A bookselling robot to improve book searches

Independent bookstores in Quebec have joined the A10s network of digital specialists to develop a book search tool using artificial intelligence (AI). This tool, Android Reader, should be used to increase the discoverability of literary works on the leslibraires.ca website.

To implement this project, administrators reached an agreement with publishers to allow their programs to access their works. The robot browses through the books and learns about everything mentioned. He will collect all of this, and then he will build an amazing database to create links between these entities.Christian Roy, co-founder and consultant of A10s, explained in an interview on the show It's best in the afternoon.

Then, the reader or bookseller can search for a book based on its themes, characters, places, times, or even broader concepts like snow or winter. The bot then outputs its results with excerpts from supporting books, making it possible to understand the way search terms are taken up.

The program will not replace booksellers. There is nothing that replaces human encounters in libraries, reading books, and talking with booksellers. It is a tool that supports their expertise“, confirms Jean-Benoit Dumais, General Director of the Cooperative of Independent Bookstores of Quebec.

In fact, booksellers will have access to a different version of the bot than the one intended for the general public. We can see the result of this is more like an iceberg. Booksellers will have access to the entire submerged mass of the iceberg. They'll see all this data, and they'll be able to query it and make very specific selections. There is the visible tip of the iceberg that will appear on the booksellers' websiteThe A10s co-founder explained.

This tool will make it easier to find a specific book among all the analyzed works when the reader only has a few words to describe it.

Obviously the robot is making job Which no one can do, [c’est-à-dire] Get all these books. It's a tool we provide to the general public and booksellers to uncover topics, organizations and places described in books.Jean-Benoit Dumais adds.