We had a soft update to RedLightGreen last week -- the afternoon of 22 March. One of the changes was to switch from using the Recommind MindServer for the ISBN search to using a DB2 SQL query.
This means intercepting every query to see if it matches an ISBN pattern. We're using a loose definition that specifies that, from the keyword search box, a single token that may or may not have hyphens, of 10 or 13 characters long not counting any hyphens. If the token is 10 char long, the first 9 char must be digits; the 10th may be an x or digits. If the token is 13 char long -- all char must be digits.
When there's an ISBN match, now, the system displays the edition view of the specific edition -- not the default edition for that title-cluster. Ideally, there's only one match to an ISBN, so the system now directly takes the user to the matching edition.
But it's not an ideal world. One case is where we have two edition records for the same ISBN in the same work. This can occur because one record was entered with a misspelling or abbreviation of a publisher's name, and it appeared algorithmically to be a different edition. In that case, the system displays one of the two records, preferring the most recent if there is any difference in the dates.
And then there was the report from the programmer, "I picked 10000 records in [the identifier] table: 192 [ISBNs] have more than one edition, some editions also belong to different [title clusters]."
How could they belong to different title clusters? An occasional typo, perhaps? (I would have thought the presence of the checksum digit would fix that.) It turns out that in some cases, too, ISBNs are issued for series.
Ah.
Notes:
Title: The Australian encyclopaedia of forms and precedents. Volume 3, Companies. -- ISBN for both the set and each individual volume.
Six Chinese titles 9620407725 -- 22 in Eureka -- appear to be a series ISBN. (962 is the ISBN country code for Hong Kong.)
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I've been moving my home from SF to Mountain View, and the server this site is on has moved between coloc facilities in Austin, TX. The server move led to a great deal of disruption with DNS propagation, and i remain distracted with my move. (Not like i'm an obsessive chronicler....)
RLG's RedLightGreen is now mid-way through its pilot year. I want to let you know about recent improvements we have made and new information available to you for communicating about this project with your community of users.
As you know, RedLightGreen launched as a live system in September 2003 at www.redlightgreen.com, and is moving into its second semester of testing. More members will be joining the effort to investigate future directions and promote awareness of the resource. Current pilot partners are Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, Swarthmore College, and the University of Minnesota.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded RLG additional funding to continue development and to ensure availability of the service at no cost to users through September 2004.
Promotional texts and graphics are now freely available to any library for promoting RedLightGreen on its campus. We invite you to create links to RedLightGreen and use these materials in any way you'd like for reaching the widest possible audience. Just click the Information for Librarians link within RedLightGreen.
Other news about the system:
RedLightGreen now has an additional 1.5 million records, providing even
more material for users to "search, find, and get."
The interface has been redesigned with a new color palette to give it a
more updated look and feel.
The new "Your List" feature enables students to create a citation list
that is persistent across sessions.
This spring we will be conducting studies with registered users from
partner campuses to prioritize continued improvements based on what
they most value and desire.
We are always interested in hearing about your experience using RedLightGreen. Let us know via the feedback link within the system, or contact RLG program officer Merrilee.Proffitt@notes.rlg.org.