When it comes to "next-generation library catalogs" I think they ought to evolve into tools for use & understanding, and to demonstrate this idea we here at Notre Dame have begun to incorporate text mining links into our holdings. From a blog posting describing the digitization of some our Catholic pamphlets:
In order to practice with workflow, we selected about 30 of these
pamphlets and enhanced their bibliographic records to denote their
digital nature. These enhancements included URLs pointing to PDF
versions of the pamphlets as well as URLs pointing to the text mining
interfaces. When the enhancements were done we added them to the
catalog. Once there they “flowed” to the “discovery system” (Primo). You
can see these records from the following URL — http://bit.ly/qcnGNB At
the same time we extracted the plain text from the PDFs and made them
accessible via a text mining interface allowing the reader to see what
words/phrases are most commonly used in individual pamphlets. The text
mining interface also includes a concordance —
http://concordance.library.nd.edu/app/ These later services are
implemented as a means of demonstrating how library catalogs can evolve
from inventory lists to tools for use & understanding.
http://bit.ly/oxIyPO
IMHO, find & get are not the problems to be solved in today's environment. Everybody can find & get with ease. In fact, we are still "drinking from the proverbial fire hose". The problem to solve now-a-days is ways to make content more meaningful.
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Eric Lease Morgan
University of Notre Dame
Received on Tue Sep 27 2011 - 15:03:33 EDT