Virtual Shelf

Virtual Shelf

Created for The Open Library Project

Background –Visualization – Next Steps

BackgroundThe Collections Visualization Group

Devin [email protected]

ey.edu

Jonathan Breitbart

[email protected] 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

BackgroundThe Open Library (http://openlibrary.org)

Background –Visualization – Next Steps

• 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

Initial ResearchFindings• 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

ResearchDesign Iteration• Task-based analysis• Heuristic evaluations• User prototype testing

Background –Visualization – Next Steps

Prototype Demo

http://tinyurl.com/5fz4wx

FeaturesOverview• 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

FeaturesAppearance• 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

FeaturesInteraction• 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

FeaturesTypes 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

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

Next steps

Background –Visualization – Next Steps

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