Demystifying Endeca’s search results ranking Kristina Spurgin with input & support from Ben Pennell & Jeff Campbell UNC Libraries

Endeca details Search Configuration and Relevance Ranking – The supported search methods and details on how results are ranked for each TRLN Endeca Data Model – The major field groups, with brief descriptions of their use, and indexing and display properties. Endeca Extract and Mappings Spreadsheet – Details on how MARC fields get mapped into Endeca fields

TRLN Endeca Search Interfaces Words anywhere (i.e. Keyword) Author Title Journal title Subject ISBN/ISSN (Publisher)

How to think about RelRank Image source

Spotting the relevancy strata Subject search relevancy strategy – Exact phrase match, starting from beginning of a single field is the gold-standard match – Subject heading search: commonplace bookcommonplace book

PubDateSort = 1700 No pub date!

A more complex search: keyword (AKA “Words anywhere”) “Searches all indexed fields, but only uses some fields to rank results.” -- Search Configuration and Relevance RankingSearch Configuration and Relevance Ranking

What fields are indexed? Guide to the TRLN Endeca Data Model gives some info Guide to the TRLN Endeca Data Model

What fields are indexed? Endeca Extract and Mappings Spreadsheet gives the detailed info. Endeca Extract and Mappings Spreadsheet

More on keyword search (AKA “Words anywhere”) “Matches in the main title, subject headings, and main author fields will be given the highest ranking.” -- Search Configuration and Relevance RankingSearch Configuration and Relevance Ranking

More on keyword search (AKA “Words anywhere”) “Queries that match as a phrase are ranked higher than those which do not.” -- Search Configuration and Relevance RankingSearch Configuration and Relevance Ranking

More on keyword search (AKA “Words anywhere”) “Exact term matches are ranked higher than those returned because of spell correction, stemming, and thesaurus lookups.” -- Search Configuration and Relevance RankingSearch Configuration and Relevance Ranking

More on keyword search (AKA “Words anywhere”) “Matches in tables of contents, summaries, or selected EAD elements are not used to determine ranking.” -- Search Configuration and Relevance RankingSearch Configuration and Relevance Ranking

An aside on keyword search (AKA “Words anywhere”)

Fields used to rank Keyword results Most important to least Main Title Main Title Normalized Title Vernacular Title Vernacular Segmented Subject Headings Subjects Normalized Subjects Vernacular Segmented Main Author Main Author Normalized Main Author Vernacular Main Author Vernacular Segmented Company Varying Titles Varying Titles Vernacular Segmented Other Authors Other Author Translation Authors Normalized Main Uniform Title Main Uniform Title Vernacular Main Uniform Title Vernacular Segmented Uniform Title Uniform Title Vernacular Uniform Title Vernacular Segmented Title Index Earlier Title Later Title Host Item Linking Uncontrolled Subject Other Titles Other Title Translation Translated as Linking Translation of Linking Series Title Index Series Statement Series Normalized Series Statement Vernacular Series Statement Vernacular Segmented Publisher Publisher Normalized Sound Recording Imprint Director Performer Credits Production Credits Biographical Sketch Related Collections Digital Collection Genre Product

Fields used to rank Title results Most important to least Title1 Title2 Title3 Title4 Main Title Main Title Normalized Journal Title Index Title Vernacular Title Vernacular Segmented Varying Titles Titles Normalized Varying Titles Vernacular Segmented Main Uniform Title Main Uniform Title Vernacular Main Uniform Title Vernacular Segmented

1 word titles 2 word titles 3 word titles

Fields used to rank Journal Title results Most important to least Journal Title Index Journal Uniform Title Journal Title Abbreviation Journal Later Title Journal Earlier Title

Fields used to rank Author results Most important to least Main Author Main Author Normalized Main Author Vernacular Main Author Vernacular Segmented Director Performer Credits Production Credits Author

Fields used to rank Subject results Most important to least Subject Headings Subjects Vernacular Segmented Subjects Normalized Genre

What is irrelevant to relevancy? Many aspects of the record are NOT considered in relevancy ranking FORMAT is the biggest surprise, it seems

And, with that whirlwind tour… Image source