Dear all,

Apologies for cross posting but the American Philosophical Society Library
is excited to announce a brand new recommendation tool. Created
specifically for archives and special collections libraries, it reuses
circulation data and user-supplied interests. Our staff is happy to talk
more to anyone interested, and to discuss generalizing the tool for other
libraries.

Our press release is reproduced below. Please let me know if you have any
questions.

Best,
Abby Shelton

-- 
Abigail E. Shelton
Assistant to the Librarian
American Philosophical Society
105 South Fifth Street
Philadelphia, PA  19106-3386
Office: 215-440-3405
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____________

For Immediate Release
April 3, 2017


*American Philosophical Society Announces the launch of PAL, an innovative
recommendation tool for research libraries*

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—April 3, 2017—The American Philosophical Society
is
pleased to announce the launch of PAL (People Also Liked), a circulation
data-
driven recommendation tool designed specifically for archives and manuscript
repositories. Similar to the customer recommendation tools used by major
online commerce sites, like Amazon and Netflix, PAL helps scholars discover
relevant manuscript collections based on request history and user interests.
Researchers at the APS use it to sift through the 13 million pages of
manuscripts held at the APS Library, including the Papers of Benjamin
Franklin, the Journals of Lewis and Clark, and the papers of seven Nobel
Laureates.

“We had compiled a lot of user data that we weren’t really using.  We
realized
that new technology could harness this data and improve a fundamental job of
librarianship: helping people find what they need,” Patrick Spero, Librarian
of the American Philosophical Society, said.

The tool was developed by Scott Ziegler, Head of Technology at the Library,
and Richard Shrake, a consulting software developer who specializes in
library
science.  Designed to interact with the APS’s circulation system, AEON, PAL
captures data, anonymizes it, categorizes it, and then matches past user
behavior with the needs of new researchers.

“Unlike recommendation tools for books or movies, archival collections don’t
have a simple one-to-one relation,” said Ziegler. “That is, a Benjamin
Franklin letter, for example, doesn’t have a unique identifier. In
contrast, a
book has an ISBN number, a number that uniquely identifies it. In the world
of
archives and special collections, we always need to maintain the context of
any single letter. The trick is to also generate recommendations for
collections similar to one that contains the letter in question. This is
what
makes PAL distinctive. It’s the first tool that we know of to do this.”

After months of developing and testing, the Library launched PAL in January
2017.  Ziegler and Shrake presented the tool at Code4Lib National Conference
in Los Angeles in March and are forming partnerships with other libraries to
enhance the system.

“We’ve heard from a number of libraries interested in PAL and how they can
use
it for their collections. We hope to continue to find colleagues who are
willing to help us generalize the tool for wide use,” said Ziegler.

Designed specifically for manuscript collections, the APS Library plans to
share their work with other libraries. PAL is part of the APS Library’s
digital scholarship initiative, which includes the digitization of APS
materials, support for digital scholarship, and the development of new
tools.

*About the American Philosophical Society*
The American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United
States, was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of
“promoting
useful knowledge.” In the 21st century the Society sustains this mission in
three principal ways. It honors and engages distinguished scientists,
humanists, social scientists, and leaders in civic and cultural affairs
through elected membership and opportunities for interdisciplinary,
intellectual fellowship, particularly in the semi-annual Meetings in
Philadelphia. It supports research and discovery through grants and
fellowships, lectures, publications, prizes, exhibitions, and public
education. It serves scholars through a research library of manuscripts and
other collections internationally recognized for their enduring historic
value. The American Philosophical Society’s current activities reflect the
founders’ spirit of inquiry, provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas,
and convey the conviction of its members that intellectual dialogue and
critical thought are inherently in the public interest.

Contact:
Abigail Shelton
215-440-3405
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