'Value Added' Data

There area number of ways in which we could leverage the power of our data to provide 'value added' information to users within the OPAC. Some examples of services are:

• Recommended items (users that borrowed this book also borrowed these books...)
• Loan stats (this book has been borrowed # times in the past 12 months)
• Interesting items (here are other items that may be of interest...)
• Alternative items (this item is on loan, have you considered this item instead...)
  
• Search terms (users that used this search terms also used the search terms...)
• Tag clouds (a 'cloud' of frequently used search terms)
  

However, the biggest barrier to merging this information within existing interfaces is the time it takes to run the queries on the database. If extracting this information takes 30 seconds to a minute per search, users will soon become very frustrated with how slow the system is. A potential resolution was defined by Tim Spalding (creator of LibraryThing.com) in chapter 10 of the Library Mashups book by Nicole Engard.

Tim outlines a method of using a small database to hold information external to the LMS for use in other ways. In our environment this information could be accessed and extracted in a simple and fast query and then 'mashed' with OPAC information to enhance the user experience. The method involves extracting just the information that is needed in an automatic export every night. This information will be pre-formatted and 'cleaned-up' so it is ready to be delivered to the user along with their original search within the OPAC. Because the information is relevant, pre-formatted, and exists within a simple database, it can be accessed and delivered extremely quickly. The diagram below shows this process:



An excellent example of an OPAC with these 'value added' features can be found at the Huddersfield University Library. This following link takes you to the OPAC with examples of, recommendations, virtual shelf browsing, loan statistics, tag cloud, and a whole lot more:

An item on the Huddersfield Uni OPAC

Here is a screen shot (bottom half of the screen) of the same OPAC item with indicators showing the different 'value added' parts: