If the classification does capture some unique aspect of 'likeness' that's fine I suppose - although I wonder why? But isn't classification just another possible facet to browse?
I suppose I'm just thinking out loud, but I think we need to understand the way people use browse to navigate resources if we are to successfully bring the concept of collection browsing to our navigation tools. David suggests that we should think of a shelf browse as a type of 'show me more like this' which is definitely one reason to browse - but is it the only reason?
Owen On 30 Sep 2008, at 21:52, "Tim Shearer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Owen,Unless I'm misunderstanding, what's being asked for is a visualization tool for the *classification*. Faceted browsing by subject is dandy, but is not at all the same thing (though arguments can be made that the lines are blurring). Books that sit next to each other in a classification (DC or LC, or whatever) may not share a majority of subject terms. That collocation via classification is yet another (and occasionally more useful) way of saying that this item is like that item. One that is not necessarily trapped in any other way than call number.-t On Tue, 30 Sep 2008, Stephens, Owen wrote:I'd second Steve's comments - replicating an inherently limited physicalbrowse system seems an odd thing to do in the virtual world. I would have thought that the 'faceted browse' function we are now seeingappearing in library systems (of course, the Endeca implementation is aleader here) is potentially the virtual equivalent of 'browsing the shelves', but hopefully without the limitations that the physical environment brings?Is it the UI rather than the functionality that is lacking here? Perhapswe need to look more carefully at the 'browsing' experience. Thinking about examples outside the library world, I personally like the 'coverflow' browse in iTunes, but I'm able to sort tracks by severalcriteria and still see a coverflow view. I have to admit that in generalI prefer the 'album' order when using coverflow, because otherwise itdoesn't make sense (to me that is). It would be interesting to look atwhat an 'artistflow' might look like, or a 'genreflow'.However, as far as I know I can't actually replicate the experience that I would have with my (now in boxes somewhere) physical CD collection - why was divided by genre, then sorted by artist surname (ok, I admit it,I'm a librarian through and through) Perhaps a better understanding of the 'browse' experience is needed? Some questions - when we browse: When and why do people browse rather than search? How do people make decisions about useful items as they browse? Browsing stacks suggests that items have been 'ordered' - is there something about this that appeals? Does it convey 'authority' in some way that the 'any order you want' doesn't? Owen Owen Stephens Assistant Director: eStrategy and Information Resources Central Library Imperial College London South Kensington Campus London SW7 2AZ t: +44 (0)20 7594 8829 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED]-----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On BehalfOfSteve Meyer Sent: 29 September 2008 21:45 To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] creating call number browseone counter argument that i would make to this is that we consistentlyhear from faculty that they absolutely adore browsing thestacks--thereis something that they have learned to love about the experienceregardless of whether they understand that it is made possible by thework of catalogers assigning call numbers and then using them for ordering the stacks. at uw-madison we have a faculty lecture series where we invite professors to talk about their use of library materials and their research and one historian said outright, the one thing that ismissingin the online environment is the experience of browsing the stacks. heseemed to understand that with all the mass digitization efforts, we could be on the edge of accomplishing it. that said, i agree that we should do what you say also, just that we should not throw the baby out w/ the bath water. if faculty somehow understand that browsing the stacks is a good experience then we can useit as a metaphor in the online environment. in an unofficial project ihave experimented w/ primitive interface tests using both subjectheading 'more like this' and a link to a stack browse based on a callnumber sort: http://j2ee-dev.library.wisc.edu/sanecat/item.html?resourceId=951506 (please, ignore the sloppy import problems, i just didn't care that much for the interface test) as for the original question, this has about a million records and900,000 w/ item numbers and a simple btree index in the database sortsat an acceptable speed for a development test. -sm Walker, David wrote:a decent UI is probably going to be a bigger jobI've always felt that the call number browse was a really usefuloption, but the most disastrously implemented feature in most ILS catalog interfaces.I think the problem is that we're focusing on the task -- browsingthe shelf -- as opposed to the *goal*, which is, I think, simply to show users books that are related to the one they are looking at.book) and dispense with the notion of call numbers and shelves in theIf you treat it like that (here are books that are related to thisinterface (even if what you're doing behind the scenes is in fact acall number browse) then I think you can arrive at a much simpler and straight-forward UI for users. I would treat it little different thanAmazon's recommendations feature, for example.--Dave ================== David Walker Library Web Services Manager California State University http://xerxes.calstate.edu ________________________________________ From: Code for Libraries [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf OfStephens, Owen [EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:17 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] creating call number browse I'm not sure, but my guess would be that the example you give isn'treally a 'browse index' function, but rather creates a search resultsetand presents it in a specific way (i.e. via cover images) sorted bycallnumber (by the look of it, it has an ID of the bib record as input,andit displays this book and 10 before it, and 10 after it, in callnumberorder. Whether this is how bibliocommons achieves it or not is perhapsbesidesthe point - this is how I think I would approach it. I'm winging it here, but if I was doing some quick and very dirty here: A simple db table with fields: Database ID (numeric counter auto-increment) Bib record ID URIs to book covers (or more likely the relevant information tocreatethe URIs such as ISBN) Call numberTo start, get a report from your ILS with this info in it, sorted by Call Number. To populate the table, import your data (sorted in CallNumber order). The Database ID will be created on import,automaticallyin call number order (there are other, almost certainly better, waysofhandling this, but this is simple I think) To create your shelf browse given a Bib ID select that record andgetthe database ID. Then requery selecting all records which havedatabaseIDs +-10 of the one you have just retrieved. Output results in appropriate format (e.g. html) using book coverURIsto display the images.Obviously with this approach, you'd need to recreate your data tableregularly to keep it up to date (resetting your Database ID if you want). Well - just how I'd do it if I wanted something up and runningquickly.As Andy notes, a decent UI is probably going to be a bigger job ;) Owen Owen Stephens Assistant Director: eStrategy and Information Resources Central Library Imperial College London South Kensington Campus London SW7 2AZ t: +44 (0)20 7594 8829 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED]-----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] OnBehalfOfEmily Lynema Sent: 17 September 2008 16:46 To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] creating call number browse Hey all, I would love to tackle the issue of creating a really cool callnumberbrowse tool that utilizes book covers, etc. However, I'd like to dothis outside of my ILS/OPAC. What I don't know is whether there are any indexing / SQL / query techniques that could be used to browseforwardand backword in an index like this. Has anyone else worked on developing a tool like this outside oftheOPAC? I guess I would be perfectly happy even if it was something I could build directly on top of the ILS database and its indexes (weuseSirsiDynix Unicorn).I wanted to throw a feeler out there before trying to dream up somewild scheme on my own. -emily P.S. The version of BiblioCommons released at Oakville PublicLibraryhas a sweet call number browse function accessible from the fullrecordpage. I would love to know know how that was accomplished. http://opl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1413841_mars -- Emily Lynema Systems Librarian for Digital Projects Information Technology, NCSU Libraries 919-513-8031 [EMAIL PROTECTED]-- Stephen Meyer Library Application Developer UW-Madison Libraries 312F Memorial Library 728 State St. Madison, WI 53706 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 608-265-2844 (ph) "Just don't let the human factor fail to be a factor at all." - Andrew Bird, "Tables and Chairs"
