LibraryThing for Libraries

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LibraryThing for Libraries Adding Collective
Intelligence to the OPAC
CNI Fall Task Force Meeting John Wenzler, San
Francisco State University December 11, 2007,
Washington DC
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Overview

• What is LibraryThing and why do people use it?
• What does it add to the OPAC? Its value and its
  limitations.
• Other attempts to add Collective Intelligence to
  the OPAC
• Analysis and Suggestions for future Research

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Private Benefits of LibraryThing

• An easy way for readers to organize their books
  and keep track of their reading
• Automatic Access to catalog information from
  Amazon, LC, and many other sources via Z39.50
• Remote Access to your collection from any device
  connected to the network
• Personalized book recommendations (like Netflix)

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Searching My Collection
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Social Benefits of LibraryThing (for members)

• Facebook/MySpace for Bibliophiles/Intellectuals
• Groups, Friends, Discussions
• Find readers with similar interests
• Swap books

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Groups on LibraryThing
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Making Friends
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Collective Data as of 7/12/07

• 319,422 Members
• 21,117,455 Books Cataloged
• 27,304,242 Tags Added
• 2,790,913 Unique Works

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Collective/Public Benefits of LibraryThing (for
everyone)

• Book suggestions (People who own X also own Y)
• Book Unsuggestions (People who own X dont own Z)
• Tag-based folksonomy an interesting form of
  relevance ranking.

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Suggestion Options
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Unsuggestions
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Folksonomy for One Book
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Most Popular books about Game Theory
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Adding LibraryThings public/collective data to
the OPAC

• Sign up for a LibraryThing for Libraries
  account (moderate cost)
• Export a list of your books to LibraryThing
  (ISBN, title, author)
• Configure CSS and other options on LibraryThing
  server
• Add a call to a JavaScript file to your OPAC
  (AJAX is used to add tags and suggestions to the
  record Display)

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Adding Records to Library Account
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(No Transcript)
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Installing JavaScript

• src"http//www.librarything.com/forlibraries/widg
  et.js?id52-725582281" (Javascript lives on the
  LT server, called from record display page)
• 
  (Library decides where the widgets display)

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Example SFSU
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Example Bowdoin
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Tag Browser in the OPAC
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Benefits of Adding LibraryThing Widgets to the
OPAC

• Interesting Visual Display
• Automatic Readers Advisory
• Serendipitous discovery
• Relevancy Ranking based on popularity or
  influence

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Fiction Suggestions
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Relevancy RankingRightResults (RR) vs. Tag
Browser (TB)
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TB Consumerism Search

• No logo taking aim at the brand bullies / Naomi
  Klein.
• Affluenza the all-consuming epidemic / John de
  Graaf
• Fast food nation the dark side of the
  all-American meal / Eric Schlosser.
• Why we buy the science of shopping / Paco
  Underhill
• Cute, quaint, hungry, and romantic the
  aesthetics of consumerism / by Daniel Harris

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RR Consumerism Search

• Consumerism in world history the global
  transformation of desire / Peter N. Stearns.
• Work, consumerism and the new poor / Zygmunt
  Bauman.
• The myth of consumerism / Conrad Lodziak.
• Consumerism in world history the global
  transformation of desire / Peter N. Stearns.
• Luxury trades and consumerism in ancien régime
  Paris / edited by Robert Fox and Anthony Turner.

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LC Subject Search for Consumerism
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TB Game Theory Search

• The evolution of cooperation / Robert Axelrod.
• A beautiful mind the life of mathematical
  genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash / Sylvia
  Nasar.
• Game theory a nontechnical introduction /
  Morton D. Davis.
• Nonzero the logic of human destiny / Robert
  Wright.
• Finite and infinite games / James P. Carse.

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RR Game Theory Search

• Political game theory an introduction / Nolan
  McCarty, Adam Meirowitz.
• Does game theory work? the bargaining challenge
  / Ken Binmore.
• Game theory decisions, interaction, and
  evolution / James N. Webb.
• Evolutionary game theory, natural selection, and
  Darwinian dynamics / Thomas L. Vincent, Joel S.
  Brown
• An introduction to game theory / Martin J.
  Osborne

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TB Happiness Search

• Stumbling on happiness / Daniel Gilbert
• Happiness lessons from a new science / Richard
  Layard.
• Finding flow the psychology of engagement with
  everyday life / Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
• The conquest of happiness.
• Happiness a history / Darrin M. McMahon

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RR Happiness Search

• In search of happiness understanding an
  endangered state of mind
• The architecture of happiness / Alain de Botton
• Stumbling on happiness / Daniel Gilbert.
• Happiness lessons from a new science / Richard
  Layard
• The sad truth about happiness a novel / Anne
  Giardini

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Limitations of LibraryThing for Libraries

• Less than half of our books are cataloged in
  LibraryThing no non-book material
• LibraryThing search interface is not well
  integrated into the OPACs native search
  interface
• Most tags are very generic, and some dont make
  sense in the context of the OPAC
• Library gets the Public/collective benefits
  without the social benefits the data without the
  community

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47 coverage for main collection
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But many books in LibraryThing lack info
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No Way to search by Tag until you get to a single
record display
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(No Transcript)
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Odd Tags -- Brighton??
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Benthamite
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Efforts to add the Social Features of Web 2.0 to
Library Catalogs

• WorldCat Notes and Reviews
• Innovative Interfaces Ratings and Reviews
• Hennepin County Comments
• Ann Arbor District Library tags and reviews
• Plymouth State University comments

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2,881 Reviews in Amazon 4 Reviews in WorldCat
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2 Reviews and Ratings in Westerville Publics
(III) Catalog
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236 Comments in Hennepin County Catalog
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Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) Tag Cloud
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Plymouth State Comments on the Library Catalog
viewed Dec. 5
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Obstacles to Adding both Social and Public
Features to the Public Library Catalog

• Tragedy of the Commons what is the private
  incentive to contribute to public knowledge?
• Economies of Scale Is a single library community
  large enough to generate a worthwhile folksonomy?
• Network Externalities Herd effect

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Suggestions for future Research and Discussion

• Use collaboration between libraries and the
  personalized features of existing OPACs (reading
  histories, preferred searches) to overcome
  obstacles? (Bibliocommons?)
• Or separate the collective/public data from the
  social and communitarian aspects of web 2.0 in
  library catalogs??
• Consider ways to better integrate tab-based
  ranking into native search interface.