Semantic Search for The Coder-Librarian

Ever install a search engine like Solr or Elasticsearch and then wonder “now what?” For libraries, search is particularly challenging. Mapping the language of specialized content with user’s vernacular is tough. For example, maybe you’re trying to help a 19 year old college students search the writings of a sharp-witted, revolutionary era Philadelphia gentleman? Or you might be helping budding legal students hunt through hundreds of years of arcane legal precedent? Or gastroenterologists hunt through their favorite medical journals? Young children through dinosaur articles? In this half-day course, you’ll use Elasticsearch to build a basic semantic search application. We’ll start by bringing the core search internals down to earth. Using Python and machine learning libraries, you’ll teach the search engine to learn the vernacular for your domain (Darth Vader ~ Anakin Skywalker; “The Master” ~ “Sherlock Holmes”). You’ll see how to integrate and curate these smarts back into the search engine to improve the relevance of your applications. You’ll come out of this workshop armed with some specific techniques that you can apply to your own search problems.

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