I am working with Bookletters on getting their cover art and enhanced content working in the staging environment on InfoSoup. The full product is not up yet and they are still working on a number of issues. Before we go any further, however, I would like to get some feedback about the image quality. Rather than having different sized book cover images, Bookletters uses one medium sized image. To resize this image in InfoSoup, I need to give a forced image size. Doing this compromises image quality. Furthermore, the width of children's books and audio CD are different than standard books, which leads to more distortion. My first thought was that the image quality is unacceptable. Then I thought it is not really all that bad. Now I'm just not sure.
If you have a chance, please take a look and let me know what you think
Try a variety of searches for adult, kids, books on cd and compare with syndetics cover art. You can click on the cover (in staging / 2082) to see the Bookletters content, but remember that this is not the final product. It will, however, give you an idea of how it will work - one click, no pop ups. If you go to the full record, I have left the image in it's original size for comparisons sake. Also, they are still working on cross referencing ISBN numbers so there are a lot of items that don't currently show jackets, but that will show. My question right now is whether the image quality is a deal breaker if they cannot improve it?
Thanks,
Evan
Comments (8)
The distortion is a bit distracting, but overall the images are readable enough for me. Clicking through it to the content seems more satisfactory than with Syndetics.
Posted by Terry Dawson | February 9, 2009 1:10 PM
Posted on February 9, 2009 13:10
I don't mind the distortion now as much as I did when I first looked, especially because when you click on the full record or on the book cover you end up getting the full-sized image there which isn't distorted. We might have to play around with the layout of the full record page, as the larger image pushes down the holdings info, but that should be do-able.
I like how there are no pop-ups and all of the reviews are displayed on one page rather than having to click multiple links for a brief paragraph. Much more attractive implementation!
Posted by Beth | February 10, 2009 8:41 AM
Posted on February 10, 2009 08:41
I wasn't bothered by the distortion, the images are a bit larger than those currently used in InfoSoup. I do like the covers for media (yea!) and linking to reviews and table of contents.
I searched for Cujo (my personal fav) and only 1 jacket came up. Is that because there are fewer covers available or only a partial access? Syndetics gives lots of covers.
Posted by Michael Nitz | February 10, 2009 12:13 PM
Posted on February 10, 2009 12:13
For what I need, it works better than the other system. The distortion of the thumbnail isn't all that bad.
Posted by Beth Lokken | February 10, 2009 1:01 PM
Posted on February 10, 2009 13:01
Michael,
Bookletters is still in the process of cross referencing covers from different editions and formats. I think their finished product will be a lot more complete, but that is still an unknown issue right now. I think by next we will have a better sense of their coverage.
In my update post above, I mentioned that the media content right now is pointing to our syndetics trial of music and video and the book content is going to bookletters (my apologies for the confusion). Bookletters has DVD covers, but they do not currently have a UPC code reference point so they were not showing up. They are working on video and music covers and content, but I'm not sure when that will be ready.
Posted by Evan | February 10, 2009 1:05 PM
Posted on February 10, 2009 13:05
In my testing Bookletters was much faster. Generally, I've moved onto the next search before the Syndetics data is finished loading, but that didn't happen with Bookletters. I'm not sure if this is a factor of it being a test or not. One question: at one point I was waiting for Bookletters, and it said it was waiting for Syndetics. Thoughts?
I loved being able to click on the cover art for more info. A huge improvement in the presentation.
I think any cover art distortion would be worth it for the increases in speed and better presentation.
Posted by Gerri Moeller | February 11, 2009 10:04 AM
Posted on February 11, 2009 10:04
Gerri,
Bookletters is claiming that speed will be one of their top priorities. In fact, our demo is on their old server and when their product is moved over to their new server, it should be even faster. The "waiting for Syndetics" is because I'm also testing Syndetics Movie and Video content (see comment above). If your search has mixed material types, you can get some images (for books) from bookletters and Syndetics (for DVD and Music). Once the full Bookletters product is available for testing, I will deactivate the Music & Video content from Syndetics. Sorry, again, for the confusion.
Posted by Evan | February 11, 2009 11:25 AM
Posted on February 11, 2009 11:25
The media bibs are sometimes finding the wrong images. b1537533a for example brings up an image for Brahms. The UPC code searched in Amazon.com brings up the correct image.
In this case, the system won't allow me to move the UPC code (tag 024) above the ISBN (tag 020).
Posted by Michael Nitz | February 18, 2009 11:07 AM
Posted on February 18, 2009 11:07