Using Drupal

Libraries today face an increasing challenge: to provide relevant information to diverse populations with differing needs while competing with Web search engines like Google. In 2009, a large group of libraries, including the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, joined with Innovative Interfaces as development partners to design a new type of discovery tool. The concept of information portals best supports the research and instructional needs of our communities by organizing and presenting information that incorporates licensed databases, text, multimedia, and other relevant sources. The discovery tool under examination by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Encore integrates searches of the catalog, locally created full-text and image sources, and articles from licensed databases with navigation options that facilitate narrowing and expanding search results. This information portal development is an ongoing process with the goal of providing a tool that is as easy to use as Web search engines and that preserves the quality that library users expect. This article explores the requirements for an information portal and describes the challenges University of Nebraska-Lincoln faced when implementing Encore. Statistics from the initial implementation are presented, along with recommendations for future usability studies to evaluate where additional improvements should be made.     

Discovery Products and the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting

Discovery products promise to offer library patrons one-stop shopping for library resources. In order to accomplish this, they harvest metadata from various library databases and repositories such as integrated library systems, institutional repositories, and digital libraries. Discovery products then index this metadata along with the metadata for resources from the discovery service into a single product for search. The most common method used to harvest local metadata is the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). This column first looks at discovery, then it describes OAI-PMH and some of the issues involved with effectively harvesting library metadata.     

On Beyond E-journals: Integrating E-books,Streaming Video,and Digital Collections at the HELIN Library Consortium

With trends in collection development moving toward digital, streaming resources, and acquiring sets of materials, the Higher Education Library Information Network (HELIN) Consortium pulled together cataloging, acquisitions, and licensing information through a discovery platform. The discovery layer, in this case Innovative Interface's Encore, harvests disparate collections and enables the library user to easily refine her search through facets. Rice Sanders described the HELIN Consortium's Encore implementation and experiences, while McQuillan highlighted the West Bloomfield Township Public Library use of the Encore platform and other products.     

Discovery systems: Are they now the library?

Key points

• Library discovery systems have become successfully embedded in many academic and specialist libraries.
• Such systems require excellent metadata to ensure discoverability of content and increasingly publishers are charged with delivering that.
• Libraries’ traditional role in organizing their collections for effective discovery is being usurped by these outsourced systems.

     

Academic Libraries as Digital Gateways: Linking Students to the Burgeoning Wealth of Open Online Collections

ABSTRACT

Digital collections of full-text e-books are proliferating on the Web and provide a wealth of open content for students. To examine whether academic libraries are providing a digital gateway to these resources, ten e-book titles from open digital collections were searched in the online catalogs and Web pages of ten academic libraries serving distance learners. Only three of the digital collection e-books were available from any of the library catalogs, and none were found on library Web pages. Availability of the ten e-book titles through Google and other digital discovery tools also had mixed results. Continued projects for improved delivery of open online content are necessary. In order to fulfill their role as digital gateways for their academic communities, libraries must pursue metadata standards to support cross-searching, collaborative projects, and development of e-resource search software, which integrates with the library catalog.     

Managing Content in EBSCO Discovery Service: Action Guide for Surviving and Thriving

ABSTRACT

Since Idaho State University Libraries’ implementation and promotion of EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) in 2014, its electronic resources team continues to troubleshoot seamless content discovery for library patrons. But nothing prepared us for the kind of content issues the Library would have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. This report discusses ways of managing content in EDS to improve discovery of resources, including linking issues to ClinicalKey records and dealing with “bound with” local catalog records. It also addresses obstacles and solutions, as well as the authors’ experience working with EBSCO Support.     

A Review of "Using Tablets and Apps in Libraries"

Abstract

Academic libraries have increasingly adopted web-scale discovery tools in order to meet the expectations of students who want immediate results, efficient algorithms, and a single search box. As they have become the de facto search tool at many libraries, librarians and patrons alike have been forced to confront the way they think about research processes and in some cases, modulate ingrained habits. In this article, the authors explore student perceptions of efficacy, relevancy, and ease of use of a library discovery tool through a 2017 mixed-methods user experience study conducted at three City University of New York (CUNY) campuses. The results from this user study will be useful to other institutions that already have implemented discovery layers within their library and help inform website design, discovery layer design, and pedagogy. By combining student interviews with a task analysis, the authors were able to learn more about student search behaviors, how they respond to challenges, and what they expect from search tools. Identifying these barriers to student use of the Primo discovery tool has helped us articulate best practices for instruction and interface customization that may address these barriers and has illuminated implications for website integration.     

Choosing Discovery: A Literature Review on the Selection and Evaluation of Discovery Layers

Within the next few years, traditional online public access catalogs will be replaced by more robust and interconnected discovery layers that can serve as primary public interfaces to simultaneously search many separate collections of resources. Librarians have envisioned this type of discovery tool since the 1980s, and research shows that discovery layer functionality and features have already resolved, or will soon remedy, many of the known issues with the traditional online public access catalog. The authors of this article review the literature on discovery, focusing on the evolution from the traditional online public access catalog to newer discovery interfaces, and summarize what has been published regarding the selection and evaluation of these new tools. Based on this review, emerging trends in the acquisition of discovery layers are described, including: the amount of time libraries devote to selection and evaluation, the staff involved and their areas of expertise, which discovery tools were selected to review, the evaluation methods used, and the features and functionality evaluated. The authors conclude with a discussion of the opportunities and concerns for libraries and their patrons related to discovery efforts, and provide direction for future research. While discovery layers are still developing, they show great promise in increasing the use and usability of library resources.     

The Use of Standard Selection Sources in Undergraduate Library Collection Development

The maximum use of "Books for College Libraries, Opening Day Collection," and "Choice" as book selection sources for undergraduate libraries was measured by a sampling method. A composite test sample of 600 titles was assembled from these sources and compared with the holdings of the USC, UCLA, and Stanford University undergraduate libraries. The low matching rates that were found suggest that undergraduate libraries acquire relatively few titles from these sources. Statistical treatment of the data showed the libraries to be slow in acquiring recent titles. The significance of this work lies not so much in what was learned about undergraduate libraries, but in what can be learned about the use and value of selection tools using the same approach with other types of collections. The present approach bears a resemblance to methods that have been used previously in collection evaluation, overlap studies, and the like.     

Examining Massive Digital Libraries (MDLs) and Their Impact on Reference Services

Massive Digital Libraries such as Google Books and the HathiTrust can provide libraries with virtual ready-reference collections that match the scope of print collections. Their impact reaches into the tens of millions of public domain and copyrighted titles. Yet, problems persist with these digitized book collections. This article examines some of the flaws and unintended consequences of relying on Massive Digital Libraries at the expense of local print collections. Such problems include lack of metadata accuracy, poorly implemented optical character recognition, lack of quality control in the mass-digitization process, the problem of linguistic representation, and the lack of subject diversity in the source collections.     

Assessment of Social Media in the Library: Guidelines for Administrators

Libraries have always tried to identify the places their patrons visit and the tools they use to make sure they are fully serving these patrons. Since a high percentage of adults in the United States use some form of social media, libraries should be visible there too. This column offers guidelines and advice for implementing social media in the academic library in two areas: marketing and instruction. The guidelines will help library administrators plan, implement and assess social media campaigns in both areas and will ensure that valuable time and resources are not wasted.     

Syndicating Rich Bibliographic Metadata Using MODS and RSS

Abstract

Many libraries use RSS to syndicate information about their collections to users. A survey of 65 academic libraries revealed their most common use for RSS is to disseminate information about library holdings, such as lists of new acquisitions. Even though typical RSS feeds are ill suited to the task of carrying rich bibliographic metadata, great potential exists for developing applications that can exploit metadata exposed to Web services via RSS. Using the MODS metadata format, entire catalog records can be seamlessly embedded in RSS 2.0 feeds. Existing tools, such as Library of Congress Java toolkits and XSLT stylesheets, can facilitate this process, while a new XSLT stylesheet may be used to create the RSS feeds complete with MODS records. As an example of the added functionality these MODS/RSS feeds can offer, records from a MODS-enriched RSS feed can be ingested into a non-RSS application such as Zotero. As more emerging library technologies use Web services architectures to handle data objects, the ability to syndicate catalog records will become more critical to providing innovative library Web services.     

Managing Bibliographic Data Quality in a Consortial Academic Library: A Case Study

This article presents a case study of quality management for print and electronic resource metadata, summarizing problems and solutions encountered by the Cataloging and Discovery Services Department in the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. The authors discuss national, state, and local standards for cataloging, automated and manual record enhancements for data, user feedback, and statewide consortial factors. Findings show that adherence to standards, proactive cleanup of data via manual processes and automated tools, collaboration with vendors and stakeholders, and continual assessment of workflows are key to the management of biblio-graphic data quality in consortial academic libraries.     

What Does it Take to Make Discovery a Success?: A Survey of Discovery Tool Adoption,Instruction, and Evaluation Among Academic Libraries

Discovery tools have been widely adopted by academic libraries, yet little information exists that connects common practices regarding discovery tool implementation, maintenance, assessment, and staffing with conventions for research and instruction. The authors surveyed heads of reference and instruction departments in research and land-grant university libraries. The survey results revealed common practices with discovery tools among academic libraries. This study also draws connections between operational, instructional, and assessment practices and perceptions that participants have of the success of their discovery tool. Participants who indicated successful implementation of their discovery tool hailed from institutions that made significant commitments to the operations, maintenance, and acceptance of their discovery tool. Participants who indicated an unsuccessful implementation, or who were unsure about the success of their implementation, did not make lasting commitments to the technical maintenance, operations, and acceptance of their discovery tool.     

Research Collaborations Between Public and Academic Libraries

Web-scale discovery systems are gaining momentum among academic libraries as libraries seek a means to provide their users with a one-stop searching experience. Illinois State University's Milner Library found itself in the unique position of having access to two distinct discovery products, EBSCO Discovery Service and Serials Solutions’ Summon. Two researchers at Milner conducted a usability study for the former product in 2010, and now two other researchers, including one involved with the EBSCO Discovery Service study, have conducted the same study on the latter product. The goals of the study were twofold: first, to identify user behavior while using discovery systems’ search features and to see whether using these features would improve the user's searching experience, and second, to compare user experiences with EBSCO Discovery Service and Summon at Illinois State University. The similarities and differences in user expectations, use, manipulation, and satisfaction with both discovery tools are explored in this article, with the ancillary hope that libraries investigating discovery tools might be able to make a more thoroughly informed choice in acquiring their own Web-scale discovery system.     

高校图书馆电子书的发现与获取机制研究

高校图书馆OPAC系统对电子书的整合为编目工作带来了一系列挑战,包括有限的可用的记录、缺乏标准化、难以管理添加和删除电子书问题、供应商提供的低质量数据。图书馆使用资源发现系统面临的困难包括电子资源的不完全覆盖,依赖其他来源的元数据、访客用户访问存在障碍、依赖电子书供应商平台获取全文。对于所存在的问题,电子书数据库、资源发现系统开发商应进一步完善其系统功能,电子书元数据制作的标准化问题也应引起关注。     

Article Delivery Services at Penn State and Partner Libraries in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation Consortium

To meet rising patron expectations and to promote library collections and services, libraries are contemplating or implementing article delivery services to same-campus patrons from journal articles held locally. This article describes The Pennsylvania State University Libraries’ electronic delivery of articles from in-house print collections. It also summarizes a survey of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation interlibrary loan directors about the article delivery services at their institutions.