Yewno
A Truly Original Way to Search
As I have already mentioned, the online catalog is becoming less relevant to today’s universe of library automation. Many or most libraries use discovery platforms that overlay the traditional catalog and deliver data in a way that is more palatable to today’s Google-centered young people. Although there are many brands, most of the discovery tools are based on the traditional information found in the MARC record. Also, keyword searches in these tools are prone to false drops. For instance, I was once given a demonstration by someone who was showing off his company’s discovery tool, and he typed in the keyword search “East of Eden.” It brought in results showing hits from books about Steinbeck and an encyclopedia article about the novel. He quickly moved on, but I couldn’t help noticing that it also brought up records concerning Sir Anthony Eden and a book or two about the Old Testament book of Genesis.
Recently, I heard from Ruth Pickering, co-founder/chief business development and strategy officer at Yewno. Yewno is a new kind of discovery engine that relies on visual imagery to help researchers see the connections between concepts in their research. It was developed at Stanford (home base of a past prominent search tool) with help from other A-list institutions. I met with her at the American Library Association conference in Orlando. She gave me a brief demonstration of Yewno, which certainly looked impressive. One types in a search term and sees a central node surrounded by spokes connected to related concepts. On the right is a detailed text explaining the chosen subject. By clicking the line between your main subject and a second node, you get a list of terms that are found in both instances.
When your search is first displayed, it is surrounded by related terms, so there is much less chance of a false drop as with the East of Eden example. The product uses a variety of sources for its information, including a number of subscription databases which display abstracts but block non-campus users from full text. I asked Pickering if this also works as an overlay to the online catalog of library books. She replied that while it does not yet, that level of research is in development. Yewno for Education claims that it is indexing more than 45 million articles, books, and other documents. My prophetic powers aren’t perfect, but I would predict that this is a product to watch.
Yewno’s graphic interactive display of concepts related to Diogenes of Sinope
A CSE for qualified Catholic sources, sponsored by the College of New Rochelle
Terry Ballard is a retired librarian who worked in public and academic libraries. He is the author of three books and more than 75 articles, mostly about how libraries use technology to serve the information needs of their communities.
