Improving Collection Browsing: Small World Networking and Gray Code Ordering

• Published in: Cataloging & classification quarterly Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 229 - 246
• Main Author: Losee, Robert M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Routledge 19.05.2017; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: browsing; Classification; Digital libraries; Library materials; Library of Congress Subject Headings; ordering; subject headings; User generated content
• ISSN: 0163-9374; 1544-4554
• DOI: 10.1080/01639374.2017.1292415

Documents in digital and paper libraries may be arranged, based on their topics, in order to facilitate browsing. It may seem intuitively obvious that ordering documents by their subject should improve browsing performance; the results presented in this article suggest that ordering library materials by their Gray code values and through using links consistent with the small world model of document relationships is consistent with improving browsing performance. Below, library circulation data, including ordering with Library of Congress Classification numbers and Library of Congress Subject Headings, are used to provide information useful in generating user-centered document arrangements, as well as user-independent arrangements. Documents may be linearly arranged so they can be placed in a line by topic, such as on a library shelf, or in a list on a computer display. Crossover links, jumps between a document and another document to which it is not adjacent, can be used in library databases to allow additional paths that one might take when browsing. The improvement that is obtained with different combinations of document orderings and different crossovers is examined and applications suggested.