Hi everyone

Not sure if this is already in VuFind (or on the development roadmap?), but I know of a few European (German, I think?) libraries who are capturing OPAC usage data.

From what I can gather (and I've had a go implementing this at Huddersfield), every time someone starts using the OPAC, they're given a random session ID and, each time they look at an item, the item ID is logged away with the session ID.  The idea being that there's a connection between the items that someone looks at during a single OPAC session (I'd imagine bX works on exactly the same principle?)

When you've got enough data, you can start churning it to generate "people who looked at this, also looked at..." suggestions.

Once I get a bit of spare time, I'm hoping to compare recommendations using the session ID + item ID data we've collected (just over 1 million instances in the last 12 months) to the recommendations we're currently using, which are based on circ data analysis.

Anyway, if the above approach generates good suggestions, then it'd be great to be able to feed those into a national level service.

regards
Dave Pattern
University of Huddersfield


-----Original Message-----
From: Open source software in libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ken Chad
Sent: 21 March 2011 14:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [LIS-OSS] LIS-OSS Digest - 3 Mar 2011 to 18 Mar 2011 (#2011-14)

Hi Luke,

Sounds a good opportunity..and, as Owen points out you don't have to build a
platform yourself...it's about the data. So maybe a VuFind enhancement would
be to enable activity data to be easily exported to third party platform.

I'm not sure how all this gets sorted within the VuFind community..but it
sounds like you have a good grasp on that...
Ken

Ken Chad Consulting Ltd
Tel +44 (0)7788 727 845. Email: [log in to unmask]
www.kenchadconsulting.com
Skype: kenchadconsulting   Twitter: @KenChad
Open Library Systems Specifications:  http://libtechrfp.wikispaces.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Open source software in libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Osullivan L.
Sent: 21 March 2011 10:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [LIS-OSS] LIS-OSS Digest - 3 Mar 2011 to 18 Mar 2011 (#2011-14)

Hi Ken,

While I was at the excellent VuFind 2.0 conference in September, the last
session was devoted to developing a "wish list" of features for VuFind 2.0.
Whilst my "Star Wars" theme based with Darth Vader breathing sounds didn't
make it into the "ideas for exploration" list, the issue of how to make use
of all our local solr instances was discussed.

The guys that run the VuFind project are always open to new ideas and best
practice and as the push to VuFind 2.0 is beginning, perhaps now is a great
opportunity for people with an interest in the issues you have raised here
to engage with the VuFind community.

Kind Regards,

Luke



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