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Virtual Shelf

Virtual Shelf. Created for The Open Library Project. Background –Visualization – Next Steps. Background. The Collections Visualization Group. Devin Blong d_blong@ischool.berkeley.edu. Jonathan Breitbart breity@berkeley.edu.

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Virtual Shelf

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  1. Virtual Shelf Created for The Open Library Project Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  2. Background The Collections Visualization Group Devin Blong d_blong@ischool.berkeley.edu Jonathan Breitbart breity@berkeley.edu We are 2nd year Masters students at the UC Berkeley School of Information (http://ischool.berkeley.edu). Our focus is on user experience research and design and technologies for learning and collaboration. Our backgrounds are in the humanities and social sciences. Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  3. Background The Open Library (http://openlibrary.org) • The goal of making all published knowledge available online • Creation of an enormous wiki, in which each page represents a single book • 13 million+ books, 230,000+ full text • Book pages feature links to where the book can be found and full text when available, as well as reviews, ratings, and summaries • Our goal: help Open Library users interact with the collection in a way that utilizes the strengths of both digital and physical libraries • Annual meeting on October 26 + 27 (“Using Digital Books”) – Goal of 25 million books and 2 million full text online Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  4. Initial Research Findings • Library of congress subject headings are very powerful, but rarely utilized by anyone except expert researchers • Use of shelved collections for subject exploration • Rather than finding the exact combination of subheadings, users often perform a keyword search or title search for a book they know is in the subject area • Users acquire the call numbers, then search the shelf for surrounding books • Serendipity is important in the research process • Library patrons also remember books in non-standard ways • Color, size, and location rather than title or author Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  5. Research Design Iteration • Task-based analysis • Heuristic evaluations • User prototype testing Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  6. Prototype Demo http://tinyurl.com/5fz4wx

  7. Features Overview • The purpose of the virtual shelf is to allow users to browse collections or sets visually • Books appear as icons at the bottom of the screen • When selected, a book’s Open Library page appears in the Book Details section of the visualization Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  8. Features Appearance • Physical dimensions of the virtual book spines are dynamically generated based on metadata for cover size and number of pages for each resource • On mouseover of the book spines, tooltips provide detailed information about the books • Color of the spines is still under exploration. Some proposals include: • Popularity • Derivations via cover image • Subject • Relevance Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  9. Features Interaction • Users can select a book’s spine to see that book’s Open Library page • Once a user has found a book that is relevant to their interests, they have the option to add personal notes about that book • Users can save the book to a Bookbag • Bookbags can be saved as personal shelves, given titles, and shared with other users Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  10. Features Types of Shelves • The General Shelf • The general shelf allows users to see a book in the context of the collection as a whole • Equivalent to looking at the stacks in a physical library • Search Created Shelves • Users can view search results as a shelf, then sort and filter in various ways • Personal (User Created) Shelves • Users can save sets of books as custom shelves to share with friends, colleagues, or all Open Library users • Subject/Genre Shelves (under exploration) Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  11. Next steps • Continue to refine the prototype • Fix book spine titles • Implement shelf sorting functionality • Implement bookbag saving/exporting/sharing • Decide on how to utilize spine color • Prepare demo prototype for October annual meeting • Explore other applications • Because the book icons are dynamically generated, the Virtual Shelf can be repurposed for nearly any collection Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  12. Next steps Background –Visualization – Next Steps

  13. Acknowledgements • Rebecca Malamud and Aaron Swartz of the Open Library • Mari Miller and the UC Berkeley Library staff • Eric Kansa, Tapan Parikh, Marti Hearst, Raymond Yee, and other UC Berkeley School of Information Professors Background –Visualization – Next Steps

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