Search tools


resolver, or to incorporate one of the minority of resources that the library has chosen to access via Optional Integrated Federation – which is much more effective than standard federation,’ pointed out Brooks. Serials Solutions’ discovery service is


called Summon: ‘The research behind the Summon service told us a discovery service needs to offer a Google-like experience at the minimum. So we built Summon to meet those expectations: it’s open – no barriers, no sign-in to starting, it’s easy to use, with no need for familiarity with a specific library database interface… just one single searchbox across the entire collection. And it’s fast: all results are returned in less than a second, with no stragglers,’ said Gersch. ‘Improving discovery means improving the usefulness of the library, enabling


it to leverage its single most important competitive advantage: its collection,’ Gersch continued. ‘The challenge has been


in developing technology that could support rich, user-centred discovery. The research behind Summon showed that the only way to meet user expectations in a complex library environment was to start with a completely new technology architecture: one with a unified, comprehensive index at its core to ensure content neutrality, supported by rich metadata, and built on an open source that enables it to be customised and grow.’


Improving discovery means improving the usefulness of the library, enabling it to leverage its single most important competitive advantage: its collection


Sadeh of Ex Libris, which has the Primo


platform, agreed on the benefits of discovery: ‘Discovery tools aim to provide a library- branded “Google experience” within the academic context in a manner that suits the institution’s mission and policies while maintaining the quality of the content and the accuracy of the search,’ she said. ‘Library discovery tools have started playing, in the scholarly world, the role that web search engines played 15 years ago in the general information-searching arena. Discovery tools differ from the


www.researchinformation.info


FEATURE


previous generation of library search tools by providing an easy, quick, and unified access to information that used to be available through multiple systems and through multiple interfaces. In addition, they offer post-search options for narrowing down result lists, “Did You Mean” suggestions, and services such as RSS feeds,’ she added.


Availability of content The content available through discovery tools typically spans over several ‘silos’ of content. This might be a library catalogue, local digital repositories, and subscribed collections. However, the scope of the content differs from one discovery solution to another, as does the degree of integration with other systems in the library. ‘We work with all information providers that


are interested in exposing their collections – primary or secondary scholarly materials of all kinds – to more researchers. Obviously, more exposure triggers more usage, which is tracked by libraries and serves as input for collection development decisions,’ said Sadeh. ‘We join the call of libraries that, through the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC)’s statement, are encouraging publishers to allow their content to be made available through discovery services on a non- exclusive basis. We see the situation today as being somewhat reminiscent of the early days of the OpenURL standard; many providers were very quick to embrace it but some were more cautious; however, very soon the OpenURL was universally adopted.’ In addition to making content available, discovery tool providers can still have a challenge to address in terms of librarians’ acceptance of discovery tools. ‘Whereas some librarians welcome the advent of such tools, others feel that the ease of search makes the information-seeking practices of users shallower. We strive to make the life of users as simple as possible, but not too simple so that librarians can feel confident that users are able to still find the information that is most appropriate for them,’ Sadeh explained. Brooks of EBSCO also sees challenges


for libraries and their users in realising that different discovery services do different things: ‘A discovery tool that doesn’t give good depth as well as breadth of coverage can have the negative effect of giving the end user a false impression that they are searching something all-inclusive, when in fact they might be better off by searching a specialised database with superior indexing,’ he said.


APR/MAY 2011 Research Information 19


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36