In some ways, Amazon is more useful than the average OPAC, because it contains descriptions and reviews, all of which may be useful to the user. Someone mentioned to me the other day that they use Amazon as their primary catalogue, and their University OPAC as a finding aid. We might argue that Amazon is a pretty hopeless Union catalogue, but what it lacks in depth it makes up for in other ways.
Amazon have sponsored the British Library OPAC, and that sets a useful precedent for thinking about the relationship between online booksellers and online libraries.
There may be various 'links' between an online bookseller and an OPAC:
1 Bookseller sponsors OPAC, or OPAC makes some sort of 'trading link' with bookseller.
2 OPAC makes dynamic links to relevant content in bookseller system.
3 OPAC adds similar functionality to bookseller systems e.g. user reviews.
4 Bookseller adds OPAC functionality to its catalogue - e.g. subject classification.
--Ben Toth
National electronic Library for Health
NHS Information Authority
http//www.nelh.nhs.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: p=NHS NATIONAL
INT;a=NHS;c=GB;dda:RFC-822=lis-elib-request(a)mailbase.ac.uk;
Sent: 09 August 2000 02:05
To: p=NHS NATIONAL INT;a=NHS;c=GB;dda:RFC-822=lis-elib(a)mailbase.ac.uk;
Subject: Amazon.com Added Value Features and Functionalities for the
OPAC
_Amazon.com Added Value Features and Functionalities for the OPAC_
In response to my posting titled "The 'Commercialized' Library"
which addressed the issue of linking to Amazon.com (or barnesandnoble.com) records from a user guide that I currently am preparing, a list member raised the issue of the backlash that may come from local businesses if a library did in fact link to such records within its OPAC.
I responded to the list member indicating that I believe that there *might* be a beneficial effect in that the additional descriptive and evaluative information might encourage the individual to borrow the item from the local library or to buy it from the local book store, music store, etc.
On the other hand, I think that the 'value-added' features and functionalities found in such services as Amazon.com should cause
libraries to consider the effectiveness of their OPACs in addressing user needs. Access to descriptive and user reviews is just one function that could significantly improve OPACs. Other helpful features that the 'Value-Added OPAC 'could have would be such Amazon.com 'commercialized' features as
an initial ranked list of the most heavily borrowed books,
a chronological listing of results
the option of displaying books by user rating
a 'patrons who borrowed this book also borrowed ....' feature
a 'patrons who borrowed titles by Author A also bought titles by
Authors X, Y, and Z
a 'Look for similar books by subject' / Browse for Books in
[Full listing of associates subject headings]
a Search for books by subject with a listings of headings and
associated check-off boxes
Impossible? Perhaps, but ....
[If there are OPACs that have such functionality, I'd liike to include them in
Onion Patch(sm), my clearinghouse devoted to New Age OPACs
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/Onion.htm ]
As Always, Any and All reactions, comments, criticisms, cosmic insights, contributions, etc. etc. are Most Welcome!
/Gerry McKiernan
Commercialized Librarian
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50011
[log in to unmask]
"The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Duplicate the Functionality of
Sites Like Amazon.com"
With Apologies (Again) to Alan Kay
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