Implementing web scale discovery services: special reference to Indian Libraries’ context

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281814697
Implementing Web Scale Discovery Services:
special reference to Indian Libraries’ context
CHAPTER · JANUARY 2015
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2411.8245
READS
18
1 AUTHOR:
Nikesh Narayanan
Khalifa University of Science Technology & …
5 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Available from: Nikesh Narayanan
Retrieved on: 16 March 2016

Implementing Web Scale Discovery Services: special reference to
Indian Libraries’ context
Author: Nikesh Narayanan (M.Tech, MLIS, M.Com)
Affiliation: e-System Librarian
Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Email :nikeshn@gmail.com
Abstract
Web scale Discovery services arebecoming the widely adopted Information
Retrieval solution in libraries across the world to connect its patrons with the
relevant information they seek. In lieu with the world trend, Resources Discovery
Solution implementation is gathering momentum in Indian libraries also.
Considering the Indian Libraries scenario, this paper attempts to provide an
overview of Library Web Scale Discovery solutions, its need in Indian Libraries,
important parameters to be considered for evaluation of Discovery Services,
essential factors to be considered prior to implementation, stages of
implementation and finally some thoughts on post implementation analysis for
measuring the success.
1.0Introduction
Web-scale Discovery Services are becoming an integral part of libraries' information
gathering armoury. These services are able to use a single interface to seamlessly integrate
results from a wide range of online sources, emulating a Google like search experience to
the users. Web Scale Discovery solution is getting wide acceptance from library community
which is evident from the fact that many libraries are replacing their Federated Search
Solutions of the past decade and adopting this state-of-the-art technology. In lieu with the
world trend, Resources Discovery Solution implementation is gathering momentum in
Indian libraries also. As an evolving technology, Discovery services pitch wide set of
challenges for Libraries.Web Scale Discovery implementation is really creating an
information system that integrates nearly all Library content to a single platform.
Information professionals are the coordinators of all these process and it is essential that
they should have a good understanding about the concepts of Web Scale Discovery solution,
its technology, major players and evaluation parameters of selecting a discovery service, its
implementation procedures and post implementation maintenance etc.

2.0What is Web scale Discovery?
Web scale discovery services are those integrated web based services with major potential
to transform the nature of library systems. These services are offered as cloud computing
model and have the capacity to more easily connect researchers with the library's vast
information repository including remotely hosted resources and local content. It provides a
unified platform for library users to access and search from all the library resources to get
single set of results by providing a Google like experience with the following basic features.
• Unified platform to search all the resources including licensed, open and local
collections
• Pre-harvested central index of metadata
• Google like single search box
• Single results list for all collections
• Relevancy ranking across entire results
• Full featured user interface
• Facets and tools for narrowing results
• Holdings and status information for library catalogue items
• Connections to full text
• Infrastructure, processing and indexing provided and maintained remotely by the
vendor.
3.0Need & Scope
Discovery Solutions are really a great tool that help libraries in theirstriveto bring back their
users, many of whom rely heavily on Google for their research, by providing “one-stop”
access toLibrary’s subscribed resources. Libraries have to take a wise decision in adopting
this solution after considering the range of resources they subscribe,possible impact on
users and the cost factor.
In Indian context, big library systems like University Libraries, IIMs, IITs, AIIMS etc subscribe
lots of resources like electronic journals, electronic books, and databases and their own
digital repositories and OPACs and many of them are part of different consortiums. Libraries
similar to this array are the potential needers for Discovery Solution. Here, in one sense,
users are in a very advantageous position regarding access of resources but often in the
confusion, from where to start and which resource to be used to get their information. This
force users to depend on Google like search engines to get their information. Many studies
show that many of the resources are under utilized due to lack of information to users
regarding the availability of such resources in library. Web Scale discovery solutions
eliminate this confusion and provide Single Search Box environment to users to retrieve all
the relevant information from multiple sources that are subscribed by the Library.It also
provides fair opportunity to all the resources to get retrieved and utilized. Many cost benefit
analysis studies have reported that resources usages have been increased by many folds

after implementation of Discovery service and thus substantiate the cost effectiveness of
the system. In case of Research Libraries, even through their user base is less compared to
University and other big Library systems, Discovery solution can make a difference in
reducing the valuable search time of researchers and also better chance in utilizing the near
optimal utilization of Library subscribed resources. Indian Institute of Spices Research,
Kozhikode is one of the best examples for Research Libraries in Indiawho adopted Discovery
Solution. They have only around hundred FTE., still they subscribed EBSCO Discovery Service in
the year 2012,considering the value to researchers and retain the subscription for the third
consecutive year.
4.0Components of Web Scale Discovery Service
Web Scale Discovery service constitutes two important components. Content or resources
coverage is the prime factor and the second component is appropriate technologies to make
available the relevant information to the library users from available content. This include
technologies that facilitate to harvest, index, search and retrieve the content and user
interface platform features to provide a user friendly environment to users.
Quality of Web scale discovery services depends on the comprehensiveness of content that
gets indexed, efficiency of metadata harvesting system and the speed of processing and
delivering the requested data over web interface in response to user’s request.[1]
4.1 Content
Normally, a Web Scale Discovery system covers all informative contents that scholarly users
are interested. Web scale discovery services are able to index a variety of content, whether
hosted locally or remotely. Local content can include library ILS records, digital collections,
institutional repository content, and content from locally developed and hosted databases.
In addition, Web scale discovery services pre-index remotely hosted content, whether
purchased or licensed by the library. This latter set of contents – hundreds of millions of
items – can include items such as e-books, publisher or aggregator content for tens of
thousands of full text journals, content from abstracting and indexing databases, and
materials hosted in open access repositories. It may consist of free resources or of
commercial publishers. Free content may include institutional archives of universities,
research organizations etc and also from Open archives journals and publications.
Harvesting of free content and creating its indexes can be made available with the
appropriate technology but the distinction lies in the coverage of commercial contents. As
content coverage is the most important parameter in deciding the quality of the discovery
system, the comprehensiveness of commercial content is a decisive factor. Commercial Web
scale discovery vendors have brokered agreements with content providers (publishers,
aggregators), allowing them to pre-index item metadata and /or full text content (unlike the
traditional federated search model). This approach lends itself to extremely rapid search

and return of results ranked by relevancy, which can then be sorted in various ways
according to the researcher’s whims (publication date, item type, full text only, etc.)2
.
Different publishers are practicing different policies in providing full text content to Web
Scale Discovery providers. In many cases, the publishers are providing the full text content
for indexing purposes. Some publishers are providing their metadata only for indexing
purpose. Vendors can develop multiple content streams for the same, finite content. For
any given article, there are lots of potential sources for that exact article, not just the
original primary publisher. It depends on service provider’s policy to identify the apt sources
to be indexed in the system.
4.2 Technology
Web Scale Discovery systems make use of mash-ups of many technologies and tools to
harvest, index, store, search, and retrieve the content in response to user queries through a
unified web interface. The following are the core technology elements.
4.2.1 Harvester
Harvester is one of the most important tools to bring the content to the central index of the
system. Each vendor has agreements with several content suppliers from whom they
harvest materials. In addition, they harvest locally held material such as existing library
catalogues and institutional repositories within the library using protocols such as OAI-PMH
and FTP. Automated transfer routines, load tables, and indexing steps are in place to add
newly published content and to keep the index up to date.
4.2.2 Metadata mapping
Metadata coverage and its mapping is a very important factor in deciding the quality of the
system. Some providers cover only “thin metadata” with few record fields, perhaps a table
of contents—and some other cover “thick metadata”—covering more fields, including
additional abstracting and indexing by dedicated staff, or includes author-supplied subject
headings and abstracts. One vendor (EBSCO) is providing access to complete and
comprehensive metadata from well established content databases through platform
blending.
Platform blending: Platform blending is the technology to infuse results from important
subject indexes into the discovery experience for users. This integration is really useful for
users to get the benefit of thick quality metadata done by special subject experts of such
indexing/abstracting databases.
Metadata standards used in various resources may differ and thus make it necessary for
Web scale discovery systems to normalize the harvested metadata in to a common Schema
or record type. Also metadata for the same item may be received from multiple content
providers such as the original publisher, aggregators etc, have to be joined through common

match points and, through normalization and de-duplication processes to make it rich, and
accurate, highly discoverable and relevant record.
4.2.3 Central Index
The normalized, de-duplicated metadata is aggregated in a huge central index database. The
processed index is hosted in a cloud environment maintained by the service provider against
which searches are performed in response to user queries. Web Scale Discovery systems
utilize automated processes that allow new content to be added and indexed quickly.
Different content providers provide new content on a variable basis, and content is indexed
and included in the index on a schedule appropriate to the content, which, for example,
may be daily for newspaper content and monthly for a monthly journal. The central index
continues to grow when new items are getting published by existing content providers and
agreement with news content providers.
4.2.4 Link Resolvers
Web Scale Discovery service makes use of OpenURL-compliant Link resolver software to
work with the vast majority of information resources in the market today. It works in
connecting the full text and objects associated with library’s subscriptions and local
repositories to provide direct access. Web Scale Discovery service providers make
agreements with content providers to collaborate as targets to provide full text access to
users based on their subscription.
4.2.5 Relevancy Algorithms
Relevance ranking in web scale discovery systems is an attempt to measure how closely a
document or entry fits possible search terms. Search tools that display results in a relevance
ranking order place their “best match,” an entry with the highest relevance ranking on the
top of the list, instead of using an alphabetical, date modified, or other more concrete
sorting method. Each vendor has developed its own proprietary relevancy algorithms.
However, no system will ever be perfect for all searches by all users. Some services allow
the local library to influence the algorithm or otherwise promote or boost items within
search results, and, depending on the service, this boost may be at the item level, collection
level, or database level. Some vendors may place greater emphasis on currency, some on
full text, and some on subject headings. Depends on the relevancy algorithms, search results
may be different.
4.2.6 Interface
User interface is the front end of the Web scale Discovery service. Interface is often hosted
by the vendor, but some systems allow for local hosting of the interface, but the content
index is always remotely hosted in the cloud. Users can search the index and get results
though the web interface. Vendors are providing various advanced features and
functionalities and often include the following;

 A single search box (but with a link to advanced search modes)
 Faceted searching
 Each platform offers a modern interface with design elements expected by today’s
students.
 Faceted navigation (subject, content type, publication date range, etc.) to help users drill
down a large set of results
 Inclusion of enriched content such as book cover images
 Shopping carts to easily mark items and later export the materials (email, print, save)
 Social networking tools, etc.
 Web 2.0 features
 Ajax features to update data without re-loading the whole page, but only the relevant
content.
 “Did you mean?” spell checkers
 User configurable RSS feeds to easily re-run searches later
5.0Major players
There are both commercial and Open Source alternatives available in the Web scale
discovery market. The major handicap of Open Source options are of the difficulties in
harvesting journal article metadata. It is very difficult for an Individual Library to set up
connectors for harvesting journal article metadata from thousands of publishers across the
world.Commercial Discovery Service providers collaborate with leading commercial
publishers to harvest metadata for Discovery Central Index. Still many Libraries use open
Source options as front end Discovery Layer and subscribe Commercial Web Scale Discovery
Service for Content partby utilizing Discovery Service API or similar methods. The following
are the major Commercial Discovery Services in the world.
Summon Web scale Discovery by Serial Solution[3]
Summon is one of the early entrants in to the library Web scale Discovery environment
developed by serial solution and its first release was in July 2009. Summon is offered as a
hosted software-as-a service solution.
EBSCO Discovery services by EBSCO[4]
Ebsco began development of Ebsco Discovery Service (EDS) in 2008. Public announcement
occurred in spring 2009, and after a beta period concluding later that year, public release
occurred in early 2010.
Primo Central by Exlibris[5]
Ex Libris began development of its next-generation discovery layer, Primo, in 2005, with
official public release occurring in 2007. Primo Central, Ex Libris’s Web scale discovery
component, was officially released in mid-2010.

WorldCatDiscovery Service by OCLC[6]
OCLC released the initial version of WorldCat in November 2007. In 2009 OCLC brought out
their discovery platform, WorldCat local with centralized index collaborating more content
providers. In 2014 OCLC introduced WorldCat Discovery Service with major upgrades in
WorldCat Local.
5.1 Web Scale Discovery Market Landscape
Library System Report 2014 by Marshall Breeding, published in American Libraries gives a
broad overview of market presence of major Discovery Services.Report says “EBSCO
currently stands as the front-runner, with a long lead of 5,612 library subscribers to EDS.
OCLC reports 1,717 libraries with access to WorldCat Local, though a smaller number use it
as their primary discovery interface. Ex Libris has licensed Primo to 1,407 libraries, and
ProQuest reports 673 libraries using Summon”[7]
6.0Factors to be considered while selecting a Discovery Service
The following are the important factors to be considered before taking a decision to adopt
any Discovery Service
1. Coverage in Central Index
2. Quality of Metadata
3. Relevancy Ranking algorithm
4. Integration possibilities of ILS, Institutional Repository and other local databases
5. Integration possibilities of Subject Indexes
6. Advanced features in Discovery Layer.
7. Enhancement options and features
8. Local technical support
6.1 Coverage in Central Index
Central index is the knowledge base of a Discovery service. As Searches are made against
this knowledge index, comprehensiveness and quality of information retrieval primarily
depends on the coverage. Primarily there are two factors to be taken in to consideration.
– First thing is that Library has to ensure that majority of their subscribed content are
available in central index of the Discovery provider. For making the coverage analysis,
Library should request the Discovery vendor to provide a coverage analysis report.
Coverage Analysis reports are of two types. First level analysis provides the resources
which are covered and not covered in Discovery. Second level analysis provides
individual journal /e-Book wise coverage. Also it is advisable to check the extent of
metadata coverage whether it is available from Vol. 1 to Issue 1 of journals and whether
”Publisher provided full text” is available in central index for searching purpose.

– Apart from coverage of library subscribed resources, it is important to look at the total
coverage in the central index. This can be obtained by getting the content partners list
from Discovery provider to whomthey have agreement to get the metadata
Indian Libraries have to consider the fact that the coverage of majority of Indian
publications is either not available or partially available in central Index of different
Discovery providers. Libraries can request to Indian publishers and Discovery providers to
have collaboration to include more Indian content in Discovery services.
6.2 Quality of Metadata
Metadata Quality has great influence in the discoverability of documents. There is high
chance that documents with enhanced metadata would get retrieved compared to items
with skeleton metadata. Some of the Discovery providers have comparatively enriched
metadata by incorporating subject indexes in the Central Index and also started the
initiatives of mapping thesaurus to the central index which would further enhance the
Discoverability. It is not advisable to go for a Discovery service which is using crawled
metadata from the web and doesn’t have any agreement for publisher provided metadata.
Most of the cases crawled metadata is partial as some of the publisher’s site denies entry to
web spiders.
6.3 Integration possibilities of Subject Indexes
Most of the well known subject index providers are not participating in Discovery Services.
But some Discovery service vendors make it possible through platform blending of subject
index with Discovery platform for Mutually Licensed Content. For example EBSCO Discovery
Service can integrate Subject Index with Discovery solution provided that the customer
should subscribe subject indexes through EBSCOhost platform. As of now other Discovery
Service providers do not have this feature. Through this method,the Integrated Abstracting
& Indexing databases are fully searchable in their original unmodified form including all A &
I metadata. This helps in retrieving richest sources of metadata based on subject based
relevance and controlled vocabularies. PsycInfo, INSPEC etc are some of the examples of A/I
content that can be shown in a WSD system if the library subscribes to PsycInfo and INSPEC.
6.4 Relevancy Ranking Algorithms
Relevancy ranking is one of the decisive factors in the success of a Discovery system. It
determines to measure how closely a document or entry fits possible search terms. Search
tools that display results in a relevance ranking order place their “best match,” an entry with
the highest relevance ranking on the top of the list. Each Discovery Service provider has
developed its own proprietary relevancy algorithms. However, no system will ever be
perfect for all searches by all users. Some services allow the local library to influence the

algorithm or otherwise promote or boost items within search results, and, depending on the
service, this boost may be at the item level, collection level, or database level. Some vendors
may place greater emphasis on currency, some on full text, and some on subject headings.
Traditionally most of the Discovery service providers give emphasis on matching the
metadata in deciding the relevancy. But many studies reported that users expect additional
raking options based on the no. of citations and downloads. User defined relevancy ranking
is another desired feature expecting from Discovery services in future.
6.5 Integration possibilities of ILS
ILS Integration is one of the major factors to be considered while selecting a Discovery
Service. Discovery service providers facilitate various options for ILS integration. The most
important factor is that the ILS should allow metadata harvesting (OAI/PMH compatible) or
has the feature of exporting MARC 21 metadata. OAI/PMH is the preferred method as
periodic harvesting of metadata from ILS to Discovery Index is ensured without human
intervention. If the ILS system doesn’t have OAI/PMH compatibility next option is export the
MARC 21 or MARC XML metadata and load in to Discovery system. Discovery providers
usually provide an exclusive FTP account for libraries to load their MARC records. FTP space
basically consists of two folder viz. “FULL Folder” for loading the full set of MARC records at
the beginning and “UPDATE Folder” for loading the new records or updated records
periodically. Some ILS vendors helps the libraries by including a script in ILS system to
perform a crone job to upload metadata in to Discovery FTP space whenever records are
modified or new records are added in ILS system. Libraries can insist ILS vendors for
providingsuch options.
Catalogue Integration is one of themajor challenges that Indian Libraries are facing while
implementing Discovery Services. None of the Indian Libraries are having ILS with OAI/PMH
compatibility. The worst part is that some of the leading commercial ILS system doesn’t
have MARC 21 export facility or its vendors are not willing to provide this facility to user.
Thereason might be their fear that customers may move to Open Source ILS system once
they get the MARC data. It is advisable for Libraries to make it compulsory to get the MARC
export facility in ILS system while signing contract with the ILS vendors. Some of the
Discovery providers extend their support to Libraries in generating MARC 21 data from ILS
system. For example, IIM Calcutta has converted their LIBSYS ILS data in to MARC and
integrated with EBSCO Discovery Service with the help of the Discovery service provider.
6.6 Integration possibilities of Institutional Repository
Generally Discovery Services prefer Dublin Core Metadata and OAI/PMH compatibility for
harvesting. But some Libraries might have different metadata structure for their IR and non
compatibility to OAI/PMH. In such cases Libraries has to make it sure that Discovery Service
providershelp library for some alternative method for integration. Another issue is that
some IR implementations have dummy links in place where persistent links are expected

and eventually,link back from Discovery to IR record is not possible in such cases unless
Library correct all the dummy links with the actual location links and upload the corrected
metadata in the FTP space provided by the Discovery service provider.
6.7 Advanced features in Discovery Layer
User interface is the front end of the Web scale Discovery service. Interface features are
diverse in different Discovery Services but the following features are usually present
– A single search box ( link to advanced search modes)
– Faceted navigation (subject, content type, journal, publisher, date range, etc.) to help
users drill down a large set of results
– Inclusion of enriched content such as book cover images
– Personalized folders to hold and export the search results for future use.
– Social networking options to share the results
– Web 2.0 features such as tags, notes, collaboration etc.
– Ajax features to update data without re-loading the whole page, but only the relevant
content
– “Did you mean?” features to guide the users to the correct spelled words
– Provision of RSS feeds
6.8 Enhancement options and features
In order to provide enhanced user experience, Discovery solutions provide many features
over and above the basic functions. Some of the notable features brought out by different
vendors are given below.
– Catalogue Enhancement such as including book jackets, table of contents, books by the
same author, related books, Google Books Preview, users review etc. Discovery Systems
make use of ISSN number from the MARC record and pull out additional information
from third party service. So, ISSN number is a pre-requisite for getting such
enhancement options in discovery. In many Indian Libraries, it is noticed that ISSN
numbersare notentered as part of the records in most cases and hence not in a position
to get enhanced Catalogue integration features from Discovery Services.
– Journal ranking such as Scimago journal rank with H-Index details (free), Igenfactor(free),
journal citation report (for mutual customers)etc. Some Discovery Service providers
make available these options through widgets.
– Setting up search alerts through e-mail, RSS etc.
– Export to Reference Management tool (Endnote,Zotero, Procite, Reference Manager
etc.)
– Option for citation style formats
– Personalization options like making notes while reading and share with others

– Bookmark to social networking tools
– Sending or sharing the permanent links of retrieved documents.
6.9 Local Support
Discovery Service implementationdemands lots of customizations for an ideal setup to
provide maximum possible features for a comfortable user experience. As en evolving
technology, Librarians are not very expert in customizations and setting up of the system.
Normally all Discovery Solution providers have expert implementation specialists
responsible for setting up and customizations of the Discovery systems. System Librarians
works in tune with implementation specialist and learn the required skill sets for
customizations.Constant support is required from service providers throughout the service
period. It is always advisable to insist local implementation specialist support within the
country those who can visit the site to help the customers as and when needed.
7.0 Steps in Implementation
Discovery Service implementation consists of many steps starting from preparing the
resources sheet of the Library through customizations to integrating Single Search box in
Library website for providing easy access to users. The following are the major steps
included in the implementation of a Discovery Service.
– Preparing resource sheet which includes all the subscribed resources of a library
– Content analysis
– Decide upon the free and open source resources to be included
– Procedures for catalogue integration
– Procedures for IR Integration
– Enhance the service by integrating with other services such as Lib-guides, Learning
Management systems etc.
– Customizations, branding etc.
– Set up the authentication process
– Test usability
– Promotions activities
7.1 Preparing resource sheet which includes all the subscribed resources of a library
Resources sheet preparation is the starting point of Discovery implementation. Library has
to fill the resources sheet in a prescribed format provided by the Discovery Service provider.
The following details are required about the subscribed resources of the Library.
Electronic Journals

– If Library subscribes packages from publishes, the resource sheet should contain the
name of package, publisher name, and year of subscription. For example,ScienceDirect
Environmental Science Collection 1997 to 2014.
– If Library subscribes individual journals, the details such as name of journal, publisher
name, print and eISSN, years of subscription etc. should be provided in the resources
sheet.
Electronic Books
– The resource sheet should include the necessary details like title, ISBN of the books.
Another option is including the eBooks as part of library catalogue for integrating with
Discovery Service.
7.2 Content Analysis
In this step, Discovery Service provider would do an analysis of customer’s resources and
provide a report mentioning the list of resources which are covered and not covered in
central index and the resources. Some Discovery service providers facilitate alternative
options such as widgets, federated connectors etc. for integrating non- covered resources in
the central index. It is important that Libraries should satisfy the coverage of its resources in
central index based on its users’ best interest.
7.3 Catalogue Integration
Library has to upload the catalogue MARC records in the FTP space provided by the
Discovery Service provider and has to fill up a questionnaire whichnormally includes
necessary details such as MARC 21 tags used for important fields such as ISBN, Call No, and
location etc. It is also necessary to provide a unique link example to connect to a single
record in the ILS system. Discovery catalogue implementation specialists map customer’s
metadata with Discovery index and also construct a custom link to link-back from Discovery
search result page to ILS records. Implementation of Real Time Availability Check is another
important step in catalogue integration. Real Time Availability Check feature provides the
availability status of ILS search results in Discovery interface. This implementation requires
Z39.50 details of the ILS system. Another alternative method of implementation of Real
Time Availability check is through screen scrapping method. In India, most of the ILS systems
don’t have proper Z39.50 servers and Screen Scrapping method has been used for RTAC
implementations in many cases.
7.4 Institutional Repository Integration
OAI-PMH is the preferred method of harvesting data from Institutional repository. Most
institutional or digital repository software vendors support Dublin Core metadata export
and therefore can utilize OAI-PMH harvest. With OAI-PMH Discovery Service vendors can
harvest your records on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule. When the harvest occurs
Institutional repository data will automatically be updated in Discovery Service. The

Institutional repository questionnaire asks the customer to provide their institution’s OAI-
PMH URL that retrieves the records from their repository or local archives. If your IR system
does not support OAI/PMH, FTP method can be used to upload the Dublin Core metadata.
When uploading via FTP, files must be in XML and the records must contain unique
identifiers.
7.5 Other Services such as Libguides, Learning Management Systems Integration
Some of the Discovery Service Providersfacilitate different integration options to connect to
Lib-guides, Learning Management System like Moodle and other Library systems. Discovery
API can also be used for such kind of integration. Libraries can access Discovery service
through Library website, Learning Management System or any interface where Discovery
API can be integrated. For example, Library can access Discovery Service through KOHA or
any other ILS system by utilizing the API facility. API integration needs support personal
with programming skills from Library side.
7.6 Customization, Branding etc
Service customization enhances the search experience for your users by adding convenience
and useful functionality to the Discovery interface while maintaining the look and feel of
your institution’s web site. Broadly, customization falls under two categories. One is
functionality customizations and the other one Look and Feel customization. Functionality
customization normally consists of setting up the search and display preferences, setting up
custom linking, Link resolver customization etc. Propercustomizations based on users’
requirements allowlibrary to seamlessly integrate itsresources withDiscovery service and
deliver services effectively. Look and feel customization consists of branding, setting up
interface colour, skin etc. It is advisable to request Discovery Portal admin credentials from
the service provider and learn the customization options so that Library can manage it
without depending on service provider each and every occasion.
7.7 Set up the authentication process
It is the discretion of the Library to decide whether to provide public access to Discovery
Service or restricted to its authenticated users only. Public access or guest access can be
provided up to abstract level and prompt for credentials for additional functionalities or full
text. Authentication refers to identifying the users for providing the access to Discovery
Service. Discovery Service providers offer several methods of authentication. The basic point
to be noted is that Discovery Service is only a platform which facilitate to access multiple
publishers resources and hence Library should make it sure that authentication is set for all
the subscribed resources with respective publishers. The widely used authentication
methods are as follows.
IP authentication: It is the traditional method of identifying users requesting access to
vendor databases or service in campus. Users gain access based on their computer or site's
IP address (Static IP is required) which is pre-authenticated in service providers

server.Referring URL authentication: It provides access to Discovery Service from a secure
home page on the library's web server. This identifies users by the originating URL (the page
from which they came) and eliminates the need for user IDs. Discovery Service system
validates the user if they are coming from an approved URL. If a user is trying to log in from
a different URL, the system will not authenticate.
User ID and Password authentication: In this method, Discovery Service provider allows
library to provide user name and password for its users. This can be useful to users who
access Discovery Service remotely. The library administrator can provide users with a user ID
and password, providing instant access to the service from their home or anywhere else
with Internet connection.
Athens authentication: Athens is an Identity management service to provide single sign-
on to protected resources together with full user management capability. Most of the
Commercial Discovery Service support Athens authentication facility to users.
Shibboleth authentication: The Shibboleth software is open source remote access
management systems. If you are using Shibboleth to authenticate your users, you must set
up your Shibboleth affiliations.
7.8 Testing
After implementation, the system has to be tested to make sure that all the functionalities
are working as expected. It is advisable to set up a Library team for this purpose and check
each and every functionalities and also some sample linking test to verify the linking to
publisher’s sites, custom catalogue, IR etc. Testing team should make a document for testing
by including all the parameters to be tested. Error should be reported torectify the defects
with the help of Discovery service provider’s implementation specialist. This exercise would
give a good opportunity for the staff in learning and troubleshooting the system in future
course of action also.
7.9 Promotion activities
After the implementation and testing next step is promoting the service among the users
and Library staff. User community might be depending on Google or some other ways to
search their information and are used to it. A change over is difficult unless the library
communicate the advantages and functionalities of Discovery Service to the attention of
users. The following methods are some of the best measures for promoting Discovery
service.
– Integrate Discovery Search Box on Library website: This would definitely get the
attention of users. Many studies showed that after the Integration of Search Box on
Discovery website, usage has been increased many fold. Library can also brand the

Discovery Search box using some catchy names. Some of the examples are: FIND it!,
OneSearch, QuickSearch etc.
– Provide training to Library staff and users
– Prepare Discovery searching User Guides and Videos and put it on the Library Web site.
Discovery Search Box on Library Website:
Example: MIT Library, Jawaharlal Nehru University Library Websites
8.0Maintenance
Discovery Solution requires constant attention to make it up-to-date. Some of the areas
which require routine updatation are;

– Data loads
 MARC data upload to FTP space provided by the Discovery Service provider. If
Library’s catalogue is not OAI/PMH compatible, one staff should be assigned to
upload the Catalogue MARC records. Some ILS vendors help the Library by writing
ascript in their ILS for some cronejob to upload the MARC data automatically to
Discovery Service FTP space without human intervention.
 Updating e-Resources: After the initial set up of e-Resources, Library has to assign
one staff member to update the resources details whenever change occurs.This
means subscribing additional resources or stops some of the existing subscriptions.
– Troubleshooting – access, linking
There might occur problems in the access of the service due to IP address change,url
change, remote access issues or some other reasons. Link error also may occur in cases
due to various reasons. Library has to insist online support from the Service provider to
troubleshoot and solve the issues. Also it is better to understand the reason for failure in
each case so that Library can solve the issues without depending on service provider all
the time.
– Keeping up with new developments in the tool – explaining to library staff and users
Being an evolving technology, Service providers introduce new features and
functionalities on Discovery Services and Library has to notify to users regarding the new
developments.
9.0 Evaluation
It is important to measure the success of the system to substantiate the huge amount spent
on this service. Library has to conduct user studies to know how people are using the
service and its impact on usage pattern etc. Library should document the trouble report if
any and request the immediate attention of service provider to tackle the issues. It is also
advisable to analyze usage statistics such as total sessions, total searches, full text
download, abstract level usage, database level usage, catalogue and IRusage through
discovery etc.
There are some good studies on evaluation parameters and case studies of Discovery
implementations in Libraries which would be helpful in understanding various Libraries
experiences with different Discovery solutions.
American Library Association’s technical report “Web Scale Discovery Services” [7] by Jason
Vaughan is the first comprehensive work on web scale discovery services which includes
chapters starting from “web Scale Discovery – what and why?” to implementation and
evaluation methods.

In another work by the same author “Evaluating and Selecting a Library Web-Scale Discovery
Service” [8] Vaughan provides a frame of evaluation, based on the evaluation process used
at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries. It highlights the important internal and
external steps library staff may wish to consider as they evaluate these discovery services
for their local environment.
David Bietila and TodOlson[9] consider a three-tiered approach to the application,
considering technical, functional, and usability layers. As the current generation of discovery
tools is very flexible, the process discussed uses an initial pass of evaluation to gain insight
into the abilities of the tool and how users approach it.
The Results of some interesting usability case studies have also been published which
depicts the results of evaluation studies of web scale discovery services implemented in
different universities.
At Grand Valley State University, Doug Way[10] conducted an analysis of usage statistics
after implementing the discovery tool Summon in 2009; the usage statistics revealed an
increased use of full-text downloads and link resolver software but a decrease in the use of
core subject databases.
North Carolina State University Libraries released a final report about their usability study of
Summon. [11]. Study reveals users were satisfied with the ability to search the library
catalog and article databases with a single search, but users had mixed results with known-
item searching and confusion about narrowing facets and results ranking.
Boock, Chadwell, and Reese conducted a usability study of WorldCat Local at Oregon State
University. [12]. They summarized that users found known-title searching to be easier in the
library catalog but found topical searches to be more effective in WorldCat Local. The
participants preferred WorldCat Local for the ability to find articles and search for materials
in other institutions.
Kemp reports in his study that, after the first year following Summon implementation at the
University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries [13], the statistics on the use of collections
showed significant increases in the use of electronic resources: link resolver use increased
84%, and full-text article downloads increased 23%. During the same period, use of the
online catalog decreased 13.7%, and use of traditional indexing and abstracting database
searches decreased by 5%. The author concludes that the increases in collections usage are
related to adoption of a Web-scale discovery service.
Anita in her case study of EBSCO Discovery Service [14] at Illinois State University’s Milner
Library states that EBSCO Discovery Services has resulted in a significant increase in Milner’s
database usage.

Library Communication of Jawaharlal Nehru University, India reveals that full text download
has been increased at an enormous rate of more than 2100% after the implementation of
EBSCO Discovery Service.
10.0 Conclusion
Discovery Services are fairly new entrant in Library Technology field and many information
professionals do not have much idea regarding its technology, expected functionalities,
implementation procedures etc. The best way to learn and experience WSD system is to
request fully customized trial from providers including Catalogue and Institutional
repository integration. It is advisable to go for multiple providers trials and evaluate all
systems based on the parameters discussed in this article as well as the suggestions from
early adopters of Discovery solution. Users’ requirements are the most important factors to
be considered while implementing Discovery service and Information professionals should
take utmost care in each step to make the best tailor made Discovery Service for the Library.
References
1. Narayanan, Nikesh (2013) Cloud Web scale Discovery Landscape: An overview (Paper
Presented at International conference on Academic Libraries held at New Delhi on Feb
12-15, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/nikeshn/cloud-web-scale-
discovery-services-landscape-an-overview-26670693)
2. Vaughan, J., & University of Nevada, L. V. (2011). Investigations into library web scale
discovery services. Retrieved from
http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=lib_articl
es
3. The Summon Service | Serials Solutions. (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.serialssolutions.com/en/services/summon/
4. EBSCO discovery services. (2012). Retrived from: http://www.ebscohost.com/discovery
5. Ex Libris the bridge to knowledge, Primo Central Index. (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/category/PrimoCentral
6. WorldCatDiscovery Services. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.oclc.org/worldcat-
discovery.en.html
7. Marshall, Breeding. (2014). Library Systems Report 2014 American Libraries Retrieved
from http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2014/04/15/library-systems-report-2014/
8. Vaughan, J. (2012). Evaluating and Selecting a Library Web-Scale Discovery Service. In
D. Dallis (Ed.), Planning and Implementing Resource Discovery Tools in Academic
Libraries. IGI Global. Retrieved from http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/evaluating-
selecting-library-web-scale/67814
9. David, B., & Popp, M. P. (Eds.). (2012). Designing an Evaluation Process for Resource
Discovery Tools. Planning and Implementing Resource Discovery Tools in Academic
Libraries. IGI Global. Retrieved from http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/designing-
evaluation-process-resource-discovery/67818
10. Way, D. (2010). The Impact of Web-scale Discovery on the Use of a Library Collection.
Serials Review, 36(4), 214–220.
11. Summon Usability Testing (2010) | User Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved August 19, 2012, from

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/userstudies/studies/2010summon
12. Michael Boock, Faye Chadwell, and Terry Reese, WorldCat Local Task Force Report to
LAMP, retrieved August 19,2012 from http://hdl.handle.net/1957/11167.
13. Kemp, J. (2012). Does Web-Scale Discovery Make a Difference?: Changes in
Collections Use after Implementing Summon. Planning and Implementing Resource
Discovery Tools in Academic Libraries. IGI Global. Retrieved from http://www.igi-
global.com/chapter/does-web-scale-discovery-make/67836
14. Anita K, F., & Popp, M. P. (Eds.). (2012). Early Adoption: EBSCO Discovery Service at
Illinois State University. Planning and Implementing Resource Discovery Tools in
Academic Libraries. IGI Global. Retrieved from http://www.igi-
global.com/chapter/early-adoption-ebsco-discovery-service/67838

Implementing web scale discovery services: special reference to Indian Libraries’ context

More Related Content

What's hot

Similar to Implementing web scale discovery services: special reference to Indian Libraries’ context

More from Nikesh Narayanan

Recently uploaded

Implementing web scale discovery services: special reference to Indian Libraries’ context