This document discusses discovery tools in academic libraries. It begins by outlining the benefits of discovery tools like Google Scholar, such as being free, user-friendly, and allowing searches of multiple resources simultaneously. However, it notes Google Scholar's limitations in sorting results, limiting searches, and lack of access to database algorithms. The document then defines discovery tools, explaining they feature a central index of metadata and full text from various sources, and a discovery layer that allows single searches across this content with relevance ranking and filtering of results. It evaluates parameters of the central index and considers options for blending or separating search results from the library catalog, articles, and other sources. Finally, it discusses major discovery tool providers and the Open Discovery Initiative

1. Discovery Tools in Academic
Libraries: why, what and how?
Edith Falk
Chef Librarian
The Hebrew University Library Authority

3. Why not
• It is free
• It is user friendly
• It includes scientific resources and
even “gray” literature
• It allows simultaneous search in
many resources
• It allows saving in a private e-shelf
and creating a bibliography
• It shows citations and other
parameters
• It searches the full text
• It links to the catalog of your local
library
•

4. למה לא ?
 It is difficult to determine with
100% accuracy all that Google
Scholar searches.
• Google cannot:
– Sort/search by disciplinary
field
– Browse by title
– Limit search results
– Search the deep web
• There are not enough possibilities
to deal with the results
• No access to the indexing of the
databases.
• No access to the algorythm

5. 20 Services Google Thinks Are More
Important Than Google Scholar

6. Why not a federated search?
• Federated search is an information retrieval
technology that allows the simultaneous
search of multiple searchable resources. A
user makes a single query request which is
distributed to the search engines
participating in the federation.
• Marshall Breeding in 2005, “…shortly after
the launch of Google Scholar posits that
federated search could not compete the
power and speed of a tool like Google
Scholar. He proclaims the need for, as he
describes it, a “centralized search model”.
• Chickering, F. William and Yang, Sharon Q. (2014).
“Evaluation and comparison of discovery tools: an update”.
Information technology and libraries, 33(2): 5-30.

7. What are we looking for?
A Google-like tool, simple •
and efficient
A tool that allows •
searching as many
resources as possible,
while allowing limiting
the searches to resources
accessible to library
patrons
A tool that allows dealing •
with the list of searches
in as many ways as
possible

8. Discovery Tools

9. What is a discovery tool?
A Central Index
A Discovery Layer

10. What is a discovery tool?

11. The Central Index
• The collection of preharvested
and processed metadata and
full text that comprises the
searchable content of a WSD
service: Central indexes
typically include full text and
citations from publishers; full
text and metadata from open
source collections; full text,
abstracting, and indexing from
aggregators and subscription
databases; and MARC from
library catalogs; also called the
base index, unified index, or
foundation index.

13. Evaluating the Central Index
• parameters:
– scope of the content,
– item types,
– inclusion of the full text
– richness of the metadata.
• The central index has to fit
the library collections on one
hand and the type of users of
the library on the other
hand.
• Some databases are not
included in any WSD (for
example: Scifinder)
• Some databases are included
in some WSD and not in
others (especially Proquest
and Ebsco)
• Even when a WSD vendor
does not include a database,
it may have basic, citation-level
metadata for journal
titles by a certain publisher
(Elsevier or Springer).

14. The Discovery Layer
• Single search across the
central index
• Fast response time
• Relevancy-ranked results list
• Facets, sort, and other tools
for refining and using the
results
• Connections to full text via
direct links and OpenURL
• End-user accounts and
features

15. Blended results
Ben Gurion University (EDS)

16. Separate
Haifa University (Primo and Google Scholar or Primo Central)
Catalog Articles

17. or side by side…
Hebrew University (Vufind and EDS)

18. Discovery Tools Providers
Content Providers Software Providers
• Ex-Libris - Primo Central
• OCLC - World Cat
• EBSCO - EDS
• Proquest - Summon

19. Open Discovery Initiative:
promoting transparency
O.D.I.
• Create ways for libraries to assess
the level of content providers’
participation in discovery services
• Help streamline the process by
which content providers work
with discovery service vendors
• Define models for fair or
unbiased linking from discovery
services to publishers’ content
• Determine what usage statistics
should be collected
NISO, the National Information Standards
Organization, a non-profit association
accredited by the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI), is where content publishers,
libraries, and software developers turn for
information industry standards that allow
them to work together. Through NISO, all of
these communities are able to collaborate on
mutually accepted standards — solutions that
enhance their operations today and form a
foundation for the future

20. Thank you for
your attention!
Edith Falk,Chief Librarian
Hebrew University of Jerusalem