[Web4lib] Common queries and common misspellings

[Phalbe Henriksen]

When we were choosing our second automation system, I thought SIRSI told us 
that we could see records of what patrons were searching for. I thought this 
was great, because we could see the most common typos and the most common 
searches that brought up unmanageable results and we could develop 
guidelines from that.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. SIRSI can't do that. But I think it should be a 
basic service from library automation systems.

Phalbe Henriksen
Director
Bradford County Public Library
Starke, FL

-----Original Message-----
From: "Richard Wiggins" <richard.wiggins at gmail.com>
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 17:41:05 -0500
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Common queries and common misspellings

> Karen,
> 
> Yes, I've played with Wordtracker.  They have an interesting slant on
> search
> engine optimization -- helping you find keywords that are moderately
> popular, not extremely popular.  The theory is that extremely popular
> terms,
> found at the "short head" of the Zipf curve (as opposed to the
> newly-famous
> "long tail" of the curve) are unlikely to benefit you much.  If you
> make
> sure the word "research" appears on a university page, for instance,
> that's
> such a common search term that it's unlikely to benefit you, unless
> you've
> got MIT or Stanford's PageRank.
> 
> Obviously SEO is not what you're pursuing with this study.  Maybe the
> Wordtracker people would help you with your quest?
> 
> A naughty project that I've been tempted to try before is searching for
> popular misspellings on prominent Web sites.  You would not believe how
> many
> very prominent places publish online calenders.
> 
> /rich
> 
> On 2/17/06, Michael McCulley <drweb at san.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Karen,
> >
> > I blogged this item recently.. see
> > http://drweb.typepad.com/dwdomain/2006/02/typographical_e.html
> >
> > "Typographical errors in library databases
> > by Terry Ballard
> > Revised February 2, 2006
> > by Tina Gunther and Terry Ballard
> >
> > This list started as a byproduct of a keyword inspection of the
> online
> > catalog of Adelphi University in 1991. That study was inspired by a
> > cataloger at Harvard named Jeffrey Beall, who found errors in the
> Library
> > of
> > Congress catalog, and reported on a list of test words in the journal
> > American Libraries. Early in the process I found that words appearing
> more
> > than once in the Adelphi catalog were almost always found in other
> OPACs
> > of
> > similar size or larger."
> >
> > Hope that helps..
> >
> > Best,
> > Michael
> >
> > --
> > P. Michael McCulley aka DrWeb
> > mailto:drweb at san.rr.com
> > San Diego, CA
> > http://drweb.typepad.com/
> >
> > Quote of the Moment:
> > There are two kinds of pedestrians -- the quick and the dead.
> > Friday, February 17, 2006 6:06:55 PM
> >
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
> > >[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of K.G. Schneider
> > >Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 2:35 PM
> > >To: web4lib at webjunction.org; lita-l at ala.org
> > >Subject: [Web4lib] Common queries and common misspellings
> > >
> > >As a continuation to a previous post, Has anyone on Web4Lib or
> LITA-L
> > >recently done any search query logging and/or analysis that they'd
> be
> > >willing to share with us? We're evaluating search engines this
> > >spring (with
> > >an emphasis on faceted engines, if you're curious) and we're
> > >interested in
> > >both our own data and OPD (Other People's Data).
> > >
> > >I'm broadening my search for current examples of frequently-used
> search
> > >terms and common misspellings keyed into web search engines,
> > >and possibly
> > >also OPACs and library websites.
> > >
> > >I found an interesting website:
> > >
> > >http://www.wordtracker.com/
> > >
> > >And subscribed to the free weekly mailing. Their fee-based
> > >product looks
> > >interesting too. Has anyone here used it?
> > >
> > >Karen G. Schneider
> > >Librarians' Internet Index
> > >http://lii.org kgs at lii.org
> > >Websites you can trust!
> > >
> > >
> > >_______________________________________________
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> > >Web4lib at webjunction.org
> > >http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> >
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> >
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