Shi Weihua(史卫华)- Head of Librarian’s Office, Fudan University Library
The tools for research in libraries have changed dramatically in the last decades- from card catalogs, to building databases, to online searching, then onto products like federated searching. The next step in this evolution is being called “discovery service.” A Discovery Service is a search interface for pre-indexed meta-data and full text documents. It is different from a federated (or integrated search) in that it does not do a search from live sources, so it is much faster. Discover y services usually have faceted searching capabilities, making it is easier to narrow results. The emerging discovery tools include commercial products such as Summon service from Serials Solutions, Ebsco’s Discovery Solution, Primo from Exlibris and WorldCAT Local from OCLC. Open source solutions are also being developed, including Blacklight which University of Virginia developed, and is built on “Ruby on Rails” programming framework. Some American European Libraries have started to use these new discovery tools. Others, such as Appalachian State University’s Belk Library, are investigating the marketplace and evaluating choices. Choosing and implementing a user-friendly yet effective library research tool requires research and evaluation. The proposed paper will give an overview of the current market place, presenting usability testing has been done with these products, exploring criteria to choose. Authors wish to assist libraries to make a wise choice in selecting discovery services for their best services.
Presentation [PPTX]