leave it out, but I'm really glad it was kept here.

The use of this facet, (which in Mango we derive from both subject form subfields (6xx subfield v) and genre/form (655) fields), will be better fed by the increasing use of 655 as LC develops the LC Genre/Form Thesaurus further. I think this is one example of more data like Karen demands, and it will be fruitful to look for other possibilities.

I can't miss the opportunity to mention that there is a newly formed ALCTS Faceted Subject Access Interest Group that born from the FAST Subcommittee.

Thanks and have a great day,
Jimmie

Jimmie Lundgren
Associate Chair & Contributed Cataloging Unit Head
Cataloging & Metadata Dept.
Smathers Library
PO Box 117004
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7004
352-273-2725
352-392-7365 (fax)
jimlund_at_ufl.edu



-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Stephen Paling
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 9:41 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] The next generation of discovery tools (new LJ article)

> One of the issues is that we are working with the facets we have
> rather than the facets that would be most useful. (Oh shades of
> Rumsfeld!) There may be somewhere an analysis of what facets we would
> LIKE to have...

I agree with the general gist of what Karen said, but I also feel it's important to register an important disagreement. We should be thinking in terms of the metadata that USERS need, not what WE would like to have. One of the reasons that cataloging has landed in such a pickle is that we have very little basic research about what metadata will serve users best in different contexts. Sometimes I get the sense that a lot of people find it much easier to tinker around with existing systems rather than asking whether the systems are workable in the first place.

Steve

=====================================
Stephen Paling
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Studies
4251 Helen C. White Hall
600 N. Park St.
Madison, WI 53706-1403
Phone: (608) 263-2944
Fax: (608) 263-4849
paling_at_wisc.edu