Top Rated Elements in Syndetics Unbound

Last year, we queried our customers about what their favorite Syndetics Unbound elements were. Not surprisingly, Recommendations were at the top of that list, but let’s take a deeper look at what you love the most about Syndetics Unbound.

Public and Academic Libraries alike rated our You May Also Like recommendations as their favorite element. The recommendations provide the opportunity for serendipitous discovery of new titles and are based on both user suggestions from LibraryThing for Libraries and big data algorithms. You May Also Like recommendations only suggest titles that can be found in your library, providing on-the-spot readers advisory and encouraging deeper use of your collection by revealing titles users might not have otherwise found.

Summaries were a popular element across both Public and Academic libraries. Over 25 million summaries are provided by ProQuest, and contain a brief description supplied by the publisher, covering fiction, non-fiction, and both trade and scholarly titles. Thousands of summaries are added each week. Patrons in all libraries want to know what they are reading!

Series and Reading Level are also popular elements in our Public Libraries. Series are provided by LibraryThing and contain lists of the titles available from the library within that Series. The Series element tells you which titles are in that Series, in the Series order; titles that are not owned by the library are grayed out. The Series element also crosses over into the You May Also Like recommendations which shows Similar Series related to the set you’re exploring.

Reading Level provides three different kinds of reading level information: Accelerated Reader level, Lexile, and Publisher Provided Age and Grade. Reading Level also lets users search for titles in the library’s catalog based on a level or within a range.

Academic Libraries prefer Professional Reviews and the Look Inside element. ProQuest provides over 6 million reviews from more than 15 review providers, giving more insight into each title, and enabling the user to research each book more in depth.

Likewise, Look Inside allows the user an inside glimpse by displaying the Cover, Tables of Contents and Excerpt/First Chapter. This brief peek helps the researcher to better identify if a title is useful in their search.

Tell us what your favorite Syndetics Unbound Element is, or if you think were missing the next best thing. Contact us at Syndetics.com.