Transcript Next Generation User Interfaces Delivering content and services for today’s Web-savvy library patrons

NEXT GENERATION LIBRARY
TECHNOLOGIES
-- A conference sponsored by the
Southeastern NY Library Resources Council
Next Generation User Interfaces
Delivering content and services
for today’s Web-savvy library
patrons
Marshall Breeding
Director for Innovative Technologies and Research
Vanderbilt University
http://staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/breeding
http://www.librarytechnology.org/
Abstract
• Marshall Breeding will begin the conference in the morning by
presenting an overview of the developing scene in next-generation
library catalogs. Following an era where most libraries relied on the
OPAC module that came with their ILS, today many libraries are
implementing a new generation of library interfaces with more
appeal to today’s Web-savvy library users. Breeding will talk about
what’s different about these new interfaces and give an overview of
the products and projects to consider as libraries move away from
the OPACs of the past to a new generation of library interfaces.
Troubling statistic
Where do you typically begin your
search for information on a
particular topic?
College Students Response:
• 89% Search engines (Google 62%)
• 2% Library Web Site (total respondents -> 1%)
• 2% Online Database
• 1% E-mail
• 1% Online News
• 1% Online bookstores
• 0% Instant Messaging / Online Chat
OCLC. Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources
(2005) p. 1-17.
Usage + / - from 2005 to 2007
+5%
+30%
+14%
+19%
-10%
“The unfortunate exception is
the use of library Web sites;
usage has dropped from 2005 to
2007.”
Source: Sharing, Privacy and Trust in our Networked World. OCLC 2007
Crowded Landscape of Information
Providers on the Web
• Lots of non-library Web destinations deliver
content to library patrons
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Google Scholar
Amazon.com
Wikipedia
Ask.com
• Do Library Web sites and catalogs meet the
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information needs of our users?
Do they attract their interest?
The Competition
The best Library OPAC?
Better?
Demand for compelling library
interfaces
• Urgent need for libraries to offer interfaces
their users will like to use
• Move into the current millennium
• Powerful search capabilities in tune with
how the Web works today
• Meet user expectations set by other Web
destination
Inadequacy of ILS OPACs
• Online Catalog modules provided with an
ILS subject to broad criticism as failing to
meet expectations of growing segments of
library patrons.
• Not great at delivering electronic content
• Complex text-based interfaces
• Relatively weak keyword search engines
• Lack of good relevancy sorting
• Narrow scope of content
Disjointed approach to
information and service delivery
• Books: Library OPAC (ILS module)
• Articles: Aggregated content products, e-journal
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collections
OpenURL linking services
E-journal finding aids (Often managed by link
resolver)
Local digital collections
– ETDs, photos, rich media collections
• Metasearch engines
• All searched separately
Change underway
• Widespread dissatisfaction with most of the current
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OPACs. Many efforts toward next-generation catalogs
and interfaces.
Movement among libraries to break out of the current
mold of library catalogs and offer new interfaces better
suited to the expectations of library users.
Decoupling of the front-end interface from the back-end
library automation system.
Eventual redesign of the ILS to be better suited for
current library collections of digital and print content
Next-Generation Interfaces:
Scope and Concepts
Working toward a new generation
of library interfaces
• Redefinition of the “library catalog”
• Traditional notions of the library catalog
questioned
• Better information delivery tools
• More powerful search capabilities
• More elegant presentation
Redefining the “catalog”
• More comprehensive information discovery environments
• It’s no longer enough to provide a catalog limited to
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print resources
Digital resources cannot be an afterthought
Systems designed for e-content only are also
problematic
Forcing users to use different interfaces depending on
type of content becoming less tenable
Libraries working toward consolidated user environments
that give equal footing to digital and print resources
Comprehensive Search Service
• Current distributed query model of federated
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search model not adequate
Expanded scope of search through harvested
content
– Consolidated search services based on metadata and
data gathered in advance (like OAI-PMH)
• Problems of scale diminished
• Problems of cooperation persist
• Federated search currently operates as a plug-in
component of next-gen interfaces.
Web 2.0 Flavorings
• Strategic infrastructure + Web 2.0
• A more social and collaborative approach
• Web Tools and technology that foster
collaboration
• Integrated blogs, wiki, tagging, social
bookmarking, user rating, user reviews
• Avoid Web 2.0 information silos
Web 2.0 supporting technologies
• Web services
• XML APIs
• AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
• Widgets
The Ideal Scope for Next Gen
Library Interfaces
• Unified user experience
• A single point of entry into all the content
and services offered by the library
• Print + Electronic
• Local + Remote
• Locally created Content
• User contributed content?
Next Generation Interfaces:
Functions and Features
Interface Features / User
Experience
• Simple point of entry
– Optional advanced search
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Relevancy ranked results
Facets for narrowing and navigation
Query enhancement – spell check, etc
Suggested related results
Navigational bread crumbs
Enriched visual and textual content
Single Sign-on
Relevancy Ranking
• Based on advanced search engines specifically
designed for relevancy
– Endeca, Lucene, etc
• Web users expect relevancy ordered results
– The “good stuff” should be listed first
– Users tend not to delve deep into a result list
– Good relevancy requires a sophisticated approach,
including objective matching criteria supplemented by
popularity and relatedness factors.
New Paradigm for search and
navigation
• Let users drill down through the result set
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incrementally narrowing the field
Faceted Browsing
– Drill-down vs up-front Boolean or “Advanced Search”
– gives the users clues about the number of hits in each
sub topic
– Ability to explore collections without a priori
knowledge
• Visual search tools
• Navigational Bread crumbs
– Select / deselect facets
Query / Result Enhancement
• “Did you mean?” and other features to
avoid “No results found”
• Validated Spell check
• Automatic inclusion of authorized and
related terms
• More like this – recommendation service
• Make the query and the response to it
better than the query provided
Appropriate organizational
structures
• LCSH vs FAST (Faceted Application of
Subject Terminology)
• Full MARC vs Dublin Core or MODS
• Discipline-specific thesauri or ontologies
• “tags”
Enriched content
• Rich visual information: book jacket images, rating scores, etc.
• Syndetic Solutions ICE ($$$$)
• Amazon Web Service (AWS)
– Recent changes in term of use seem to preclude use
by libraries
• Google Book Search API
– Released March 13, 2008
– Liberal terms of use
• No open content approach (yet)
Personalization / Single Sign-on
• Customized content and service options based on
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personal preference and profile of user
Persistent sign-on – horizontal and vertical
– Seamless navigation in and out of appropriate sub-systems
• ILL / ILS patron requests, federated search, proxy services
– Credentials follow as user navigates among Web site
components
– ILS / Interlibrary Loan / proxy services / shopping cart / etc
– Carry sign-on into and out of institutional resources
• Ability to select and save content; initiate requests;
customize preferences, etc.
Deep search
• Entering post-metadata search era
• Increasing opportunities to search the full contents
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– Google Library Print, Google Publisher, Open Content
Alliance, Microsoft Live Book Search, etc.
– High-quality metadata will improve search precision
Commercial search providers already offer “search inside
the book”
No comprehensive full text search for books quite yet
Not currently available through library search
environments
Deep search highly improved by high-quality metadata
See: Systems Librarian, May 2008 “Beyond the current generation of next-generation
interfaces: deeper search”
Beyond Discovery
• Fulfillment oriented
• Search -> select -> view
• Delivery/Fulfillment much harder than
discovery
• Back-end complexity should be as
seamless as possible to the user
• Offer services for digital and print content
Library-specific Features
• Appropriate relevance factors
– Objective keyword ranking + Library
weightings
– Circulation frequency, OCLC holdings,
scholarly content
• Results grouping (FRBR)
• Collection focused (vs sales-driven)
Enterprise Integration
• Ability to deliver content and services
through non-library applications
• Campus portal solutions
• Courseware
• Social networking environments
• Search portals / Feed aggregators
Interoperability
• Decoupled interface implies data
synchronization
• Mass export of catalog data
• Hooks back into the ILS for holdings and
patron services
– Real-time availability
Architecture and Standards
• Need to have an standard approach for
connecting new generation interfaces with
ILS and other repositories
• Proprietary and ad hoc methods currently
prevail
• Digital Library Federation
– ILS-Discovery Interface Group
• Time to start thinking about a new
generation of ILS better suited for current
Smart and Sophisticated
• Much more difficult than old gen OPACS
• Not a dumbed-down approach
• Wed library specific requirements and
expectations with e-commerce
technologies
Deployment and Transition
How will libraries Join the next
generation?
Great Benefit, Great cost?
• A whole new level of expense to the library to
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achieve needed automation results
Patron interface was previously expected to be
part of ILS
Cost of ILS OPAC module very modest relative to
new discovery products
Can the library community bear the cost?
Can the library community afford not to move
forward?
Can we afford a slow Transition?
• Deployment of older OPACs widespread
• We’re very early in the adoption cycle
• Libraries tend to cycle to new technologies
at a slow pace
• Time on the Web moves quickly!
• Urgency to move quickly
– “One year in NYC is like 7 years in LA”
– One year on the Web is like 7 years in Library
Time
ILS Deployments
Unicorn
1704
Horizon
1612
Millennium
1289
Voyager
1183
Aleph 500
1970
Library.Solution
700
Next Gen Interface Deployments
Innovative Interfaces: Encore 2006
81
Ex Libris: Primo
2006
77
Medialab solutions:
AquaBrowser
Endeca
2002
128
2004
5
VTLS Visualizer
2007
1
Source: Automation System Marketplace, Library Journal April 1, 2008
Open Source opportunity?
• Commercial traditionally licensed solutions
currently far ahead of open source
alternatives
• Time-to-market a critical factor
• Challenge to catch up
New-Gen Library Interfaces
Current Commercial and Open
Source Products
Endeca Guided Navigation
• North Carolina State University
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/
• McMaster University
http://libcat.mcmaster.ca/
• Phoenix Public Library
http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/
• Florida Center for Library Automation
http://catalog.fcla.edu/ux.jsp
AquaBrowser Library
• Queens Borough Public Library
– http://aqua.queenslibrary.org/
• Oklahoma State University
– http://boss.library.okstate.edu/
• University of Chicago
– http://lens.lib.uchicago.edu/
Ex Libris Primo
• Discovery and Delivery platform for
academic libraries
• Vanderbilt University
http://alphasearch.library.vanderbilt.edu
• University of Minnesota
http://prime2.oit.umn.edu:1701/primo_library/li
bweb/action/search.do?vid=TWINCITIES
• University of Iowa
http://smartsearch.uiowa.edu/
Encore from Innovative
Interfaces
• Designed for academic, public and special
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libraries
Nashville Public Library
http://nplencore.library.nashville.org/iii/encore/app
• Scottsdale Public Library
http://encore.scottsdaleaz.gov/iii/encore/app
• Yale University Lillian Goldman Law
Library
http://encore.law.yale.edu/iii/encore/app
OCLC Worldcat Local
• OCLC WorldCat customized for local library
catalog
– Relies on hooks into ILS for local services
– Tied to library holdings set in WorldCat
• University of Washington Libraries
http://uwashington.worldcat.org/
• University of California Melvyl Catalog
The Library Corporation
• First ILS company involved in promoting
new interface technologies
• Initially based its strategy on AquaBrowser
and Endeca
• Indigo – announced at ALA Midwinter Jan
2008
• “Library Positioning Software”
• Based on Lucene / SOLR
SirsiDynix
• No faceted search product currently available:
– Enterprise Portal Solution
– Rooms / SchoolRooms
– iLink / iBistro (legacy)
• Product based on FAST announced in March
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2006 – withdrawn
Product based on Brainware Globalbrain
announced in Nov 2007
– Prototype Expected by April 2008
LibraryThing for Libraries
• Not a full next-gen interface
• Provides a way to add tagging to existing
interfaces
• Deal with social tagging critical mass
problem
Scriblio
• Formerly WPopac
• Built with WordPress
• Plymouth State University
• http://library.plymouth.edu/
• Searches library Web site + catalog
• http://about.scriblio.net/
VUFind – Villanova
University
Based on Apache Solr search toolkit
http://www.vufind.org/
eXtensible Catalog
• University of Rochester – River Campus
Libraries
• Financial support from the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation
• http://www.extensiblecatalog.info/
ILS products w/ next-gen catalog
features
• Products where the OPAC offered as an
integrated module includes relevancy,
facets, enriched content, etc
• Same scope as traditional ILS
– Polaris
– Koha
– Evergreen
Polaris
Evergreen
Koha
For more information
Next Generation Library
Catalogs by Marshall
Breeding
Library Technology
Reports June/July
2007
ALA TechSource
Questions and Discussion