Library Favorites and Resource Modeling

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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.

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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

LITA National Forum 2012

Thanks

Ken Varnum

varnum@umich.edu@varnum

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