Use case 5: Aggregation to mine user behaviour

Use

Description

Most systems that analyse user behaviour (eg Amazon’s “people who bought x also bought y”) do not depend on the nature of the product – they work solely on the behaviour of users. To these systems, the only record required for a book is an identifier such as an ISBN. However, it may be possible to develop systems that could make more use of the bibliographic record to understand circulation data. This would be undertaken within the institution.

Illustrative example: The University of Complex Problems developed a new module for their OPAC that aggregated user records with bibliographic records to recommend materials to users. Their system categorises users according to the course modules they are currently studying, and undertakes a complicated heuristic analysis of the books that they have borrowed. Keywords, authors, classifications, and words within the titles, are all considered, alongside circulation data regarding how long the book was on loan for. When this data is aggregated for all students, it can make recommendations for books that are not currently widely used, breaking from the problem that in typical “Amazon-style” recommendations, popular books become more popular, and “undiscovered gems” remain undiscovered.
Records are loaded into the analysis system on a daily basis – for performance reasons the system operates in a batch mode, taking data every evening, and providing new analysed datasets early the next morning.

Record flow

Records are "used" within the institution, albeit on a separate system to the library management system. The types of record flow are described in detail here.

Current examples

None known.

Discussion

Although this use case is novel, it is straightforward – the records are being used within the institution to aid search and discovery. Although there might be practical problems in developing such a system, there should not be issues with the use of catalogue records to do it.

Please note that the legal implications for your institution of this use case will depend upon your specific contractual relationships - for more information see the discussion of suppliers' and libraries' current viewpoints on what is allowable, and the legal environment. 

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