Overview of resource discovery in libraries today. Presented at the CIG Scotland seminar 'Resource Discovery : from catalogues to discovery services' at the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, 21st March 2018

1. What do you want to
discover today?
Resource Discovery: from catalogues to discovery services
CIGS Seminar
21 March 2018
National Library of Scotland
Janet Aucock
Senior Manager, Cataloguing, Acquisitions and
E-Resources
University of St Andrews

2. Overview and introduction of the
issues around discovery
services and catalogues
St Andrews LMS project
Discovery by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 ImageCreator

3. “With the advent of next
generation web scale
discovery layers
supplementing or replacing
traditional and in-house
catalogues, institutional
resource discovery
environments are changing
beyond recognition”.
Discovery service
Discovery
service (classic
catalogue in
the
background)
Online
catalogue

6. Kortekaas, S., & Kramer, B. (2014).
Thinking the unthinkable – doing away
with the library catalogue. Insights,
27(3), 244–248. DOI:
http://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.174
“At Utrecht University we strongly
believe that academic libraries have lost
their role in the discovery of scientific
information and should focus on delivery
instead. Without your own discovery tool
you might feel stark naked. However, we
have to admit that others can do a better
job on discovery, so don’t spend too
much time on this. Make a priority of
your delivery task and rethink the way
you can provide value for your users.”
“Our next challenge will be to phase out
our catalogue as an end-user discovery
tool, because we believe that the OPAC
is dead. In the world we live in today, you
should not encourage your users to start
their search in a local library catalogue”
Web discovery
“… most searches were started in
Google Scholar.”
National aggregations
Institutional Discovery
service
Discovery
service (classic
catalogue in
the
background)
Online
catalogue

8. By Makizox (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

10. Image credit: NASA/Linda Perry

11. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenjonbro/ Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)

13. • Useful and relevant content for teaching and
research
• Quality content ie peer reviewed, authoritative
• Effective searching which produces results in an
acceptable timeframe
• Ability to refine searches and get a manageable
set of results
• Understand and interpret the results
• Get enough information to easily
locate/access/request the full text of resources,
whether they be physical items on the open shelf/
in the store or the electronic full text of articles, e-
books and local collections/digital collections
• Use and discovery of all our collections
1. Physical collections/print use
2. Value for money for purchased electronic
resources
3. Access to open access resources.
• Serve a variety of users. Undergraduates,
researchers and academics in a variety of subject
disciplines
• Good statistics on searching behaviour and
results
• And more…………….
Service
providers?
Users?
Find the right stuff
at the right time

14. Content
• Physical print and multimedia collections.
Monographs and journals. Modern collections
and special collections (Catalogue)
• Electronic journals, title level records
(Catalogue)
• Electronic books (Catalogue)
• Article and chapter level resources, electronic
full text (DS)
• Electronic journals, title level records (DS)
• Electronic books (DS)
• Electronic databases (DS)
• Electronic journal packages (DS)
• Duplication?
• Crossover and maintenance?
Copyright Jonathan Billinger and licensed for reuse
under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA
2.0)

15. Content
Electronic content and management
• Subscribed and non subscribed electronic
content and metadata
• Activation of databases in your discovery
service. Configuration decisions to make.
• Do you include non subscribed resources
or supplementary indexes of content?
• Do you include Open access digital
resources and profile these?
• Knowledge base for print and electronic
journal holdings and for electronic books
• Keeping journal holdings and e-resource
holdings up to date
• Open URL resolver
• Authentication to access resources on and
off campus
• Maintain other lists of e-resources eg A-Z
lists of journals and databases? Or use
services such as Browzine?
Copyright Jonathan Billinger and licensed for reuse
under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA
2.0)

16. Content
Local content pots
• Institutional repository
• CRIS
• Manuscripts
• Special collections
• Rare books
• Image databases
• Museum object databases
• Digital collections
• Reading lists including digitised material
• Harvested resources into the Discovery
service
• Links back to native interfaces
Copyright Jonathan Billinger and licensed for reuse
under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA
2.0)

17. Searching
• Keyword(s) (Catalogue + DS)
• Browse searching (Catalogue
+ DS)
• Browse indexes and displays
(Catalogue + DS)
• Full text searching (DS)
• Pre and post search limiting?
• Anything or something?
• Known item
• FRBR
• Works and editions presented
together?
• Advanced search offered?
Boolean, “starts with”,
combination of fields
Search by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
http://www.thebluediamondgallery.com/wooden-tile/s/search.html

19. Searching
• Large results sets
• Filtering/facets.
Understanding the choices
and what they mean
• Results order and relevance
• Content of brief record
display
• Content and labelling of full
record display
• Dead ends eg from
supplementary indexes
• Which index does the result
come from. Meaningful?
• Understanding the links
offered
Results by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
http://www.picserver.org/r/results.html

20. Metadata
• MARC (Catalogue)
• RDA/AACR (Catalogue)
• Classification schemes
(Catalogue)
• LCSH (Catalogue)
• LC authorities for names and
subjects (Catalogue)
• Familiar standards
• Quality control
• Manageable amount of
content? https://www.flickr.com/photos/planeta/11427773216 Ron Mader Attribution-
ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

21. Metadata
• Metadata from varied sources,
catalogues, local collections,
publisher metadata
• Multiple schemas and
standards. MARC, MARC XML,
Dublin Core, XML, ONIX
• Quality control on records?
• Coverage accuracy of records?
• Metadata is mapped and
harvested
• Is the metadata up to date?
• Flow of data from publishers?
• Real time updating?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/planeta/11427773216 Ron Mader Attribution-
ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

22. Branding/
customisation/added value
• Name of service?
• Institutional branding
• Browse shelf
• Cover art and contents
• Stack maps
Branding by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

23. Customer expectations
• Real time availability?
• Includes items on order?
• Offers requests/recalls/ILL?
• Borrowing record?
• Search history?
• Citations?
• Permalinks?
• Social media features?
• Searches to other services
• Same functionality available in mobile
versions?
Are these services offered directly in the
discovery layer or does a user get redirected to
an online catalogue interface?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mburpee/ Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

24. St Andrews LMS project
• Currently have an Innovative
LMS and Library catalogue
(SAULCAT)
• Currently have an EBSCO
Discovery Service (SEEKER)
• LMS project includes new
system and new user
interface(s)
• Mini tender in 2017
• Awarded to Innovative for a
Sierra LMS and an
EncoreDuet discovery service
• Implementation in 2018

25. St Andrews LMS project
• Sierra offers a Library online
catalogue
• EncoreDuet is the Innovative
Encore discovery interface
which uses an API to connect
to content from the EBSCO
discovery service

26. St Andrews LMS project
• Need for closer integration
between catalogue database
and discovery service
• Removal of need for daily ftp of
updates/data refresh and time
lags in updating
• More customer features in the
discovery interface eg
Requests/availability
• Extra features/real time updating
means we can promote the
discovery interface more
• Meeting user needs in Arts and
Sciences
• Still an emphasis on print in
some disciplines

27. St Andrews LMS project
Including local collections in the discovery
pot with links back to the native databases
Phase 1
• OAI harvesting from St Andrews Digital
Repository (OA full text publications and
theses)
• OAI harvesting from CALM manuscripts
database (metadata records/hierarchies)
• OAI harvesting from KEmu photographic
database (digital images and metadata)
• OAI harvesting from AdLib museums
database digital images and metadata)
• Thumbnails
• Metadata mapping and integration
• User expectations
Phase 2
• OAI harvesting from PURE CRIS
(Publications and research data)

30. St Andrews LMS project
• We can retain a catalogue
with specialist and browse
indexes and searches for our
rare books
• We can retain this as a native
interface to offer specialist
searching
• We can continue to offer
detailed displays of complex
records
• Gives us options
• Buys time until this
functionality is more
integrated into Discovery
interfaces

33. • Single search boxes and keywords
will get you so far…
• You have to meet the needs of a
variety of users for simple and
complex searches
• The user may need to do some
work and make an effort to refine
their search and results
• The user may need some
professional help
• Metadata standards and quality
will always be valuable, especially
when large aggregations of varied
content are part of the service
Discovery by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 ImageCreator
Are discovery services turning into catalogues?
Are catalogues turning into discovery services?
Does it matter as long the result is one sophisticated and
flexible discovery layer to lead to all the right stuff?

34. Janet Aucock
ja@st-andrews.ac.uk
https://www.st-
andrews.ac.uk/library/
Discovery by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 ImageCreator