Eds delivering-relevant-results
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Transcript of Eds delivering-relevant-results
The EDS Approach to Delivering Relevant Results
Tito SierraDirector of Product Management, SearchEBSCO Information Services
Software as a Service
Agenda
• EBSCO’s Vision for Discovery• User Search Behavior• How EDS Relevance Ranking Works• Recent EDS Search Enhancements• Discussion / Q&A
Software as a Service
EBSCO’s Vision for Discovery
Give users the results they want for every search in every context.
Software as a Service
Every Search, Every Context
• Library user looking for a specific book in the catalogKnown-item catalog search
• Undergrad doing background research for a term paperExploratory topical search
• Faculty looking for a specific journal or article titlePublication and article citation search
• Researcher doing literature review on specialized topicSpecialized subject search
• Librarian supporting a reference interviewSupport for hybrid / advanced search strategies
Software as a Service
Every Search, Every Context
• Library user looking for a specific book in the catalog– Known-item catalog search / book title search
• Undergrad doing background research for a term paper– Exploratory subject search / background research
• Faculty looking for a specific journal or article title– Known-item publication / article / citation search
• Researcher doing literature review on specialized topic– Specialized topic search / discipline specific search
• Librarian supporting a reference interview– Support for advanced search strategies
Software as a Service
Every Search, Every Context
• Library user looking for a specific book in the catalog– Known-item catalog search / book title search
• Undergrad doing background research for a term paper– Exploratory subject search / background research
• Faculty looking for a specific journal or article title– Known-item publication / article / citation search
• Researcher doing literature review on specialized topic– Specialized topic search / discipline specific search
• Librarian supporting a reference interview– Support for advanced search strategies
Discovery services should support all of these search tasks, and many more.
Software as a Service
Most Popular Searches in EDS
childhood obesityglobal warmingnursingsocial mediaeducationpsychologyebolaabortionobesityautismbullyinggun control
diabetesdomestic violenceleadershipnutritiondepressionmarketingchild abuseschizophreniafacebookdeath penaltymarijuanaclimate change
JSTORtestcancercommunicationstresstechnologyadhdethicsbusinessglobalizationimmigrationvideo games
human traffickingcyberbullyingtime managementpubmedbiologysocial workcapital punishmentmedical marijuanahomelessness
Sourced from one-week (Sept. 2014) sample of top search terms by marketFiltered to queries searched across at least 100 EDS customers
Software as a Service
Topical / Exploratory Search Variety
• Schools– animal cruelty– making metals harder– food in nigeria– paleontologty [sic]
• Medical– blood patch– cynara scholymus [sic]– Rheumatism– urolithiasis naturopathic perspective
• Publics– schisophrenia [sic]– myers briggs– antioxidants in tea– college success and attitude
• Academic– prison industrial complex– isostatic principle– use of pepper spray– seposki curves
Sourced from one-week (Sept. 2014) sample of random search terms by market
Software as a Service
Observations from User ResearchObservation Implication
Exploratory queries most common query type
Discovery service must leverage subject headings and subject indexing to connect users to high quality resources relevant to search need.
Search queries usually short (1-2 words)
Discovery service needs work harder to anticipate user intent. Search features needed to help users clarity their search intent.
Search queries often broad and imprecise
Discovery service needs to help users narrow their search based on limited input. Many users looking for a topical overview on a subject.
Misspellings common Discovery service needs to work around misspellings, typographical errors.
User focus on top results Relevance ranking crucial for delivering a quality search experience. Need to optimize search to display most relevant results on first page.
The first two results provide detailed information about how relevance ranking / value ranking works in EDS…
Software as a Service
EDS Relevance Ranking Ingredients
1. Matching word frequency
2. Metadata field weighting
3. Value ranking
4. Exact field match boost
5. Local collections weighting
No simplistic formula for relevance ranking– multiple factors blend to deliver relevant
results.
Software as a Service
Metadata Field Weighting
Some metadata fields count more than others for scoring.
1. Subject headings
2. Title
3. Author-supplied keywords
4. Abstract
5. Author
6. Journal title
7. Full-text
More fields than these are used for field weighting.
Weighting of fields tuned on an ongoing basis.
Software as a Service
Metadata Field Weighting
Some metadata fields count more than others for scoring.
1. Subject headings
2. Title
3. Author-supplied keywords
4. Abstract
5. Author
6. Journal title
7. Full-text
More fields than these are used for field weighting.
Weighting of fields tuned on an ongoing basis.
Keyword matches across multiple metadata fields
contribute most to relevance scoring.
Software as a Service
Value Ranking
Specific content attributes of matching records contribute to relevance scoring.
• Publication date• Publication type• Peer reviewed or not• Document length
More attributes than these are used for value ranking. We evaluate new options on an ongoing basis.
Software as a Service
Value Ranking
Specific content attributes of matching records contribute to relevance scoring.
• Publication date• Publication type• Peer reviewed or not• Document length
More attributes than these are used for value ranking. We evaluate new options on an ongoing basis.
Publication date:EDS will prioritize ranking of newly published content over older content.
Software as a Service
Value Ranking
Specific content attributes of matching records contribute to relevance scoring.
• Publication date• Publication type• Peer reviewed or not• Document length
More attributes than these are used for value ranking.
New options evaluated on an ongoing basis.
Publication type:Certain publication types (journal articles) are prioritized over others (book reviews).
Software as a Service
Delivering Relevant Results
All these factors combine to produce a composite EDS relevance score for all matching records
for the user’s search query.
No simple formula for relevance ranking, but a multitude of factors that blend to deliver the
best ordered set of results for the user query.
Software as a Service
Relevance Ranking and the EDS API
EBSCO has a significant ongoing investment in optimizing relevance ranking.
EDS API benefits from all improvements to EDS relevance ranking.
Research Starters
Research StartersOver 62,000 topic
overviews provided by Salem Press PhDs &
Encyclopedia Britannica
After: Relevance boost
applied for exact title match in catalogs
User expectation met
Known-item Catalog Search
Enhanced Autocomplete
autismadolescentsanxietyadhdalcoholabortionamericaassessmentadolescenceadults
After: Millions of terms Popularity ordered Updated daily to
represent hot topics
Enhanced AutocompleteFeatures: Fuzzy matching
support to handle misspellings/typos
Multi-language support
Publication Title Placard (Beta)
Journal name searched, exact match found.
Publication match based on customer’s holdings
with ‘Search within’ option.
Software as a Service
Search Enhancements Summary
• Optimize for common search use cases– Research Starters for broad topical searches– Exact title match relevance boost for catalog titles– Exact title match for publication titles
• Look beyond the user’s explicit keywords– Fuzzy matching in Autocomplete
• Leverage platform usage as a utility filter– Autocomplete queries ranked by popularity
• Deliver best results to the top of the results list– Enhanced relevance ranking and smart matching placards