Comments on: …one of the chief values of print library research is poor indexing http://henry.simon.net.nz/stories/2008/07/19/one-of-the-chief-values-of-print-library-research-is-poor-indexing/ cultural evolution news Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:25:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Simon Greenhill http://henry.simon.net.nz/stories/2008/07/19/one-of-the-chief-values-of-print-library-research-is-poor-indexing/comment-page-1/#comment-178 Simon Greenhill Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:12:12 +0000 http://henry.simon.net.nz/?p=653#comment-178 Hi Frank, and thanks for the comment. I have to admit that I often avoid going to the library to get things precisely because I know that I'll end up browsing and come back with 10 times as many books as I went for (that I'll never have time to read)! I know that the "loose" searching/recommendation area is one that's undergoing a lot of research. Amazon.com for example recommends products similar to the one you're looking at. Companies like Amazon are looking into these because of the marketing potential. Some of the social bookmarking sites like <a href="http://reddit.com" rel="nofollow">reddit</a> do something similar - they recommend links to you based on your history. As I understand it, they track that you like articles x and y. Now, if other users who liked x and y, also like z, then you probably would like z too. So - lots of potential, and I really think we'll see some exciting applications soon. I'm looking forward to it. --Simon Hi Frank, and thanks for the comment.

I have to admit that I often avoid going to the library to get things precisely because I know that I’ll end up browsing and come back with 10 times as many books as I went for (that I’ll never have time to read)!

I know that the “loose” searching/recommendation area is one that’s undergoing a lot of research. Amazon.com for example recommends products similar to the one you’re looking at. Companies like Amazon are looking into these because of the marketing potential.

Some of the social bookmarking sites like reddit do something similar – they recommend links to you based on your history. As I understand it, they track that you like articles x and y. Now, if other users who liked x and y, also like z, then you probably would like z too.

So – lots of potential, and I really think we’ll see some exciting applications soon. I’m looking forward to it.

–Simon

]]> By: Frank http://henry.simon.net.nz/stories/2008/07/19/one-of-the-chief-values-of-print-library-research-is-poor-indexing/comment-page-1/#comment-177 Frank Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:22:39 +0000 http://henry.simon.net.nz/?p=653#comment-177 One of my favorite things to do when I am starting research on a topic is to stack surf for interesting and somewhat related books that the computer database missed. I would love to find a way to create a computer database which would specifically do "loose" searches for articles/books that are only tangentially related (maybe topic-unrelated articles by the same authors, stuff published in the same issue of the journal, etc.) One of my favorite things to do when I am starting research on a topic is to stack surf for interesting and somewhat related books that the computer database missed. I would love to find a way to create a computer database which would specifically do “loose” searches for articles/books that are only tangentially related (maybe topic-unrelated articles by the same authors, stuff published in the same issue of the journal, etc.)

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