Analysis and news: Discovery
“Can a new stage emerge? One where the library goes to the user”
special collection records piped directly into Google search results. As less time is spent managing pay-to-read subscriptions and more time managing pay-to-publish deals, it seems natural that libraries would shift focus from the former to the latter. However, the same market forces
that have enabled OA to grow (article processing charges) have also enabled a dramatic rise in predatory publishing. Estimates track a rise from just under 2,000 predatory journals in 2010 to more than 13,000 in 2020 (Linacre, 2020). Set alongside the broader diffusion of disinformation in the post-truth era, information literacy among students and researchers is more important than ever. As patrons continue to favour open discovery tools, it will be important that libraries find ways of taking their curation and information literacy expertise to preferred workflows. Not hosted in a detailed library guide on their website, but embedded at critical intervention points.
Such developments would be key
to address the reproducibility issue – ensuring, for example, that retracted papers do not continue to be unknowingly cited and built upon (Schneider, 2020).
Libraries must continue to support quality discovery
I began using Google Scholar for my literature review, supported by manually tracking references in key texts in my field. But, as with other early-stage researchers, I soon moved on to library search, and other index-based discovery tools like Web of Science and Scopus, for precision- searching and curated browsing. The article-level metadata such tools use, combined with the qualified nature of the index behind them, are essential for in-depth research. There is also greater exposure to your library’s print collection in the library’s own discovery service. But need there be such a stark dividing line between open search tools such as Google Scholar and library discovery services like those from EBSCO, ExLibris and OCLC? Lean Library is exploring this by integrating major library discovery services with Google Scholar via our browser plug-in, so patrons can see search results side-by- side for ease and quality.
Embedding library search in preferred user workflows It is possible to chart two stages in the development of the library experience for patrons. The first was the library as a physical building and curated collection. In the second the library digitised a platform of resources and services. Both were predicated on the library as a destination, as somewhere a user must go to. Can a new stage emerge from
the accelerating forces of the Covid experience? One where the library, and its services, such as library search, goes to the user – in their workflow – allowing students and researchers to access library services and resources at the point of need? Achieving this practically will require new
innovations, but it begins with the effort to, in the words of Lisa Hinchliffe, Professor for Information Literacy Services at the University of Illinois, ‘operate in the online environments where users work’ (Linacre, 2020). Achieving this could both accelerate learning and discovery, and the library’s impact.
Matthew Hayes is managing director of Lean Library and a doctoral researcher at University College London
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