Discovery Services for Libraries

1. Marshall Breeding Independent Consult, Author, Founder and Publisher, Library Technology Guides http://www.librarytechnology.org/ http://twitter.com/mbreeding Discovery Services for Libraries October 28, 2013 Internet Librarian 2013

2. Summary • The realm of technologies helping libraries provide access to their collections and services through their web presence continues to evolve and innovate. Index-based, or “web-scale” discovery services have become a mainstay in academic libraries in helping their users find the materials they need among the vast resources available to them. Socially oriented discovery interfaces and portal products help public and other libraries bring together a variety of service and content offerings. Breeding gives an update on the realm of these public-facing technology products and services and takes a look into the trends going forward.

3. Discovery Resources

4. Discovery on LTG http://www.librarytechnology.org/discovery.pl

5. The Evolution of Library Resource Discovery

6. Discovery in ARL Libraries http://www.librarytechnology.org/arl-discovery.pl

7. ILS Data Online Catalog Search: Scope of Search • Books, Journals, and Media at the Title Level • Not in scope: • Articles • Book Chapters • Digital objects Search Results

8. Next-gen Catalogs or Discovery Interface • Single search box • Query tools • Did you mean • Type-ahead • Relevance ranked results • Faceted navigation • Enhanced visual displays • Cover art • Summaries, reviews, • Recommendation services • Scope of Search • Books, Journals, and Media at the Title Level • Other local and open access content • Not in scope: • Articles • Book Chapters • Digital objects

9. Discovery Interface search model ILS Data Digital Collections Search: Local Index ProQuest Search Results EBSCOhost MetaSearch Engine … MLA Bibliography ABC-CLIO Real-time query and responses

10. Discovery from Local to Web-scale • Initial products focused on interface improvements • AquaBrowser, Endeca,Primo, Encore, VuFind, • Civica Sorcer, Axiell Arena • Mostly locally-installed software • Current phase is focused on pre-populated indexes that aim to deliver Web-scale discovery • Primo Central (Ex Libris) • Summon (Serials Solutions) • WorldCat Local (OCLC) • EBSCO Discovery Service (EBSCO) • Encore ES (+EDS Index)

11. Public Library Information Portal ILS Data Digital Collections Search: Web Site Content CommunityInformation Aggregated Content packages Search Results Consolidated Index … Customer-providedcontent Reference Sources CustomerProfile Usage-generatedData Archives Pre-built harvesting and indexing

12. Discovery services as Website Replacement Portal environment that includes customized content management service that can fulfill typical offerings on library Web sites Full integration between Web site and resource discovery (ideally) Examples: Axiell Arena Infor Iguana

13. Web-scale Index-based Discovery ILS Data (2009- present) Digital Collections Search: Web Site Content Institutional Repositories Aggregated Content packages Search Results Consolidated Index Open Access … E-Journals CustomerProfile Usage-generatedData Reference Sources Pre-built harvesting and indexing

14. Web-scale Search Problem ILS Data Digital Collections Search: Web Site Content Institutional Repositories Consolidated Index Aggregated Content packages Search Results … E-Journals Pre-built harvesting and indexing ??? Non Participating Content Sources Problem in how to deal with resources not provided to ingest into consolidated index

15. Expanding the Depth of Discovery

16. Citations / Metadata > Full Text • Citations or structured metadata provide key data to power search & retrieval and faceted navigation • Indexing Full-text of content amplifies access • Important to understand depth indexing • Currency, dates covered, full-text or citation • Many other factors

17. Full-text Book indexing • HathiTrust: 11 million volumes, 5.3 million titles, 263,000 serial titles, 3.5 billion pages • HathiTrust in Discovery Indexes • Primo Central (Jan 20, 2012) [previously indexed only metadata] • EBSCO Discovery Service (Sept 8 2011) • WorldCat Local (Sept 7, 2011) • Summon (Mar 28, 2011)

18. Challenge for Relevancy • Technically feasible to index hundreds of millions or billions of records through Lucene or SOLR • Difficult to order records in ways that make sense • Many fairly equivalent candidates returned for any given query • Must rely on use-based and social factors to improve relevancy rankings • Objectivity: Does relevancy reflect bias or publisher preferences

19. Challenges for Collection Coverage • To work effectively, discovery services need to cover comprehensively the body of content represented in library collections • What about publishers that do not participate? • Is content indexed at the citation or full-text level? • What are the restrictions for non-authenticated users? • How can libraries understand the differences in coverage among competing services?

20. Evaluating the Coverage of Index-based Discovery Services • Intense competition: how well the index covers the body of scholarly content stands as a key differentiator • Difficult to evaluate based on numbers of items indexed alone. • Important to ascertain now your library’s content packages are represented by the discovery service. • Important to know what items are indexed by citation and which are full text • Important to know whether the discovery service favors the content of any given publisher

21. Non-Cooperative Scenarios • Two major players are both publishers and discovery service providers • EBSCO – ProQuest • ProQuest does not provide content to other discovery services • EBSCO does not provide content to other discovery services • Issue currently being pressed by Orbis Cascade Alliance.

22. Open Discovery Initiative • NISO Work Group to Develop Standards and Recommended Practices for Library Discovery Services Based on Indexed Search • Informal meeting called at ALA Annual 2011 • Co-Chaired by Marshall Breeding and Jenny Walker • Term: Dec 2011 – Dec 2013 http://www.niso.org/workrooms/odi/

23. Balance of Constituents Marshall Breeding, Vanderbilt UniversityJamene Brooks-Kieffer, Kansas State University Laura Morse, Harvard University Ken Varnum, University of Michigan Sara Brownmiller, University of Oregon Lucy Harrison, College Center for Library Automation (D2D liaison/observer) Michele Newberry Lettie Conrad, SAGE PublicationsRoger Schonfeld, ITHAKA/JSTOR/PorticoJeff Lang, Thomson Reuters Linda Beebe, American Psychological AssocAaron Wood, Alexander Street Press Jenny Walker, Ex Libris GroupJohn Law, Serials SolutionsMichael Gorrell, EBSCO Information Services David Lindahl, University of Rochester (XC) Jeff Penka, OCLC (D2D liaison/observer)

24. ODI Project Goals: • Identify … needs and requirements of the three stakeholder groups in this area of work. • Create recommendations and tools to streamline the process by which information providers, discovery service providers, and librarians work together to better serve libraries and their users. • Provide effective means for librarians to assess the level of participation by information providers in discovery services, to evaluate the breadth and depth of content indexed and the degree to which this content is made available to the user.

25. ODI Timeline

26. Social Discovery

27. A more social user experience • Ratings, rankings, reviews • Enhanced content • Connections with the library • Connections with other users • Challenge: Must have critical mass of engagement to have an impact

28. Social Strategies • Inherent • BiblioCommons: design and infrastructure created with social flavor and features • Layered or integrated • ChiliFresh: integrate a third party social platform into any given library catalog or discovery service

29. Socially-powered discovery • Leverage use data to increase effectiveness of discovery • Usage data can identify important or popular materials to inform relevancy engines • Identify related materials that may not otherwise be uncovered through keyword matching • Be careful to avoid introducing bias loops

30. E-Book Integration

31. Critical concern for public libraries • Most libraries offer e-book lending programs • Strong demand: increasing use statistics • Print lending remains vigorous

32. Commercial library e-book lending services • OverDrive • 3M Cloud Library • Baker & Taylor: Axis 360 • “Douglas County Model” • Locally curated e-book collections and lending platform

33. E-book Lending Models • Phase I: Link out to e-book lending service • Phase II: Load MARC records in local catalog, then link out on individual titles • Phase III: Discovery and lending operations performed fully within the library’s catalog or discovery environment

34. Full e-book lending • Discovery of print and e-book titles and copies simultaneously • E-book transactions represented within patron’s library account • List of charged items, due dates • Service options: renew, return, etc. • Ability to check-out and download e-books into e-reader

35. Library Interfaces with e-book Integration • Polaris PowerPAC • BiblioCommons • SirsiDynix eResource Central • Innovative Interfaces: Encore ES • TLC: LS2 PAC • OdiloTK from OdiloTID

36. The e-book integration ecosystem • E-book lending services must expose APIs • Online catalog or discovery services must consume APIs and adjust interface design and business logic to accommodate discovery and lending operations • Challenge: each e-book service provider’s APIs are different • Response: Work toward consistent or standard suite of APIs

37. Library Technology Reports • The Current State of Library Resource Discovery Products: Context, Library Perspectives, and Vendor Positions • In press for Publication January 2014

38. LTR Components • Vender questionnaire • Library Survey • Industry announcements • Other articles and publications

39. Library Discovery Survey • Survey executed to gather data from libraries regarding their experiences with discovery services • Responses received by 396 Libraries: • 29 Countries represented, 252 responses from United States

40. Overall Satisfaction

41. Overall Effectiveness

42. Comprehensiveness: Academic Libraries

43. Relevancy Effectiveness

44. Objectivity in Discovery

45. Objectivity in Discovery: Academics

46. Example Product rating chart

47. Discovery Trends

48. Discovery Service Installations

49. Trend Tendency toward re-alignment with management systems • Alma + Primo / Primo Central • Sierra + Encore • WorldCat Local + WorldShare Management Services • Intota + Summon

50. Counter trend Many libraries continue separate discovery strategies • Open source discovery + licensed Web-scale index • EBSCO Discovery Service: strategy to integrate with any back-end ILS or LSP