In this document, we will list the main use cases for auto-suggest and related examples.
Questions to consider:
- What kind of information should be used when generating matches for a query?
- Should certain types of matches be considered more important or ranked higher than others?
- What concrete examples can help define the answers to the above two questions as well as help us validate that the search results are returned as we expect?
- Do we include the “first last” version of a name as a variant for a primary label? If we do, what are the ramifications in terms of performance? There are over 6 million author names in the index and some percentage (?) of those are also subjects. The answer might depend on what kind of matching we support.
Types of matches
This list lays out some possibilities for matches but should not be considered a list of requirements.
- Full text match
- Partial text match
- Match starts with same letters
- Match contains same letters but in any position within the match
- If multi-word query, do all words show up in the same exact order somewhere within the match?
- If multi-word query, do all words show up in any order within the match?
- If multi-word query, use a combination of whole and partial word matches? (Match whole word on the first word; match partial on all ensuing words)
Use cases
Query | Relevant data in index | Matches displayed | Ranking comments (if applicable) |
alb | label: “Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955” label: “Kleiner, Alberto Victoria and Albert Museum” label: “Alberti, Michael, 1682-1757” label: “Arkansas > Albert Pike Recreation Area” label: “Camus, Albert, 1913-1960 > Criticism and interpretation” | Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955 Kleiner, Alberto Victoria and Albert Museum Alberti, Michael, 1682-1757 Arkansas > Albert Pike Recreation Area Camus, Albert, 1913-1960 > Criticism and interpretation | |
emil | label: “Dickinson, Emily 1830-1886” label: “Friedberg, Emil Albert, 1837-1910” label: “Emily binti Kaudon” | Dickinson, Emily 1830-1886 Friedberg, Emil Albert, 1837-1910 Emily binti Kaudon | |
pear | label: “Buck, Pearl S. (Pearl Sydenstricker)” label: “Pearl, Raymond, 1879-1940” label: “Pearson, A. M. (Albert Marchant), 1916-” label: “China > Pearl River Delta” label: “Pearl Harbor, Attack on (Hawaii : 1941)” | Buck, Pearl S. (Pearl Sydenstricker) Pearl, Raymond, 1879-1940 Pearson, A. M. (Albert Marchant), 1916- China > Pearl River Delta Pearl Harbor, Attack on (Hawaii : 1941) | |
emily di | label: “Dickinson, Emily 1830-1886” label: “Dicken, Emily F.” label: “Dial-Driver, Emily” | Dickinson, Emily 1830-1886 Dicken, Emily F. Dial-Driver, Emily | |
dickinson em | label: “Dickinson, Emily 1830-1886” label: “Dickinson, Emma” label: “Dickinson, Emmett” | Dickinson, Emily 1830-1886 Dickinson, Emma Dickinson, Emmett | |
celtic grammar | label: “Celtic languages > Grammar, Comparative” label: “Celtic languages > Grammar, Historical” label: “Celtic languages > Grammar” | Celtic languages > Grammar, Comparative Celtic languages > Grammar, Historical Celtic languages > Grammar | |
einstein albert | label: “Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955” label: “Einstein, Fred Albert” label: “Einstein, Albert Fred” | Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955 Einstein, Albert Fred Einstein, Fred Albert | |
albert einstein | label: “Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955” label: “Einstein, Fred Albert” label: “Einstein, Albert Fred” | Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955 Einstein, Albert Fred Einstein, Fred Albert | |
albert alistair einstein | label: “Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955” | No matches | |
einstein political views | label: “Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955 > Political and social views” | Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955 > Political and social views | |
child care standards | label: “Child care services > Standards” | Child care services > Standards | |
Query using variant | Relevant data in index | Matches displayed | Ranking comments (if applicable) |
dzheyn edems | label: “Addams, Jane 1860-1935” variant_labels: [“Edems, Dzheyn, 1860-1935”, “Addams, Laura Jane, 1860-1935”] | Addams, Jane 1860-1935 | |
c j smyth | label: “Smyth, Chris” variant_labels: [Smyth, C. J. (Chris J.)”] | Smyth, Chris | |
דיקינסון, אמילי | label: “Dickinson, Emily 1830-1886” variant_labels: [“Dikinson, Ėmili, 1830-1886”, “D̲ikinson, Emily, 1830-1886”, “Ti-chin-sen, Ai-mi-li, 1830-1886”, יקינסון, אמילי, 1830־1886 ] | Dickinson, Emily 1830-1886 | |
エミリーブロンテ | label: “Bronte, Emily 1818-1848” Variant_labels: [“Po-lang-tʻe, Ai-mi-li, 1818-1848”, “エミリーブロンテ, 1818-1848”, “Brontë, E. J. (Emily Jane), 1818-1848” ] | Bronte, Emily 1818-1848 |
Notes:
- "albert einstein" and "einstein albert" (or "einstein, albert") should return the same results
- matches are all at the beginning of words; no embedded substrings
- multiple terms do not have to appear in order
Questions:
- How to treat "and" and "or": do we throw them out of the query? For example, “einstein and religion” returns no suggestions but “einstein religion” does.
We could look into the usage of stop words in Solr, where words like “and” and “or” may effectively be ignored. In that case, both the examples would result in a match.
- For variant or pseudonymous searches, do we include the search term in the response (for example, “Twain, Mark (Samuel Clemens)”)?
Following the Wikidata lookup model, that seems reasonable for variant labels, where the preferred label would be listed first followed by the variant that matches what the user wrote. For pseudonyms, as we’ve discussed before, we’ll need to use a different approach. In that case, the authority matching what the user wrote would be displayed first and a “see also” would indicated related pseudonyms.
Additional variant issues
We would want to prefer primary labels over variants.
What should the user experience be:
- when the variant is matched but the primary label looks different?
- When there are both primary label and variant matches for different entities?
Is it possible to require matches after the first word with partial matches following?
Should we require “stricter” matches (i.e. whole word matches with variants)?
Pseudonym scenarios
Questions:
Wikidata has a pseudonym property which returns literals (for pseudonyms) for the person. This information could be retrieved for search purposes to enable matching on pseudonyms as well. LCNAF uses “see also” properties that may or may not be
User query | Data | Behavior (Generally, result selection should lead to search in appropriate field which is more flexible than facet search) |
Samuel Clemens | Samuel Clemens: -separate authority in catalog -has distinct URI Mark Twain: -separate authority -has distinct URI | Show “Samuel Clemens (#)”, with connection to pseudonym “See also Mark Twain(#)” and allow selection of that item as well |
Street liberty (made up example) | Liberty Mutual:
Street liberty:
| Show “Liberty Mutual (#) (Street liberty)” (?) indicating pseudonym match No need to show separate connection to “Street liberty” pseudonym b/c it does not exist as a separate authority (i.e. separate search with pseudonym not required) |
Fidelity stocks | Temperamental oddities
Fidelity stocks:
| Show “Temperamental oddities (#) (Fidelity stocks)” indicating pseudonym match No separate matches/URIs to take into account |
Fictional Physicist | A joint pseudonym for multiple people | Show ? Joint pseudonym first? There is more than one primary label in this case |
Q: Is there such a thing as a primary identity in lcnaf to begin with?
If “see also” can go in any direction, then either one could be considered the “primary” label?
So if the user types in samuel clemens, they see that plus a “see also” pointing to mark twain
If they type in “mark twain”, they see that as the primary authority, with “see also” pointing to samuel clemens
