Academic Libraries and Discovery Tools: A Survey of the Literature

Abstract

Discovery tools are becoming increasingly popular in academic libraries, yet there is little information available concerning the tools used regarding their implementation, maintenance, and evaluation, or the tools' effects on public service librarians. Key questions considered through a literature review include the most common tools used, how their effectiveness is evaluated, and user satisfaction data. Readers will learn how public service librarians are involved in discovery tool processes; the usability of discovery tools; and how to incorporate discovery tools into information literacy endeavors.

Still Desperately Seeking Citations: Undergraduate Research in the Age of Web-Scale Discovery

“…Unfortunately, federated search products largely disappointed librarians and users. They were difficult to customize and cumbersome to use, provided incomplete coverage, were slow to provide results, and suffered from frequent timeouts (Xu, 2009;Fagan, 2011a;Thomsett-Scott & Reese, 2012;Lown et al 2013). Although popular with some students (Williams et al 2009), many librarians expressed concerns that federated searching would "dumb down" search skills (e.g.…”

Collaborative Information Seeking with Ant Colony Ranking in Real-Time

“…Here the problem of information overload if faced from a personalization perspective, without exploiting users' collective behaviour: they focus on personalizing search engines' results rather than improving their performances. LIS research community shares the same critical approach [20]. Therefore, it must be held in due consideration, looking for a synergic cooperation [17].…”

Applying Hierarchical Task Analysis Method to Discovery Layer Evaluation

“…While popular in application, the discussion about discovery layer implementation and evaluation remains limited. [1] [2] A majority of reported case studies discussing discovery layer implementations are based on informal usability tests that involve a small sample of users in a specific context. The resulting data sets are often incomplete and the scenarios are hard to generalize.…”

“…For more than 40 years, HTA has been the primary methodology to study systems' sub--goal hierarchies for it presents the opportunity to provide insights into key workflow issues. With expertise in applying HTA and being frequent users of the Purdue University Libraries website for personal academic needs, we mapped user tasks into several flow charts based on three task scenarios: (1) finding an article, (2) finding a book, and (3) finding an eBook. Jackob Nielsen's "Goal Composition" heuristics: generalization, integration and user control mechanisms [6] were used as an analytical framework to evaluate the user experience of an Ex Libris Primo® discovery layer implemented at Purdue University Libraries.…”