library favorites and resource modeling
DESCRIPTION
Note: A downloadable version of this is available through the University of Michigan's institutional repository: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/93780 This presentation was first made at the LITA National Forum in Columbus, Ohio, on October 5, 2012. Web site visitors to the University of Michigan library can save some kinds of resources (catalog items, databases, online journals, and article citations) to their user account for future use. Users can optionally organize these resources into categories (the system recommends courses they are taking and categories they have previously used, but individuals can create any categories they like). In this session, attendees will learn about our design process (including user studies, design elements, and Drupal coding) and the usage of the tool. The pool of saved items becomes a rich data source for providing anonymized, aggregated data to library staff and site visitors. We will conclude by exploring some of the possible uses of this data, including building supplemental reading lists for specific courses.TRANSCRIPT
LITA National Forum 2012
Library Favorites &Resource Modeling
Ken VarnumWeb Systems Manager
University of Michigan Library@varnum
LITA National Forum 2012
Overview
• Introduction• MTagger (social bookmarking)• Siloed Favorites• Unified Favorites• Where it’s leading
LITA National Forum 2012
MTagger
LITA National Forum 2012
Favorites
• Mirlyn Classic has “My Shelf”• Mirlyn (VuFind) had “favorites”• We extended that metaphor into new systems
as we built them
LITA National Forum 2012
Silos
LITA National Forum 2012
Catalog Favorites
LITA National Forum 2012
Search Tools Favorites
LITA National Forum 2012
Search Tools Favorites Interface
LITA National Forum 2012
Why Integrate?
• Power of Favorites is in mixing & matching• A small workgroup formed
Albert Bertram, Sigrid Cordell, Sonali Mishra, Jon Rothman, and Ken Varnum
• Conducted a small user study• Showed them our “recommended tags”
function
LITA National Forum 2012
Tags
• We had experience with tagging• Tagging was wrong user interaction• Actual needs:– Save stuff for later– Organize it logically– Tie to academic life
LITA National Forum 2012
Favorite Tags
• People had been tagging Mirlyn favorites• We noticed some trends– Tags were sometimes course names or
abbreviations– Tags often highly idiosyncratic (names of projects,
evaluations of materials’ worth)– Unlikely to be helpful to others
MLibrary Favorites Interface
LITA National Forum 2012
Favorites in Articles (1/4)
LITA National Forum 2012
Favorites in Articles (2/4)
LITA National Forum 2012
Favorites in Articles (3/4)
LITA National Forum 2012
Favorites in Articles (4/4)
LITA National Forum 2012
Recommended Tags
LITA National Forum 2012
How We Built It
• All done in Drupal 6• Very closely tied to our own systems– Save record IDs mostly– Articles is a challenge
• Will probably move to MySQL and Views in Drupal 7 early next year
LITA National Forum 2012
How’s It Used?
• Didn’t launch until September 11, 2012• Initial data based on usage 9/11-10/1, 2012• Thanks to Albert Bertram for pulling together
the data
LITA National Forum 2012
Number of Users Who Saved Favorites 9/11-10/1/2012 (n=1333)
Grad31%
Undergrad20%
Faculty/staff16%
Other32%
LITA National Forum 2012
Number of Users Who Added Tags 9/1/12-10/1/12 (n=255)
Grad34%
Undergrad18%
Faculty/staff16%
Other31%
LITA National Forum 2012
Who Uses Tags?Academic
Status% Who Added
a TagGrad (87) 20.91%Undergrad (47) 17.47%Faculty/staff (42) 19.35%Other (79) 18.33%Overall (255) 19.13%
LITA National Forum 2012
Distinct Items Added Since Launch(n=7111)
Databases3%
Online Journals2%
ArticlesPlus18%
Mirlyn77%
LITA National Forum 2012
Number of User Favorites from Multiple Sources
One1287
Two50
Three4
Four2
LITA National Forum 2012
Users with Course Tags by Kind(n=98)
Grad56%
Undergrad35%
Faculty/staff4%
Other5%
LITA National Forum 2012
Items with Course Tags by Source(n=351)
Databases1%
Online Journals0%
ArticlesPlus37%
Mirlyn62%
LITA National Forum 2012
What Will We Do with the Data
• Mix user favorites with course information• Combine data from Course Management
System & Favorites• Compare favorites with syllabi• Build course profile pages• Generate reading lists• Put (some?) favorites on personal start page