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Endeca and faceted browsing: Giving the user a useful catalog

Learn about the implementation of Endeca and faceted browsing to improve the user experience in online catalogs. Explore the benefits and challenges, and see a demonstration of how it works.

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Endeca and faceted browsing: Giving the user a useful catalog

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  1. Endeca and faceted browsing: Giving the user a useful catalog Scott Warren NCSU Libraries South Carolina Library Association Annual Meeting June 7, 2007 NCSU Libraries

  2. Outline • Problem and Context • Online searching, shopping, and examples • Demo • Faceted Navigation • Implementation Challenges • Facet Usage Statistics • Reflections NCSU Libraries

  3. The Context NCSU Libraries

  4. Online Catalogs "Most integrated library systems, as they are currently configured and used, should be removed from public view.“ - Roy Tennant, CDL NCSU Libraries

  5. What is the problem? • Existing catalogs are hard to use: • known item searching works pretty well, but … • users often do keyword searching and get large result sets returned in system sort order (last in, etc.) • catalogs are unforgiving on spelling errors, stemming • Authority searching completely mystifying NCSU Libraries

  6. Catalog metadata is buried • Subject headings are not leveraged in searching • they should be browsed or linked from, not searched • Data from the item record is not leveraged • should be able to filter by item type, location, circulation status, popularity NCSU Libraries

  7. Word of the Day for Saturday, May 5, 2007 • moil \MOYL\, intransitive verb: • 1.To work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge.2. To churn or swirl about continuously.3. Toil; hard work; drudgery.4. Confusion; turmoil. NCSU Libraries

  8. What’s the big picture? • Improve the quality of the library catalog user experience. • Exploit our existing metadata infrastructure (make MARC work harder). • Build a more flexible catalog tool that can be integrated with discovery tools of the future. NCSU Libraries

  9. What is Endeca? • Software company based in Cambridge, MA • Search/information access technology provider for a number of major e-commerce websites • Developers of the Endeca Information Access Platform NCSU Libraries

  10. Why Endeca? • Customized relevance ranking of results • Better subject access by leveraging available metadata through facets • Improved response time • Enhanced natural language searching through spell correction, etc. • Browse NCSU Libraries

  11. A question • “How is the new generation of library catalog being developed?” • informed and enhanced by search technologies developed outside of the library • based on how our users know how to search, not on how we want them to search • What does search look like for our users? NCSU Libraries

  12. Examples NCSU Libraries

  13. NCSU Libraries

  14. NCSU Libraries

  15. Faceted Navigation on the Web NCSU Libraries

  16. NCSU Libraries

  17. Facet Value NCSU Libraries

  18. NCSU Libraries

  19. NCSU Libraries

  20. NCSU Libraries

  21. Faceted Navigation in Libraries NCSU Libraries

  22. Faceted Navigation in Libraries NCSU Libraries

  23. Faceted Navigation in Libraries NCSU Libraries

  24. Demonstration NCSU Libraries

  25. Faceted Navigation NCSU Libraries

  26. What is Faceted Navigation? NCSU Libraries

  27. What is Faceted Navigation? • Search and browse in a single interface • Facets can vary in scope • What is the item about? • What kind of item is it? • Where is it? • Enables users to narrow results • Macroscopic behavior of results set • Clues to being on the right path NCSU Libraries

  28. Origins of Facets • 1930s Ranganathan • Colon Classification NCSU Libraries

  29. Cartesian Coordinates NCSU Libraries

  30. Coordinate System Format (x, y, z) (Library, LCSH, Format) (Branch 1, History, Book) (Branch 2, History, DVD) Multiple records could be associated with each coordinate point. Each point is associated with at least one record. (Branch 1, History, Book) Book LCSH DVD Art History Branch 1 Branch 2 Library NCSU Libraries

  31. Another way to think about it • 11 dimensional lattice space • All points associated with at least one item/record • Records can be associated with > 1 point • Keyword search selects subset of points with word(s) in record • Facets shown are those dimensions corresponding to the points in that set (nonzero values). • Choosing a facet value is equivalent to slicing through the multidimensional lattice on a plane along that facet value and reducing the lattice’s dimension by 1. • Choose enough facets and you will get down to a few items (never a null set) NCSU Libraries

  32. Implementation NCSU Libraries

  33. Implementation Challenges • Facet selection • Interface design • Data issues NCSU Libraries

  34. Endeca at NCSU • Endeca used to improve the discovery portion of the library catalog • Endeca software indexes 1.6 million MARC records exported nightly from Sirsi Unicorn ILS • Backend functions of ILS remain intact NCSU Libraries

  35. Availability Author Library Format Language Browse: New LC Classification Subject: Topic Subject: Genre Subject: Region Subject: Era Facets Implemented at NCSU NCSU Libraries

  36. Facet Selection NCSU Libraries

  37. Interface Design • Iterative approach using wireframes • Eight major revisions in a four month period • Still lots of room for improvement NCSU Libraries

  38. Technical Overview • Endeca co-exists with SirsiDynix Unicorn ILS and Web2 online catalog • Endeca handles keyword search • Web2 handles authority search and detail page display • Endeca indexes MARC records exported nightly from Unicorn • Endeca = discovery portion of the ILS NCSU Libraries

  39. Technical Overview Information Access Platform Data Foundry NCSU exports and reformats MDEX Engine Parse text files Raw MARC data Indices Flat text files HTTP HTTP NCSU Web Application NCSU Libraries

  40. Technical Overview Offline - Nightly NCSU exports and reformats Data Foundry MDEX Engine Parse text files Raw MARC data Indices Flat text files HTTP HTTP NCSU Web Application NCSU Libraries

  41. Technical Overview Always Online NCSU exports and reformats Data Foundry MDEX Engine Parse text files Raw MARC data Indices Flat text files HTTP HTTP NCSU Web Application NCSU Libraries

  42. Implementation Team • Seven member team • 5 IT staff, • 1 cataloging librarian, • 1 reference librarian • Timeline • License / negotiation: Spring 2005 • Software acquisition: Summer 2005 • Implementation: Aug 2005 to Jan 2006 NCSU Libraries

  43. Data Issues • ILS data with MARC-8 encoding => Text data with UTF-8 encoding • Data consistency between ILS and Endeca catalog indexes (updates!) • Data issues revealed by exposing metadata (ex: subject headings) in facets NCSU Libraries

  44. Outcomes NCSU Libraries

  45. Added search tools • Automatic spell correction • “Did you mean…” suggestions • Automatic stemming • Bookmark-ability NCSU Libraries

  46. True browse • Regain ability to browse catalog without entering any search terms NCSU Libraries

  47. July 06 – Jan 07 NCSU Libraries

  48. July 06 – Jan 07 NCSU Libraries

  49. July 06 – Jan 07 NCSU Libraries

  50. July 06 – Jan 07 NCSU Libraries

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