A multi-source book review system for reducing information overload and accommodating individual styles

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-03-2015-0026
Published date21 September 2015
Pages310-328
Date21 September 2015
AuthorGloria Yi-Ming Kao,Chi-Chieh Peng
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology
A multi-source book review
system for reducing information
overload and accommodating
individual styles
Gloria Yi-Ming Kao
Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education,
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, and
Chi-Chieh Peng
Institute for the Information Industry, Hsinchu, Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of the multi-source book review
system (MBRS). MBRS was designed to reduce information overload using the internet and to
accommodate different learner preferences.
Design/methodology/approach The authors experimentally compared MBRS with the Google
search engine.MBRS first gathers reviews fromonline sources, such as bookstoresand blogs. It reduces
information overloadthrough an advanced filtering and sortingalgorithm and by providing a uniform
user interface.MBRS accommodates different learningstyles through various sort options andthrough
adding video-mediated reviews.
Findings Results indicate that, compared with Google, MBRS: reduces the information overload
associated with searching for online book reviews; increases users finding satisfactory book reviews;
and allows users to find reviews more quickly. In addition, more than half of the participants found
video-mediated book reviews more appealing than traditional text-based reviews.
Research limitations/implications Future studies might examine the effects of other
recommendations or sorting methods to fit individual preferences in a more dynamic way.
Practical implications This study assisted readers with a preference for visual information in
locating reviews of personal interest in less time and with finding reviews more aligned with their
individual learning preferences.
Originality/value This study documents an innovative web site featuring video-mediated book
reviews and other mechanisms to accommodate individual preferences. Search engine designers could
integrate book reviews with different media types to reduce cognitive load allowing readers to focus
attention on the reading task. Internet booksellers or library staff may use this as an effective means to
enhance reading motivation.
Keywords Digital libraries, Reading, Multi-media, User interfaces, Electronic books, Search engine
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
People search for information for personal or work purposes, but also in order to learn
(Kao et al., 2008; Puustinen and Rouet, 2009). Book reviews remain indispensable tools
for such searches, providing information to the general public, academics, schools and
libraries which assists them in making better book purchase decisions (Lin et al., 2007).
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 33 No. 3, 2015
pp. 310-328
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-03-2015-0026
Received 7 March 2015
Revised 24 May 2015
Accepted 17 June 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
This research was funded by the National Science Council of the Republic of China, Taiwan,
under contract No. NSC 102-2511-S-011-005-MY3. The authors would like to thank the editor
of Library Hi Tech and the anonymous reviewers of this paper for their kind assistance and
helpful suggestions.
310
LHT
33,3
The trend of increased use of technology in education (So et al., 2009) is also
transforming how readers look for information about books. Whereas in the past there
was greater reliance on the opinions of friends or relatives or perhaps a small number
of newspapers and magazines, the internet now offers access to thousands of online
book reviews. If usable information was often too scarce in the past, the problem now
is one of potential information overload (Papanikolaou et al., 2002), with both students
and teachers having increasing difficulty keeping up with the expanding online
knowledge base (Hess, 1999).
In addition to the sheerquantity of available information,a further problem is that the
desired information is not always conveniently located. There is no single searchtool or
web site that aggregates book reviews from different sources. Thus, despite the growth
in the overall numberof online book reviews, potentialreaders may well find it difficult to
locate book reviews relevant to their particular needs. For example, Taiwanslargest
online bookstore, books.com.tw, collects few book reviews. Amazon.com offers a large
number of reviews for bestsellers but few or none forless popular books. Personal blogs
often provide reviewsfor books regardless of their popularity,but locating these reviews
often requires considerable effort. In theabsence of any convenient central location,most
readers are forced to resort to search engines.
Readers who use search engines to locate book reviews are faced with a ma ssive
problem of information overload, which can easily overwhelm their cognitive capacity
(Chen et al., 2009). This problem has three primary causes. First, search engine
algorithms do not adequately filter out irrelevant hits, such as advertisements. Second,
although search engines do have methods for sorting results, they are not specifically
designed to distinguish between different reviews based on their qualities or
characteristics. Finally, the information presented in different book reviews is typically
organized in very different ways, forcing the reader to adapt to a new information
structure for each review. Thus, for example, a potential reader who searches Google
for a book review of The DaVinci Code will be confronted with nearly 2.5 million hits.
Many of these will not be reviews at all, and those that are reviews will vary widely in
terms of both quality and organization.
This paper introduces an online system to help users locate book reviews called the
multi-source book review system (MBRS). The MBRS was designed following careful
consideration of problems with existing search engines and an investigation of typical
online book review search behaviors, which included a survey asking participants for
their opinions and suggestions regarding book review systems. The resulting system
was designed to provide a centralized source for book reviews by aggregating reviews
from different sites and to reduce or eliminate information overload by focussing on
the causes discussed above. The MBRS extracts book reviews solely from online
book review sites, and thus does not present the reader with extraneous information.
The MBRS also contains a recommendation mechanism which allows users to sort
book reviews in terms of quality, thus allowing them to find higher quality reviews
more quickly. Further, after aggregating book reviews from different sources, MBRS
re-organizes the material presented in each according to a common format, so that
readers can quickly locate the information most relevant to their personal needs.
The MBRS thus offers the potential of considerably increasing the efficiency of online
book review searches and thus of enhancing learning processes.
Felder and Silverman (1988) defined learning style in terms of: the type of
information that a student preferentially perceives; the sensory channel through which
external information is most effectively perceived; the organization of information
311
MBRS for
reducing
information
overload

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