[WEB4LIB] Google OPACs?

[Bernhard Eversberg]

On 1 Feb 05, at 14:33, Gerry Mckiernan wrote:

> Are you aware of any OPAC vendor that provides a system that has been
> interfaced with a 
> local Google installation and thus allow records to be displayed in a
> Google order?
> 
> In this case, the displayed items could/might be ranked according to
> the associated number of 
> checkouts for each newly displayed item, or perhaps by number of full
> record displays in the local 
> online catalog, or both? Or .... ?

A truly Google-like ranking in an OPAC would of course require that we record all 
the references in all the books we catalog, and in a rigidly standardized way.
This being practically impossible, number of checkouts might be an option if you 
manage to record the checkouts per title, not just per copy. Only, what about 
reserve books or important reference works that are not regularly checked out?
Criteria for "quality" or "relevance" might also include the fact that the title 
record has an edition statement with a number higher than 1, or has a uniform 
title or is a translation. All of which is not really easy to ascertain by 
software.
But Google ranking does lots more than just count links. Keywords are, for 
example, attributed more "weight" if occurring in a <title> tag or in headlines or
image tags or captions. And then there is the proximity of words and their 
location within the text (early or late). These concepts are just not applicable 
for catalog records, consisting mostly of noun phrases without any specific 
tagging. Maybe words in the title proper are "worth" more than in any additions, 
but you easily find examples to the contrary.
Reverse chronologic, as many OPACs rank their results, is maybe still the best 
and most transparent presentation.

We have to, I think, describe and point out the differences between catalogs and 
search engines. In a paper published in 2002, I attempted just that:
"On the theory of library catalogs and search engines"
http://www.allegro-c.de/formate/tlcse.htm

Regards, B.E.

Bernhard Eversberg
Universitaetsbibliothek, Postf. 3329, 
D-38023 Braunschweig, Germany
Tel.  +49 531 391-5026 , -5011 , FAX  -5836
e-mail  B.Eversberg at tu-bs.de