Library search tools don't measure up to Amazon and Google

[kestrell]

Kes: This is a commentary on the series of articles which begins with

Comments

[eldereft]

But try pointing this out to my department chair in an open gripe session, and listen to how it's all not his fault. Thank merciful heavens for arXiv.org and GoogleScholar.

[kestrell]

It hadn't occured to me until I read this that my preference in using Internet tools over our library tools might reflect other people's preferences also. I use my online library tools a few times a week, but only when looking ofr journals and OED access. Of course, to my mind, some of these issues come back to DRM issues: I have to keep signing in, and each search page is different because no one wants to develop a standardized interface, and a number of similar annoyances suck up more of my time which I find frustrating. Last time I had to make special arrangements to fill out the in-depth satisfaction survey the library had made because it wasn't even accessible, though the librarians apologized for this. Still, the interface issue came down once again to the fact that the library itself really didn't have control over a survey they had paid for through a commercial company, which didn't have any usability standards

Then go violate the copyright of Hoffman's "Steal this Book"

[eldereft]

Even better, so far as I can tell I must go through the university library page to login to any journal or database (off-campus only, thankfully). Finding the abstract for an article, opening a new tab, and signing in will not suffice. I know vague hand-waving reasons for this, but they do nothing to blunt my ire. All of which is compounded when they subscribe to a database which has a journal, but don't bother to tell anybody (by which I mean implement a decent search functionality).

Then there is the utter lack of spellcheck or relevance ranking, but I think that's enough vitriol into your journal for the nonce.

Ok, one more - the order of the tablist on the login page does not proceed directly from the "username" to the "password" field.

Re: Then go violate the copyright of Hoffman's "Steal this Book"

[kestrell]

Steal This Book was one of the first ebooks I downloaded *grin*. I've always wanted to use it in an ebook demo but didn't quite dare...Does he manage to put the word f**k on every page?

[fjm]

OPACs weren't even a replica of card catalogues, When they first came in I was outraged, because the "browse" function was gone. You can't look to one side of the book you have searched. You can't riffle through the shelves.

[cvirtue]

I've sent the link to your entry to metageek, because search engines are what his company (Endeca) does. Should you feel like geeking at him on the topic, I'm sure he'll love it.

[kestrell]

Oooooh, an invitation to geek out...I meant to do this through email, but it would be great to see you and MetaGeek and the MetaTwins at my party on June 9, please come if you can. We will have lots of strawberries by then...and MG and I can incite the crowd by talking search engines.

I need to mention the Nancy button someone told me about at WisCon:
"I'm not pompous, I'm pedantic--Here, let me explain the difference..."

party info?

[cvirtue]

I other LJ entries say 'Party June 9,' but not many details. When does it start? What should be brought? When does it end?

I don't know if we can come or not, but I'll investigate.

Endeca for libraries

[metageek]

search engines are what his company (Endeca) does

And, in fact, there is at least one library, at North Carolina State University, which uses an Endeca search engine. Give it a try and see what you think.

Extremely basic features missing

[metageek]

I ran into this the other day, when looking in my university's library for a book on programming Intel chips. When I searched for "intel", most of the hits were for things like "intelligence", "intellect", etc. Even if you're not going to do full-on relevance ranking, you could do something simple like prioritizing the hits that have words that exactly match the search word.

[alexx_kay]

Libraries have had decades of being de facto monopolies on local research abilities. This was perhaps unavoidable, but it produced one of the standard problems of monopolies -- no incentive to compete to become better for the user. Google, etc, are all *about* competition to improve user experience, and libraries (individually and systemically) are only starting to notice that they have catching up to do.