Tech Talk: Faceted Navigation and Guided Search Explained
a description of the developing new face of search for libraries
by Mark Phillips
notes by Starr Hoffman
7.26.06
link to page in pdf format
OPAC Disadvantages
- assumes you know what you're looking for
- limits are very specific, not often natural (i.e., Music Library)
- must choose limits before seeing results (rather than narrowing afterward)
* facets
- facets appear in left-hand navigational bar
- narrows results by particular facets
- each facet lists how many results from that search appear in it
- example: start with "civil war" and then narrow by "china"
- can easily remove a facet without returning to previous pages
* browsing
- appears at top (before results list)
- divided by LC class #'s into broad subject areas (N = Fine Arts)
* execution
- used Endeca
- took about 3 months to complete the process (5 to implement)
- $160,000 to implement and 8% yearly upkeep charge
- also provides spellcheck functionality
- search for "dcitionary" and you receive results for "dictionary"
Choosing Facets
- titles and other item-specific traits/information don't make good facets
- good facets: date/time period, language, format, subject, etc.
- need good facet labels so that users understand them
- decide what level of facets to provide (broad or narrow)
- decide # of result records user can view
- for instance, 'top 200 only'
- this would display facets for only those 200 records
Examples
- will create a feed off a search
* examples
- open source
- formed at Berkeley
- NSF-grant-funded
- originally oriented around visual objects (but also works with text)
- in their study, 16 out of 19 users preferred the faceted navigation
dpu tests
Familiar Interfaces
Browser Format
- Grokker
- creates facets on-the-fly (not always successful)
- also provides visualizations/cluster maps
General
- relevance ranking works logically
- can limit to currently available items
- federated search using faceted navigation -- subscription databases would be accessed through XML gateways, link resolver, OpenURL
- faceted and/or federated navigation would need to interface with Plone
- new concept in libraries, but not in retail websites (not grant-eligible)
- provides a transparent system to the user
- can still provide a complex search ("civil war" AND china) and be presented with facets
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