Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Andrew Pace & Emily Lynema NCSU Libraries April 12, 2006

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution What we will cover: Online catalog: the problem Online catalog: the problem Brief environmental scan Brief environmental scan Implementation: team, timeline, technology Implementation: team, timeline, technology Demo Demo Usability, statistical results, relevance study Usability, statistical results, relevance study So what? So what? Future plans Future plans

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution What ILS Catalogs Do Well… (liberally stolen from Roy Tennant) Inventory control: What and where Inventory control: What and where Known item searching Known item searching “To enable a person to find a book of which either is known: author, title, or subject.” - Charles Cutter, Rules for Catalogs

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Any search other than known item Any search other than known item Known item searching Known item searching Anything other than books and journals Anything other than books and journals Logical groupings of results (e.g. FRBR) Logical groupings of results (e.g. FRBR) Faceted browsing Faceted browsing Relevance ranking Relevance ranking Sideways searching (suggestions, expansion of searches and search targets) Sideways searching (suggestions, expansion of searches and search targets) What ILS Catalogs Don’t do Well… (liberally stolen from Roy Tennant)

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Endeca purchase decision Lots of topical searches and poor subject access Lots of topical searches and poor subject access – Keyword gives too many or too few results – leads to general distrust – Misunderstanding of authority headings No relevancy ranking of results No relevancy ranking of results Needed more responsiveness (speed) Needed more responsiveness (speed)

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution NextGen Library Search Tools The Next Generation catalog: more than just a facelift – RedLightGreen (RLG) – OCLC Fictionfinder – Vivisimo clustered search – Aquabrowser visual context – Endeca Guided Navigation – Innovative Interfaces “OPAC Pro” – Ex Libris “Primo” – Polaris, AJAX-Enabled OPAC – SirsiDynix Enterprise Portal System, FAST – Talis, et al  Web Services – OCLC Custom Worldcat – Georgia Pines and the Library 2.0 Bandwagon

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Implementation Team 7 representative team members 7 representative team members – Andrew Pace, Information Technology, Chair – Cindy Levine, Research and Information Services – Emily Lynema, Info. Tech., ex officio (tech lead) – Erik Moore, Info. Tech., ex officio (ILS librarian) – Charley Pennell, Metadata and Cataloging – Shirley Rodgers, Information Technology – Tito Sierra, Digital Library Initiatives Timeline Timeline – License / negotiation: Spring 2005 – Acquire: Summer 2005 – Implementation: August 2005 – January 12, 2006

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Technical Overview Endeca ProFind co-exists with SirsiDynix Unicorn ILS and Web2 online catalog. Endeca ProFind co-exists with SirsiDynix Unicorn ILS and Web2 online catalog. Endeca indexes MARC records exported from Unicorn. Endeca indexes MARC records exported from Unicorn. Index is refreshed nightly with records added/updated during previous day. Index is refreshed nightly with records added/updated during previous day.

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Endeca ProFind Overview Raw MARC data NCSU exports and reformats Flat text files Data Foundry Parse text files Indices Navigation Engine NCSU Web Application HTTP Client browser HTTP Endeca ProFind

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Endeca ProFind Overview Raw MARC data NCSU exports and reformats Flat text files Data Foundry Parse text files Indices Navigation Engine NCSU Web Application HTTP Client browser HTTP Offline - Nightly

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Endeca ProFind Overview Raw MARC data NCSU exports and reformats Flat text files Data Foundry Parse text files Indices Navigation Engine NCSU Web Application HTTP Client browser HTTP Always Online

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Integrating Endeca Endeca doesn’t understand MARC data / MARC-8 character encoding – translate to UTF-8 text files Endeca doesn’t understand MARC data / MARC-8 character encoding – translate to UTF-8 text files Each night a script updates the data indexed by Endeca: Each night a script updates the data indexed by Endeca: – Exports updated or new MARC records from Unicorn. – Reformats and merges these records with those already indexed. – Starts Endeca re-index – completely rebuilding index for the catalog. Process requires about 7 hours. Process requires about 7 hours. Retain Web2 OPAC for some functionality Retain Web2 OPAC for some functionality – Authority searching - known items and cross-references – Detailed record pages – how to make Endeca -> Web2 link?

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Quick Demo

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Some User Reaction “This is absolutely the coolest thing I've seen all century.” -Will Owen, Head of Systems (UNC Libraries) “Also, I'm really digging the new NCSU library catalog. Very nice." - Educause staff (non-librarian) - Educause staff (non-librarian) “The new Endeca system is incredible. It would be difficult to exaggerate how much better it is than our old online card catalog (and therefore that of most other universities). I've found myself searching the catalog just for fun, whereas before it was a chore to find what I needed.” - NCSU Undergrad, Statistics

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Some Search Statistics (March 2006)

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Some Navigation Statistics (March 2006)

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Other interesting tidbits… (March 2006) 3.6% of all searches had spelling corrected automatically 3.6% of all searches had spelling corrected automatically 2.6% of all searches had alternate spelling suggestions 2.6% of all searches had alternate spelling suggestions

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Usability Testing Trends I 10 undergraduate students 10 undergraduate students – 5 with Endeca catalog – 5 with old Web2 OPAC Endeca performed as well as OPAC for known-item searching Endeca performed as well as OPAC for known-item searching – 89% Endeca tasks completed ‘easily’ (8/9) – 71% OPAC tasks completed ‘easily’ (15/21) Endeca performs better than OPAC for topical searching Endeca performs better than OPAC for topical searching – 61% Endeca tasks completed ‘easily’ (19/31) – 3% Endeca tasks completed as ‘hard’ (1/31) – 33% OPAC tasks completed ‘easily’ (13/39) – 26% OPAC tasks completed as ‘hard’ (10/39)

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Usability Testing Trends II Relevance *most* important Relevance *most* important – “Once I scroll through a page, I get pretty discouraged about the results...” Web2 OPAC participant looking for resources on cat health ‘Keyword’ term less intuitive / trusted than ‘Subject’ and ‘Title’ ‘Keyword’ term less intuitive / trusted than ‘Subject’ and ‘Title’ – “[I used] Keyword in Title because that’s what I want the book to be mainly referring to. But I also could’ve went Keyword in Subject. But if I’d have went Keyword Anywhere it would have had too big of a field to look through.” Web2 OPAC participant looking for resources on gene therapy When found, dimensions seem intuitive and useful When found, dimensions seem intuitive and useful ‘Did you mean’ seems intuitive ‘Did you mean’ seems intuitive Students don’t necessarily treat the catalog like Google! Students don’t necessarily treat the catalog like Google!

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution A study in relevance Are search results in Endeca more likely to be relevant to a user’s query than search results in Web2 OPAC? Are search results in Endeca more likely to be relevant to a user’s query than search results in Web2 OPAC? 100 topical user searches from 1 month in fall topical user searches from 1 month in fall 2005 How many of top 5 results relevant? How many of top 5 results relevant? – 51% relevant in Web2 OPAC; 31 no hits – 69% relevant in Endeca catalog; 12 no hits

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Relevance defined Relevance ranking in Endeca – select from a variety of modules and order them based on importance. Relevance ranking in Endeca – select from a variety of modules and order them based on importance. Relevance most important in Keyword Anywhere - searches all fields. Relevance most important in Keyword Anywhere - searches all fields. At NCSU… At NCSU… 1.Original query term(s) (no thesaurus, stemming, spell correction) 2.Exact phrase match 3.Field ranking (Title higher than Author higher than Table of Contents) 4.Number of fields that contain term(s) …

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution So what? It’s still just a catalog The library systems puzzle The library systems puzzle Reversal of fortune Reversal of fortune

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution The library system puzzle Catalog Serials A&I / FT DBs Web

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution The library system puzzle Catalog Serials A&I / FT DBs Web Digital Repositories ERM Systems Guided Navigation Legacy ILS Metasearch IR GS

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Reversal of fortune OLD SEARCH MODEL NEW SEARCH MODEL

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Future Plans Ongoing tweaks: Ongoing tweaks: – Continued usability testing – Relevance ranking algorithms & spell correction thresholds – Additional browsing options Endeca 2.0 ideas Endeca 2.0 ideas – FRBR-ized display – Discussions with OCLC regarding FAST (Faceted Access to Subject Terms) and FRBR – Patron-generated refinements (folksonomies?) – Enrich records with supplemental Web Services content – more usable TOCs, book reviews, etc. – The death of authority searching (?) – More integration with QuickSearch, other data repositories, and third-party discovery tools

Digital Library Federation Forum, April 12, 2006 Unbundling the ILS: Deploying an e-commerce catalog search solution Thanks Andrew Pace, Head, IT Emily Lynema, Systems Librarian for Digital Projects