More OCLC Tools: FictionFinder

The folks at OCLC are toiling on more things than just WorldCat and WorldCat Local. It truly amazes me how much they have going on. Here's a run-down of a few more of their products that I think are really interesting.

When I started this blog, I had no idea what my other classmates were going to study for their individual topics. I was surprised that one of the first speeches that was given was by Richmond about the OCLC's FictionFinder. I found the presentation to be especially interesting, since a few weekends before, I had a conversation with a family friend about the SLIS program at UW. The conversation turned to public libraries. My parents' friend, Ann, was asking me if I would be able to give her any recommendations on fiction that she could check out from the library. She said, "I don't want to search the catalog, I just want someone to give me some idea of what would be good to read." At that time, I hadn't heard of FictionFinder. I told her to add me on Goodreads and to read my reviews of books or to talk to her librarian when she stops by. Had I known about FictionFinder, I would have told her to access this tool, instead.

FictionFinder is a web-based tool which is in its beta testing phase, which means it is still being developed, coded and searched for bugs. We learned in class from Richmond that it works using the FRBR model. FRBR stands for Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. I got the gist of what FRBR is from the speech. FRBR is an algorithm that was created by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions that represents a faceted approach to retrieval and assists searching by presenting a hierarchy of results based on relationships. My understanding is that it bases a search on four entities: Work, Expression, Manifestation and Item. Although it is much more complex than this shortened definition, the main point to take away is that FRBR identifies that there may be different types of works of the same main artistic product. An example would be that there is a book, audiobook, videotape, and DVD of Anne of Green Gables. The OCLC has created their own version of the FRBR algorithm. The results in FictionFinder are built from the information that WorldCat already contains.

I hope to use FictionFinder or to suggest this to Ann when I see her next summer. Although it still is not 100% effective, I think that this can really help someone search without feeling lost in the catalog or browsing the shelves. She could use it to have the books sent to her library's circulation desk and then pick them up. Another application that I considered was that if one were hoping to look for free audiobooks or for free e-books, they could look on FictionFinder for recommendations.

Sources:

WorldCat. (2001-2009). Retrieved September 16, 2009, from OCLC, WorldCat website, www.worldcat.org


Goodreads. (2009). Retrieved September 18, 2009, from Goodreads, Inc, http://www.goodreads.com/


FictionFinder. (2007). Retrieved October 13, 2009, from OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., FictionFinder website, http://fictionfinder.oclc.org/


Vizine-Goetz, Diane et al. (2009). FictionFinder: A FRBR-Based Prototype for Fiction in WorldCat (Online Research Activities Report). OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/fictionfinder/default.htm