Sneak Peek

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we’ve been working hard on reconstructing Open Library, and it’s getting to that exciting stage when the redesign is starting to feel alive, and full of real data.

One thing we’re producing is a new page about a certain subject that shows a list of all the Works about that subject, authors that write about it, publishers that publish books in that area, and a graph that shows the publishing history of that subject – all generated from bibliographic data and our shiny new search!

Here’s my favourite so far: fondue.

This is getting exciting!

It probably goes without saying, but there was a bump in fondue books around 1970. I’ll sprinkle a few more sneak peeks of the new design from now until we do our soft launch. Coming soon!

Update: I couldn’t resist sharing a few more…

internet

marilyn

And this final comparison is really interesting. For all the order of library cataloging, it’s funny how much difference your native tongue can make. I love how the birth of the Industrial Age is represented in literature this way…

terms

5 thoughts on “Sneak Peek

  1. Nicholas Shanks

    For the “railroad” vs. “railway” comparison, it would make more sense after you imported a (or The) British library’s books. I own many tens of books on Railways and Railway Modelling, but none on Railroads.

  2. George Oates

    We would love to import the British Library’s catalog! And yes, that’s what I was getting at – that regional differences in language skew the controlled vocabulary.

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