Developing a Thematic Library

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Developing a Thematic Library

• Integrating Drupal, Google and the ILS

Ildegardo Jesus Elizondo Alejandro Garza October
14, 2008
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Roadmap

• What triggered this thematic library?
• Development process
• Technology involved in the project
• What is expected of the thematic library?

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What triggered this thematic library?
OPAC
Encyclopedia?
Internet
??
Journal??
E-book??
Digital Library
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• Dead ends
• Unhelpful No results found screens
• Metasearch problems
• Lack of recall, slow execution
• Search is not Googleized
• Expect simpler interface
• Do quick search variations

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Development process

• Mock ups and prototypes
• Questionnaires to faculty
• Usability tests

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Wanted feature list

• Faceted search
• Which fields become facets?
• User ratings/reviews
• Lists of favorites
• Tables of contents
• Integration with Millennium

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Using HILCC

• Developed at Columbia University.
• Groups Library of Congress classification numbers
  into a hierarchical vocabulary
• similar to Conspectus groupings, open
• Drupal custom module
• Automatic item categorizaztion upon harvesting

A
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What it looks like

• http//biblioteca.mty.itesm.mx/pasteur/

• Multilingual
• Catalog search
• Subject browse
• Metasearch
• Popular items (most viewed recently)
• News / Blog

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• Facets
• HILCC
• Tables of contents
• Stemming
• work working, works
• Ecommerce e-commerce, e commerce
• Results from subscription databases and select
  sites

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• Item Record
• Realtimestatus
• Similar items
• Details

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Technology involved in the project

• Drupal
• Extensible open source CMS.
• Apache Solr search
• Integrates with Drupal, fast faceted search.
• Google Custom Search Engine
• Powers our federated search

Library Server
MillenniumILS
Google
Drupal
WebOpac
Custom Search Engine
Apache MySQL PHP
Solr
Item recordsPatron records Current item status
Index
A
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Architecture
Page Harvest
Library Server
MillenniumILS
Google
MARC harvest

• Drupal
• Biblio records
• Subscription database records
• Tags
• Users
• Search

WebOpac
Custom Search Engine
EZ-Proxy
Bookimages
Index
Authentication
Item status
ApacheMySQL PHP
Solr
Item recordsPatron records Current item status
Secure Access
Subscription Databases
A
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Why Drupal

• At the time of project planning, the library
  already had some experience with Drupal.
• Drupal
• Is extensiblehundreds of modules.
• Had solid performance.
• Is supported by the community (IRC, online docs,
  forums) and commercially (books, paid services)
• Is used in libraries.
• Free and Open

A
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Libraries using Drupal

• At least 33 university and public libraries
• 5 using Drupal to replace or intergrate with OPAC
• Slideshow of Drupal libraries
• http//groups.drupal.org/node/13724
• Drupal Library Groups
• http//drupalib.interoperating.info/
• http//groups.drupal.org/libraries

A
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Why Apache Solr?

• Dedicated search software
• Competes/replaces commercial solutions
• Open Source
• Features
• Faceted search, synonyms, stemming, spellcheck
• More like this and spellchecking
• Powerful item ranking options
• Replication
• Free and Open

A
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Why Google?

• Some subscription databases already indexed by
  Google.
• Google Custom Search Engine allows building a
  search for only desired domains/URLs.
• Plus
• Users are used to Googles interfaces
• Google search technology and branding
• Google Co-op tools
• Free

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What is expected of the thematic library?

• Better relationships with students and faculty
• Drag new users to the library from Google
  searches
• Users will more easily find what they want

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Other features

• Google Books preview.
• Include Google results alongside library.
• RSS feeds.
• Magazine A-Z listings, by subject (HILCC)

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Results so far

• Traffic from search engines
• In August, 94 of total traffic was from search
  engines and from cities other than Monterrey
  (91).
• Average visit times and pages viewed from users
  in Monterrey are much higher (337 and 4.66
  pages/visit) versus the average (106 and 1.94
  pages/visit).
• Item records in google.com.mx are high for some
  items, which appear in second or third
  placesranking above bookstore results.
• At least one academic department is closely
  following our implementation.