Reconsidering the Practical Application of Facets on the Web

La Barre, Kathryn A.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/15103 Copy

Description

Title

Reconsidering the Practical Application of Facets on the Web

Author(s)

La Barre, Kathryn A.

Issue Date

2008-02-28

Keyword(s)

• Facet analysis
• Website design
• Information Retrieval
• Content Analysis
• Search and Discovery Systems
• OPAC design

Abstract

The term facet has become an increasingly common part of the discourse about useful components of contemporary information infrastructure. The facet approach to browsing or navigation as a way to scaffold resource discovery and access seems to be intuitively accessible to practitioners who may integrate this concept into the practice of Information Architecture or the design of a Knowledge Management system (La Barre, 2006). Facets seem to function equally well on e-commerce sites and in online library catalogs using content browse, search or management systems provided by vendors such as Endeca or open source solutions such as Koha or solr. This paper discusses preliminary results of a survey of a stratified random sample of 200 websites that were part of an earlier examination in 2005 of the use of facets on websites. Changes in facet use over a two and a half year period were noted using a content analytical protocol tested during the previous study (La Barre 2006). Websites with evidence of facet use are compared with a set of newly implemented ‘faceted’ online library catalogs. Future research directions are also discussed.

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/15103

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