The Bohemian Bookshelf: Design and Implementation of a Visualization Prototype for Serendipitous Browsing

The influence of serendipity is often underestimated in the information seeking process. Although serendipity has often been discussed as facilitator of inspiration and creativity, there are still very few systems that focus on supporting serendipitous discoveries. The Bohemian Bookshelf is an interface for the exploration of book collections, that is designed to systematically support serendipity though information visualization. It consists of five interlinked visualizations: The Cover Colour Circle, the Keyword Chains, the Book Pile, the Timelines and the Author Spiral. Each visualization provides a unique overview of the collection, focusing on one aspect of the books. The Cover Colour Circle groups books according to colour, the Keyword Chains visualizes relations between books based on keywords, the Book Pile visualizes the page count, the Timelines show the relation between publication year and time period in focus and the Author Spiral lists books in alphabetical order by author. The Bohemian Bookshelf is a first step to investigate how serendipity can be supported through information visualization.