Bibliographic information provider Bowker, US, has announced the beta-release of the latest version of its book discovery and collection development platform, Books in-Print (BIP). The official global market release of BIP 2.0 is scheduled for the early fourth quarter of 2009.
BIP 2.0 seeks to provide librarians, researchers and library patrons with access to a rich set of book information available in the reference market. The platform is projected to combine comprehensive content with visual discovery interfaces from AquaBrowser, Bowker's search platform utilised by more than 500 libraries worldwide. The result is seen to be a breakthrough offering that enables users to discover relevant book information through a variety of cutting-edge collection development capabilities. The capabilities include edition-grouped search results (FRBR), 'word cloud' search visualisation and Web 2.0 tools, such as rating, tagging and other social networking features.
The introduction of BIP 2.0 follows the April 2009 release of the American Library Association (ALA)'s 2009 report, 'The State of America's Libraries.' The study had cited a Harris Poll from 2008 that reported that 41 percent of library card holders visited their library websites in 2008, compared with 24 percent in 2006. According to the report, 39 percent of card-holders visit the library to borrow books; 12 percent to take out CDs, videos, or computer software; 10 percent to use a computer to view library holdings; 9 percent to use reference materials; and 8 percent to gain Internet access. The product development path for BIP 2.0 tracked with these emerging technology trends, content interests and social networking trends that were seen in all library market segments in recent years.
Some of the key new features of BIP 2.0 include relevancy-ranked search and faceted refine options to help users drill into the book information they need as quickly as possible; search results now grouped by book edition, making result lists easier to go through and the right items or editions much easier to locate; and the new 'social library' functionality allows users to rate, review and tag items.
A new word cloud feature provides users with a starburst of suggested terms, based on various computer-generated word associations from the original search query, or user-generated content. It allows users to select from the associations and hone their queries, while also building a discovery trail that offers more relevant results to consider.
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