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Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution

Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution. Andrew Pace & Emily Lynema NCSU Libraries April 12, 2006. What we will cover:. Online catalog: the problem Brief environmental scan Implementation: team, timeline, technology Demo

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Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution

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  1. Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Andrew Pace & Emily Lynema NCSU Libraries April 12, 2006

  2. What we will cover: • Online catalog: the problem • Brief environmental scan • Implementation: team, timeline, technology • Demo • Usability, statistical results, relevance study • So what? • Future plans

  3. What ILS Catalogs Do Well…(liberally stolen from Roy Tennant) • Inventory control: What and where • Known item searching “To enable a person to find a book of which either is known: author, title, or subject.” - Charles Cutter, Rules for Catalogs

  4. What ILS Catalogs Don’t do Well…(liberally stolen from Roy Tennant) • Any search other than known item • Known item searching • Anything other than books and journals • Logical groupings of results (e.g. FRBR) • Faceted browsing • Relevance ranking • Sideways searching (suggestions, expansion of searches and search targets)

  5. Endeca purchase decision • Lots of topical searches and poor subject access • Keyword gives too many or too few results – leads to general distrust • Misunderstanding of authority headings • No relevancy ranking of results • Needed more responsiveness (speed)

  6. NextGen Library Search Tools The Next Generation catalog: more than just a facelift • RedLightGreen (RLG) • OCLC Fictionfinder • Vivisimo clustered search • Aquabrowser visual context • Endeca Guided Navigation • Innovative Interfaces “OPAC Pro” • Ex Libris “Primo” • Polaris, AJAX-Enabled OPAC • SirsiDynix Enterprise Portal System, FAST • Talis, et alWeb Services • OCLC Custom Worldcat • Georgia Pines and the Library 2.0 Bandwagon

  7. Implementation Team • 7 representative team members • Andrew Pace, Information Technology, Chair • Cindy Levine, Research and Information Services • Emily Lynema, Info. Tech., ex officio (tech lead) • Erik Moore, Info. Tech., ex officio (ILS librarian) • Charley Pennell, Metadata and Cataloging • Shirley Rodgers, Information Technology • Tito Sierra, Digital Library Initiatives • Timeline • License / negotiation: Spring 2005 • Acquire: Summer 2005 • Implementation: August 2005 – January 12, 2006

  8. Technical Overview • Endeca ProFind co-exists with SirsiDynix Unicorn ILS and Web2 online catalog. • Endeca indexes MARC records exported from Unicorn. • Index is refreshed nightly with records added/updated during previous day.

  9. Endeca ProFind Overview Endeca ProFind NCSU exports and reformats Data Foundry Navigation Engine Parse text files Raw MARC data Indices Flat text files HTTP HTTP NCSU Web Application Client browser

  10. Endeca ProFind Overview Offline - Nightly NCSU exports and reformats Data Foundry Navigation Engine Parse text files Raw MARC data Indices Flat text files HTTP HTTP NCSU Web Application Client browser

  11. Endeca ProFind Overview Always Online NCSU exports and reformats Data Foundry Navigation Engine Parse text files Raw MARC data Indices Flat text files HTTP HTTP NCSU Web Application Client browser

  12. Integrating Endeca • Endeca doesn’t understand MARC data / MARC-8 character encoding – translate to UTF-8 text files • Each night a script updates the data indexed by Endeca: • Exports updated or new MARC records from Unicorn. • Reformats and merges these records with those already indexed. • Starts Endeca re-index – completely rebuilding index for the catalog. • Process requires about 7 hours. • Retain Web2 OPAC for some functionality • Authority searching - known items and cross-references • Detailed record pages – how to make Endeca -> Web2 link?

  13. Quick Demo • http://catalog.lib.ncsu.edu

  14. Some User Reaction “This is absolutely the coolest thing I've seen all century.” • Will Owen, Head of Systems (UNC Libraries) “Also, I'm really digging the new NCSU library catalog. Very nice." - Educause staff (non-librarian) “The new Endeca system is incredible. It would be difficult to exaggerate how much better it is than our old online card catalog (and therefore that of most other universities). I've found myself searching the catalog just for fun, whereas before it was a chore to find what I needed.” - NCSU Undergrad, Statistics

  15. Some Search Statistics (March 2006)

  16. Some Navigation Statistics (March 2006)

  17. Other interesting tidbits… (March 2006) • 3.6% of all searches had spelling corrected automatically • 2.6% of all searches had alternate spelling suggestions

  18. Usability Testing Trends I • 10 undergraduate students • 5 with Endeca catalog • 5 with old Web2 OPAC • Endeca performed as well as OPAC for known-item searching • 89% Endeca tasks completed ‘easily’ (8/9) • 71% OPAC tasks completed ‘easily’ (15/21) • Endeca performs better than OPAC for topical searching • 61% Endeca tasks completed ‘easily’ (19/31) • 3% Endeca tasks completed as ‘hard’ (1/31) • 33% OPAC tasks completed ‘easily’ (13/39) • 26% OPAC tasks completed as ‘hard’ (10/39)

  19. Usability Testing Trends II • Relevance *most* important • “Once I scroll through a page, I get pretty discouraged about the results...” Web2 OPAC participant looking for resources on cat health • ‘Keyword’ term less intuitive / trusted than ‘Subject’ and ‘Title’ • “[I used] Keyword in Title because that’s what I want the book to be mainly referring to. But I also could’ve went Keyword in Subject. But if I’d have went Keyword Anywhere it would have had too big of a field to look through.” Web2 OPAC participant looking for resources on gene therapy • When found, dimensions seem intuitive and useful • ‘Did you mean’ seems intuitive • Students don’t necessarily treat the catalog like Google!

  20. A study in relevance • Are search results in Endeca more likely to be relevant to a user’s query than search results in Web2 OPAC? • 100 topical user searches from 1 month in fall 2005 • How many of top 5 results relevant? • 51% relevant in Web2 OPAC; 31 no hits • 69% relevant in Endeca catalog; 12 no hits

  21. Relevance defined • Relevance ranking in Endeca – select from a variety of modules and order them based on importance. • Relevance most important in Keyword Anywhere - searches all fields. • At NCSU… • Original query term(s) (no thesaurus, stemming, spell correction) • Exact phrase match • Field ranking (Title higher than Author higher than Table of Contents) • Number of fields that contain term(s) …

  22. So what? It’s still just a catalog • The library systems puzzle • Reversal of fortune

  23. The library system puzzle Serials A&I / FT DBs Catalog Web

  24. The library system puzzle Serials A&I / FT DBs Metasearch ERM Systems GS Guided Navigation Digital Repositories Catalog Web IR Legacy ILS

  25. Reversal of fortune OLD SEARCH MODEL NEW SEARCH MODEL

  26. Future Plans • Ongoing tweaks: • Continued usability testing • Relevance ranking algorithms & spell correction thresholds • Additional browsing options • Endeca 2.0 ideas • FRBR-ized display • Discussions with OCLC regarding FAST (Faceted Access to Subject Terms) and FRBR • Patron-generated refinements (folksonomies?) • Enrich records with supplemental Web Services content – more usable TOCs, book reviews, etc. • The death of authority searching (?) • More integration with QuickSearch, other data repositories, and third-party discovery tools

  27. Thanks http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/endeca Andrew Pace, Head, IT andrew_pace@ncsu.edu Emily Lynema, Systems Librarian for Digital Projects emily_lynema@ncsu.edu

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