Musings on Faceted Search, Metadata, and Library Discovery Interfaces

Abstract

Faceted search is a powerful tool that enables searchers to easily and intuitively take advantage of controlled vocabularies and structured metadata. Faceted search has been widely implemented in library discovery interfaces and has provided many benefits to library users. The effectiveness of facets in library catalogs depends on a complex interaction between facet vocabularies, metadata quality and structure, and the library discovery interface’s capabilities. This article provides a holistic overview of challenges for optimally implementing facets in library catalogs. This supports a systematic approach to refining and enhancing the capacity of faceted search to improve searching and exploring bibliographic metadata.