Enhancing User Interactions in Digital Libraries

Implementing Faceted Search User Interface

A digital library can be underpinned by a search platform such as Apache Solr, which facilitates faceted search services. In my previous posts, I have described the development of a Solr-based search engine infrastructure, involving metadata and rich binary documents indexing of multi-sourced data, viz., the CERN Library book data, content from a digital repository (Fedora). The search engine only provides underpinning services. It does not provide a user interface.

This post outlines the work involved in prototyping a digital library user interface - UX2 Library. It describes the UX design, development made with respect to an associated open source technology. We have recently tested the prototype with a group of users from the University of Edinburgh and published the results: summary and report. In my next post, I shall propose an agile technique based on 'user stories', to address the usability issues arising from this user study.

For a general introduction to both faceted search and Apache Solr, see "Developing Faceted Search Using Apache Solr, Part 1".

Tech Note: Developing Faceted Search Using Apache Solr, Part 2

Faceted search is becoming a de facto search feature for websites such as online stores and digital libraries. From interaction design perspective, faceted search is essentially an alternative to advanced search - “post-coordinate boolean operations via a navigational metaphor”. It has a propensity to enhance the affordance of advanced search, as less efforts are required from the users to perform the equivalent and traditionally more convoluted search tasks.

This post describes the faceted search infrastructure development of the JISC UX2 project. The infrastructure is based on Apache Solr, a Java-based faceted search platform. In Part 1 of this post, I described the general setup of Solr for multi-sourced data, metadata (MARC XML) mapping and the experience of importing the CERN book dataset using Solr's Data Import Hanlder (DIH). For the purpose of UI prototyping and testing, UX2 is incorporating the CERN dataset in combinant with existing digital library content held in a Fedora Commons repository. The rest of this post provides an account of the development of Solr, to enable metadata and rich binary documents (PDF, PowerPoints etc) from a Fedora repository, to be indexed for faceted search service.

This is also a technical report for JISC. If the content is too lengthy, you can skip to "Epilogue" to review the outputs directly.

Tech Note: Developing Faceted Search Using Apache Solr, Part 1

Searching and sifting through large amount of information is a challenging task and a norm confronting web users today. There is a need for resource discovery services capable of dealing with large search resultsets effectively. Previous research indicates a tendency for users to prefer interfaces that incorporate some form of categorisation and grouping of results. These types of UIs tend to enhance the efficiency of information seeking and provide greater user satisfaction. This post describes the development of faceted search, a resource discovery approach based on a type of category system which has become prevalent in digital libraries. A remit of the UX2.0 project involves enhancing an existing digital library featuring faceted search through user-centred design (UCD). We are also evaluating AquaBrowser a leading library product facilitating faceted search.

This post relates to my recent work on two systems. It describes the development and setting up of a faceted search infrastructure - Apache Solr for Blacklight, a Ruby-on-Rails and open source resource discovery UI. To provide concentration user experience, the infrastructure provides data aggregated from multiple and heterogeneous sources.

Part 1 of this account (this post) describes the general setup of Solr for multi-sourced data and the experience of importing the CERN book dataset, using the Data Import Hanlder (DIH) of Solr. UX2 is incorporating the book data in combinant with digital library objects, for low-fi content-rich UI prototypes testing.

A forthcoming post (Part 2) describes programmatic development of Solr, to enable indexing of Dublin Core metadata and binary documents in multiple formats (PDF, PowerPoints etc) held in an existing Fedora Commons digital repository.