English

Ranking library materials

Digital Libraries 2015-11-19 v1 Information Retrieval

Abstract

Purpose: This paper discusses ranking factors suitable for library materials and shows that ranking in general is a complex process and that ranking for library materials requires a variety of techniques. Design/methodology/approach: The relevant literature is reviewed to provide a systematic overview of suitable ranking factors. The discussion is based on an overview of ranking factors used in Web search engines. Findings: While there are a wide variety of ranking factors applicable to library materials, todays library systems use only some of them. When designing a ranking component for the library catalogue, an individual weighting of applicable factors is necessary. Research limitations/applications: While this article discusses different factors, no particular ranking formula is given. However, this article presents the argument that such a formula must always be individual to a certain use case. Practical implications: The factors presented can be considered when designing a ranking component for a librarys search system or when discussing such a project with an ILS vendor. Originality/value: This paper is original in that it is the first to systematically discuss ranking of library materials based on the main factors used by Web search engines.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1511.05806,
  title  = {Ranking library materials},
  author = {Dirk Lewandowski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1511.05806},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Conceptual paper, OPAC, search engines, ranking, results presentation

R2 v1 2026-06-22T11:48:27.781Z