The ALCTS Continuing Resources Section, Electronic Resources Interest Group (ERIG) invites you to join us on Saturday, June 25th 2011 from 10:30 a.m. – noon in Room 397 of the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA.
Kate Montgomery, Electronic Resources Librarian, Tulane University, “What a Difference a Year Makes”
Post-Katrina, many of Tulane’s lost collections were replaced with online versions. The result was that Tulane has built an online collection which includes many esoteric and specialized electronic resources which are more challenging for our patrons to discover than standard aggregator fare. To improve access, we started with implementing a federated search product in 2008, which did improve the “findability” of our resources by including database search features in addition to federated searching, but which also has several limitations. Thus in the spring of 2010 a taskforce was formed to review web-scale discovery products. After reviewing three products over the course of the summer, the taskforce decided that none of the then-current products covered enough of our resources nor did they suit enough of our needs at that time to justify a purchase.
One year after the first go-around and our taskforce and our library both have a better idea of what we are looking for in a web-scale discovery product. In addition, the products themselves have improved in several important ways, not limited to much larger central indices.
The presentation will cover changes in our product analysis and evaluation methodology, improvements including new features and functionality that makes web-scale discovery a more viable option for us, and our final selection process.
Jesse Koennecke, Electronic Resources Librarian, Cornell University Library, “Bringing it all Together: Discovery Service as a Part of the Whole”
Cornell University is nearing the conclusion of a process to envision our library’s future online presence and select a discovery service that will be a core part of the bigger picture of information access for our users. By the end of May, we should have made a decision and be in the process of implementing our choice. Our “finished” product will likely use a discovery system as a core piece in an overall discovery environment that breaks down silos and provides users with access to not only to articles and books, but to resources such as experts in the field, dynamically curated resource lists, and the relevant services that they need. I will present on the process our Discovery & Access team, including several e-resource staff, has been going through to develop a vision, architecture, and planning for the future of our information discovery at Cornell and how a discovery services fits into this. In addition, I will discuss how we plan to continue the maintenance of this overall system as new products and new types of information are integrated into it. This has implications for many staff throughout the library, especially in the e-resources area, as we determine where we feel we need to put our best efforts to maximizes the value of the end-product for our users.
Stefanie Buck, Instructional Design/Ecampus Librarian, Oregon State University Libraries, “Implementing and Managing Web-scale Discovery Systems”
Oregon State University selected Serial Solutions’ Summon product as our web-based discovery system in 2009. One of the unique aspects of our implementation of Summon has been the integration of the consortial catalog, Summit. The consortial catalog gives our users access to the combined catalogs of 30+ academic libraries in Washington and Oregon and is a vital resource. Currently linked from within our library catalog, our users are used to streamlined access to Summit. When OSU selected Summon for our web scale discovery service, integrated access to the Summit catalog was a requirement. We will provide some background on the integration of the consortial catalog into Summon as well as report on some usability testing we have done to see how well the integration has worked and what our future plans are.
Mike Buschman, Director, Product Management, Summon™ Web Scale Discovery Service and Wendy Zieger, Bridgeman Education, Account Executive for North & South America, “What’s going on behind the curtain? Learn what it takes to get content discoverable.”
- What goes on between a content provider and a discovery service?
- What’s in it for the content providers (in this case, Bridgeman Education, a subscription image database)?
- How does data get transferred and indexed?
- How does content get mapped to allow for web-scale discovery?
- How do you decide what gets displayed?
- What are the complexities (such as copyright concerns, contractual obligations, etc.) for a content source like Bridgeman Education being indexed by a discovery service like Summon?
- How do you measure success?
These presentations will be followed by panelist/audience discussion.
Christine Turner
Chair, ALCTS CRS ERIG
cturner@library.umass.edu
Liz Babbitt
Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, ALCTS CRS ERIG
elizabeth.babbitt@montana.edu