This presentation was provided by Melissa Milazzo and Gina Donato of Elsevier, during the NISO event "Long Form Content: Ebooks, Print Volumes and the Concerns of Those Who Use Both," held on March 20, 2019.

1. Gina Donato, Director of Content Transformation for Education, Reference,
and Continuity
Melissa Milazzo, Product Manager, Reference Solutions on ScienceDirect
Rewriting the Book:
Long-Form Content
for the Digital Age

2. 20.03.2019
• Who we are
• Navigating the evolving information ecosystem
• Upstream adaptations
• Platform adaptations

4. An age of information overload

5. Current systems leave researchers to sort, sift, and
self-curate supporting information

6. Too little time
Abundant resources
Short attention span
Do not read in a linear fashion
Used to getting the right information, in
the right format, at the right time
USER BEHAVIOR
Machines are the gatekeepers to our
content
Ideas expressed via print design
mean nothing to machine readers
Technology is mimicking the way
humans think about content and
construct content relationships
ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY
Breadth and depth of content
In-depth market knowledge
Deep user understanding
The basis of knowledge required to
power actionable insights
CONTENT OPPORTUNITIES

7. From Books to Blocks
Lego block Photo (square) by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
Red Lego Photo and Lego line Photo by Unknown Authors are licensed under CC BY-SA
“I want a comprehensive view
of a subject…in a print book!”
“I don’t have a lot of time, I
need to find relevant figures
that will help me better
understand a concept outside
of my main area of research.”
“I’m looking for references to help me
understand more about my research and
also for the techniques and methodologies
that can be useful in my research”

8. Upstream Adaptations: Changing Our Approach to Content Creation
Commissioning and Planning
 Why does a user want to use this content?
 What does the content achieve for the user?
 How do our users access this content on our platforms?
 What gaps do we need to fill?
Authoring
 Could content be reorganized so as to favor shorter, discrete chapters that
map to a single concept?
 Can an element appear alone and still have value?
 Are headings and titles descriptive and meaningful (as opposed to witty)?

9. Upstream Adaptations: Creating Content as Data
 Engage authors in content enrichment
 Separate structure and presentation from
semantic meaning
 Adopt entity-based content models that support
Linked Data

10. How Do Users Find Reference Content?

11. ScienceDirect Topic Pages: A New Method for
Surfacing Reference Content
Reference Chapter
GOOGLE
Google indexed free layer in
topic page

12. Surfacing Information at the Point of Need
• An interactive and easy reading experience

13. 1 2
3
Anatomy of a Topic Page
Short definition Related terms
Relevant Excerpts
3

14. Technology Powering ScienceDirect Topic Pages
• Data-mining
• Taxonomy building
• Algorithmic information
extraction
• Relevancy ranking
• Quality confirmation
Data Science Technologies
Reference Content
Topic Pages

15. Reference Content Embedded in the Research Workflow
Of surveyed researchers agreed
that Topic Pages saved them
time.
Of surveyed researchers
agreed that Topic Pages helped
them achieve their goals.
“Elsevier ScienceDirect Topic
Pages saved me time researching,
helped me to find resources with
information about specialized
topics, and exposed me to
connections across a subject.”
— Graduate Student, Educational
Institution, North America

16. Thank you