The Book Galaxy Applet is a new way of searching for books in a library, where the user can browse over books in a way that doesn't
involve pages of book listings.
This applet is part of the JISC MOSAIC Developer Competition
and uses the suggestion data and level 1 usage data.
I would imagine this application being run on dedicated search machines inside the library which users can use as a way to search beyond keywords.
This interface could also be based on a 'surface' computer where multiple users can search the library and look at library books.
If nothing appears, you might not have Java installed. Download Java Here.
Move the mouse around the galaxy over the different books and subjects to see their title. Blue dots are Books, Yellow dots are Courses.
Clicking on a book will show a web of related books for the selected book at the centre, with courses that use the book listed around the outside. The size of a course gives the book's popularity by that course. Larger nodes are more popular.
You can search for book titles by typing into the search box. If a search returns few enough results it displays all the book titles as a list.
Clicking on a course will show all the books that are used by that course. You can search this view using the search box. The size of a book gives it's popularity by that course. Larger nodes are more popular.
Clicking the Back button returns to the previous view, allowing you to run more broad searches.
The Source Code is now available on SourceForge!
Alex Parker
ajp3g08@ecs.soton.ac.uk