Implementation of Resource Discovery

Abstract

Academic libraries have a myriad of information sources for their communities, yet meeting users at their point of need can be a daunting task. Web-scale discovery tools offer a way to pull together many library resources for retrieval through a single search interface. The lessons learned in this case study at Montana State University include challenges with implementation, troubleshooting, collection development, and user education. Strategies and solutions to problems such as “full-text red herrings” (broken links to articles from aggregated databases) as well as techniques for prioritizing search results are described. Incorporating locally digitized collections in the discovery tool is also explained. The impact of discovery on collection development can take many forms and this case study details three issues that this implementation caused to emerge. The examples described in this chapter serve as helpful considerations for other academic libraries in their Web-scale discovery product exploration, implementation, and analysis.