This document discusses findability at the Library of Congress website LOC.gov. It begins with an overview of what findability is and a findability framework with 8 pillars for improving findability both internally and externally. It then discusses various findability tools at LOC.gov that focus on metadata to improve searching and discovery of the large collection. Specific examples are given of how metadata was improved to better surface Twitter search results. The presentation concludes by framing findability as an ongoing contact sport and thanking the audience.
How to Add Existing Field in One2Many Tree View in Odoo 17
Design for Findability at the Library of Congress
1. Design for Findability:
Metadata, Metrics &
Collaboration
on LOC.gov
Jill MacNeice . July 2013
Web Services . jima@loc.gov
@jmacneice . #UXPA2013
2. 2
About the Library of Congress
• World’s largest library
• World’s smallest book,
“Old King Cole”
3. 3
About the Library of Congress
• 155 million items
in all collections
• 35 million books
and other print materials
• 838 miles of bookshelves
• Maps, recordings, photographs,
sheet music, movies, artifacts
4. 4
About the Library of Congress
• 17.5 million items in the online catalog
• 2.2 million viewable items online
5. 5
Overview
• What is Findability?
• Findability Framework
• Findability Tools (It’s all about the Metadata)
• The Search for Twitter
• Findability as Contact Sport
• Findability on Congress.gov
7. 7
What is Findability?
Definition:
The ease with which information in a website can
be found, from both outside the site (using
search engines) and by users already on the site.
-- Wikipedia
Peter Morville
• Ambient Findability 2005
• Information abundance, overload
• Primary problem:
• how to find things
• differentiate signal from noise
• Emotional aspects of getting lost.
Bottom Line:
If you can’t find it – you can’t use it.
10. 10
Findability Framework
8 Pillars of Findability
Internal
1. Can people find what they’re looking for quickly and easily?
2. From any object page, can people easily find other related
content and access the rest of the site?
3. Does the overall high level organization make sense to the
typical user?
4. Can people with small screens find and use our content?
11. 11
Findability Framework
8 Pillars of Findability
External
5. Can people find our content from a search engine? (Google,
Bing, etc)
6. Can people save and share content easily?
7. Do we reach out to our audience and not just wait for them to
come to us?
8. Can our content be accessed, downloaded in bulk, and
repackaged?
12. 12
Findability Framework (Internal)
#1 Q: Can people find what they’re looking for quickly and
easily?
A: Big Search / Search Centric
Too big to navigate:
17 million items in search results
2.2 million available online
- Big search box on every page
- Faceted searching (metadata)
- Descriptive search results (metadata)
- Recommended Links
17. 17
Findability Framework (Internal)
#2 Q: From any object page, can users easily find other
related content and access the rest of the site?
A: Object page as Hub
18. 18
…To This
“Nice to Know,”
Related content
based on metadata
“Need to Know,”
Bibliographic
Record & metadata
Viewers, players
& downloadable
images
29. 29
#7 Q: Do we reach out to our audience, and not just wait for
them to go looking for us?
A: Social media outreach
Findability Framework (External)
Blogs
30. 30
#8 Q: Can users access and repackage our content?
A: APIs – ID.loc.gov, Prints and Photographs, Bill
Summaries for GPO etc.
Findability Framework (External)
Open Government
-- ID.loc.gov
-- Prints and Photographs Catalog,
-- Bill Summaries for GPO