[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Activity metric for relevance

[Kathy Lussier]

Hi all,

MassLNC is working with our partners at MVLC to develop an activity 
metric (aka popularity metric) that will allow sites to rank more 
popular items a little higher in search results than items that don't 
see as much activity. I've raised this idea on the list before. Although 
Evergreen allows sites to adjust relevancy based on the appearance of 
keywords in certain fields, which is highly useful, our hope is that 
this additional functionality will lead to further improvement when 
ranking results by relevance.

As an example, if a user were conducting a keyword search on "abraham 
lincoln,"  there are many titles in most US libraries where the words 
"abraham lincoln" show up in the title. There would be no way to tease 
out the titles that are getting the most attention by readers. In fact, 
a title like "Team of Rivals" ranks very low in our search results even 
though there is a high likelihood it is the title the patron is 
seeking.  By applying a metric based on activity, we might be able to 
see those more-recently popular titles floating higher in the search 
results list.

I would like to share MVLC's proposal outlining the details for 
implementing this project. The proposal is available at 
http://masslnc.cwmars.org/node/2757. It provides a lot of flexibility in 
allowing sites to define what "high activity" means to them. Circulation 
activity, holds activity, total copies, and publication age/bib record 
age can all be used as an activity metric.

If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to let us know.

Kathy

-- 
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
klussier at masslnc.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier