However convenient it may be to search the Web from home or a dormitory room, the Internet cannot replace many of the built-in benefits of the library, like browsing the stacks for related information that could add spark and depth to an essay or a report. But researchers are working on more flexible approaches to searching for digital information – not only on the Web but on one’s own hard drive, where elusive details may be scattered through photos, e-mail and other files.
See the full article at the International Herald Tribune.
Semantic web?
Isn’t this what the Semantic Web is going to do? Enable people to browse and locate files/information from multiple sources?
Be like a shelf
This idea may be something that’s already in the works or has actually been implemented somewhere, but I’ve never seen it, so here goes:
I think browse searching in most library OPACs is kind of flawed in that the browse really isn’t a browse at all. Sure you can browse a subject, but how many of us found a useful book sitting on the shelf three books away from the item we were originally after? And of course that item didn’t come up when we did our search. As a historian, that’s happened to me a lot when I was in college. I’d do an essay on Japanese society, find a book that looked good, go to the shelf, get the book, and find a better one a few books over.
So make a function of some kind that emulates how the books actually appear on the shelf. I know that this will never replace coming to the library and physically looking at the shelf, but I think it’d help enormously with searching and information seeking. This search would only pull in books labeled as “Check Shelf” or “On Shelf” or whatever your library uses to puesdo-promise the book should be available. After all, if the book is out, then who cares where it goes on the shelf and I wouldn’t find it when I came to the library and browsed the shelf anyway. That way, when I start looking for Japanese movies and theatre, I’ll find stuff on Akira Kurosawa, his films, and Chushingura. I may not have been interested in Chushingura at first, but if I’m doing anything on Japanese theatre and cinema, I should be.
Besides, we’ve all seen books and stuff sitting on the shelf and we thought it was miscataloged. Even after checking the LOC info inside we’re still scratching our heads as to how a book wound up where it was. And that item may just be what someone needs.
Re:Be like a shelf
This is a great idea. If you use the Voyager system there is a new program designed for doing shelf reading and “inventory” called shelflister from Micahel Doran at UT Arlington. There shouldn’t be anyreason why you can’t modify this to do something like, “see what’s nearby on the shelf” button and you see what is say within a dozen items on either side of what you are looking for.
Anyone got some spare time on their hands to code this thing up?
Flamenco
Great Western Dragon made some good points there.
The Project’s Web Site has more details, but the IHT article makes it look really neato to say the least.
I really need to work this into class this fall, if I can come up with something half this cool I’d be mighty proud of myself.
Devils advocate says:
I wonder though, are projects like this a solution in search of a problem? Search engines really do work for me a great majority of the time, do we need to find ways to do this differently or just wait till google figures it all out?
Re:Semantic web?
That’s exactly what I thought too, The Sematic Web is along the same lines I guess. “The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries“
It uses alot of XML and nifty stuff like that, and has been slowly progressing for a few years now.
Re:Flamenco
I wonder though, are projects like this a solution in search of a problem? Search engines really do work for me a great majority of the time, do we need to find ways to do this differently or just wait till google figures it all out?
Much as I love Google, I also love Kylie Minogue. (But not in the way you’re probably thinking. See, I wanna have sex with her.) Seriously though, much as I love Google, I don’t want them to come up with everything search engine related just like I don’t want Kylie writing all the tunes in the world. Innovation can come from anywhere, and that’s nowhere more evident than in the worlds of computer and information science. If Google wants to work on such a problem, shweet. They can go to and I’m sure they’ll come up with something pretty cool. But if David Kane of Moose Drool, MA (population David) wants to work on the problem and comes up with a decent solution, and then open sources it with a GPL, then where’s the problem with that?
Sure search engines work most of the time, but consider Amazon. Amazon is nothing but a glorified search engine that allows you to buy what you find. But ya know what I find really useful about Amazon? It’s that stuff they put on their pages about “Customers who bought this book also bought this other book” or “Customers recommend this book over this other book.” That, in a sense, is a browse search that shows me what would be next to my item on the shelf if it were a regular bookstore. There have been times when I bought two items from Amazon because I needed one and the other sounded just as useful.