Above the Treeline Introduces Edelweiss GeoSearch

An interesting application from Above the Treeline that I got to see at BookExpo last week. It should be of use to any bookstore looking to beef up their books of regional interest section.

From the press release:

Today, Above the Treeline introduced a new way for book industry professionals to search for titles and authors of interest: GeoSearch. GeoSearch allows users to specify geographic criteria to search digital catalogs within Edelweiss, Above the Treeline's market-leading digital publisher catalog service, for titles connected to cities, states, colleges, and universities across North America. GeoSearch is freely available to registered Edelweiss users.

How It Works

The user simply specifies a starting location and a radius in miles. GeoSearch returns all titles connected to locations within the radius specified. The locations are mapped with coded markers and the map is accompanied by a corresponding location summary in order by distance. The actual titles are also provided for the selected location. Click on the image below for a view of a sample GeoSearch result, with notes. Click here for a clean view (without notes).

(Click on image for a full-sized, clearer version)

To refine the search, the user can specify filter criteria that includes BISAC subject category, format, pubdate, publisher, tags, and more.

GeoSearch currently finds title connections to geographic locations using automated logic that searches for patterns within author biography text such as "lives in New York City". Within the next three months, title content relevancy will be added as well as publisher-supplied title coding to supplement the automated logic. In addition, international locations will be supported.

John Rubin, Above the Treeline's founder and CEO, was enthusiastic about GeoSearch's ability to help booksellers, librarians, and reviewers more easily connect to authors and titles of local interest. "We're really proud of this new feature," he said, "I think it is a great addition to Edelweiss and clearly advances our mission to help publishers, booksellers, librarians, and bloggers connect titles and readers."

GeoSearch Summary Data

By summarizing the GeoSearch contents of approximately 30,000 title-location matches, states and universities can be ranked by author presence. Below is a list of the top 15 states, ranked by most titles published by connected authors (live there, raised there, born there) relative to the state's total population. In addition, there is a list of top U.S. universities based on titles published by connected authors (attended, graduated, faculty member):

Top Author States Per Capita
based on Titles by Authors with Connection to State

Rank State Index
1 Washington D.C. 10.71
2 Vermont 3.09
3 New York 3.00
4 Massachusetts 2.89
5 Connecticut 1.96
6 Maine 1.83
7 Montana 1.76
8 California 1.43
9 Colorado 1.19
10 Washington 1.15
11 Oregon 1.12
12 New Hampshire 1.10
13 New Mexico 1.10
14 Minnesota 1.06
15 Illinois 1.04

(data includes Edelweiss client publishers for titles published after 2008)

Top Author Colleges and Universities
based on Titles by Authors Connected to School

Rank School Index

1 Harvard University 21.18
2 Yale University 11.20
3 Columbia University 10.07
4 New York University 7.25
5 Stanford University 4.19
6 University of Chicago 3.99
7 Princeton University 3.79
8 University of California-Los Angeles 3.56
9 Duke University 3.39
10 Boston University 3.16
11 University of California-Berkeley 2.99
12 Wheaton College 2.89
13 Fordham University 2.76
14 Brown University 2.69
15 Cornell University 2.66
16 The University of Texas at Austin 2.63
17 University of Pennsylvania 2.46
18 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 2.36
19 Northwestern University 2.13
20 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1.96
21 School of Visual Arts 1.96
22 Georgetown University 1.80
23 Syracuse University 1.70
24 Philadelphia Biblical University 1.66
25 University of Virginia 1.66