Case Study: Explicit Recommender Services for Scientific Libraries

In March 2006, a group-specific item-centered explicit recommender system featuring a rating and a review service was added to the OPAC of the Library of the Universität Karlsruhe (TH). The goal is to turn the online public access catalogs of libraries into customer oriented service portals including the support of customer interaction. In this chapter, the services are described, usage statistics are given, and the question, which type of recommender system is appropriate for which customer need, is covered. The mechanism design of the recommender systems is discussed as well as possible extensions to the current implementation. A description of these services was first published in [Neu07a].