[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Activity metric for relevance

[Thomas Berezansky]

The current plan would not take into account how recent the circs (or  
holds) were, just that they were within a configurable time period of  
the time the cronjob that counts them last ran (default will likely be  
to include those from within the last 6 to 12 months). If you have an  
algorithm you think would work well and are willing to share we would  
gladly include that as an option when doing the work, though.

We would not, however, be able to make it a per-bump option with the  
way we currently plan on storing the circ and hold counts, so instead  
it would function as an overall modifier to the circ/hold count  
numbers. Though even as I type this email I have thoughts on how we  
could change that if the feeling is that it should be at least  
partially bump-to-bump configurable.

Thomas Berezansky
Merrimack Valley Library Consortium


Quoting Mike Rylander <mrylander at gmail.com>:

> Kathy,
>
> Have you considered allowing an aging parameter for some bumps, so that
> newer data toward the near end of the horizon is considered more important?
> For instance, spikes in circulation might have a larger short term effect
> on relevance, but over time, while still being factored into relevance,
> would be less important though still considered in the bump logic.  I ask
> because I have a simple algorithm I'm using in another project, to be
> debuted at the conference, that may be portable to this work.
>
> --miker
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 3:53 PM, Kathy Lussier <klussier at masslnc.org> wrote:
>
>> 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<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<http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Mike Rylander
>  | Director of Research and Development
>  | Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source
>  | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
>  | email:  miker at esilibrary.com
>  | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com
>