Innovative Interfaces Making the most of the data we have Winona Salesky | Digital Initiatives Librarian | The University of Vermont [email_address] | http:// cdi.uvm.edu / | http:// thedil.wordpress.com /

What role does metadata have a in a web 2.0 world?

More familiar sites

Where does the library fit in? “ Let’s face it — the obsession with which a library describes an item is second to none. ” - Peter Murray Disruptive Library Technology Jester http://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils/

“ Let’s face it — the obsession with which a library describes an item is second to none. ”

- Peter Murray Disruptive Library Technology Jester

http://dltj.org/2006/06/dis-ils/

What does all that rich metadata look like to our users?

Limitations of traditional library interfaces Lack scan-ability Limited search functionality Difficult to create complex search strings Difficult to manage large results sets Difficult to make connections between related materials Does not take advantage inherent flexibility of digital formats and the extensive nature of the metadata

Lack scan-ability

Limited search functionality

Difficult to create complex search strings

Difficult to manage large results sets

Difficult to make connections between related materials

Does not take advantage inherent flexibility of digital formats and the extensive nature of the metadata

Scan-ability Creates a hierarchy of importance by: Grouping related items together Making important information look different Making clear distinctions between items Provide visual clues for site functionality Paying attention to white space

Creates a hierarchy of importance by:

Grouping related items together

Making important information look different

Making clear distinctions between items

Provide visual clues for site functionality

Paying attention to white space

Limited search functionality No spell check, or spelling suggest No stemming Limited to no relevance ranking Little or no ability to refine results set

No spell check, or spelling suggest

No stemming

Limited to no relevance ranking

Little or no ability to refine results set

Additional limitations Difficult to create complex search strings Difficult to manage large results sets Difficult to make connections between related materials Does not take advantage inherent flexibility of digital formats and the extensive nature of the metadata

Difficult to create complex search strings

Difficult to manage large results sets

Difficult to make connections between related materials

Does not take advantage inherent flexibility of digital formats and the extensive nature of the metadata

Leveraging our metadata

Facets Topic Format Temporal Author Genre Geographic Area Facet: One of the sides of a body that has numerous faces. -OED, online

Some advantages of facets Increased avenues for discovery Allows users to easily “build” complex searches Prevent empty results sets Integrates keyword searching with browse-ability Always a visible “path” so users never feel lost Allows users to expand and narrow results set Easier to explore the true extent of the collection Recognition over recall Easy to add new facets, categories, or items

Increased avenues for discovery

Allows users to easily “build” complex searches

Prevent empty results sets

Integrates keyword searching with browse-ability

Always a visible “path” so users never feel lost

Allows users to expand and narrow results set

Easier to explore the true extent of the collection

Recognition over recall

Easy to add new facets, categories, or items

Some limitations of facets Use of facets will make inconstancies in metadata obvious to users. Some facets become unmanageable with large results sets. Facets work better on some fields than others.

Use of facets will make inconstancies in metadata obvious to users.

Some facets become unmanageable with large results sets.

Facets work better on some fields than others.

Some examples: Flamenco http:// flamenco.berkeley.edu / NCSU http:// www.lib.ncsu.edu /catalog/ MyResearch Portal VuFind http://research.library.villanova.edu/ http:// www.vufind.org / WorldCat http:// www.worldcat.org / Scriblio http:// lamson.wpopac.com /library/ UVM Center for Digital Initiatives http:// cdi.uvm.edu /

Flamenco

http:// flamenco.berkeley.edu /

NCSU

http:// www.lib.ncsu.edu /catalog/

MyResearch Portal VuFind

http://research.library.villanova.edu/ http:// www.vufind.org /

WorldCat

http:// www.worldcat.org /

Scriblio

http:// lamson.wpopac.com /library/

UVM Center for Digital Initiatives

http:// cdi.uvm.edu /

Something a little different

An Innovative Interface http://well-formed- data.net/experiments/elastic_lists /

http://well-formed- data.net/experiments/elastic_lists /

Other projects to keep an eye on: Blacklight University of Virginia eXtensible Catalog A University of Rochester/Mellon funded project Evergreen Open source ILS led by the Georgia Public Library Service Koha Open source ILS LibraryThing for libraries Providing tagging, reviews and more for integration with library catalogs. AquaBrowser A Medialab Solutions project Primo From Ex Libris

Blacklight

University of Virginia

eXtensible Catalog

A University of Rochester/Mellon funded project

Evergreen

Open source ILS led by the Georgia Public Library Service

Koha

Open source ILS

LibraryThing for libraries

Providing tagging, reviews and more for integration with library catalogs.

AquaBrowser

A Medialab Solutions project

Primo

From Ex Libris

Barriers to change Inflexible vendor based systems Non-transparent data formats Data inconsistencies Lack of technological expertise on a library-by-library basis

Inflexible vendor based systems

Non-transparent data formats

Data inconsistencies

Lack of technological expertise on a library-by-library basis

Where to next?