Ways To Improve Discoverability at Your Library

by

Magaly Taylor, Usage and Discovery Product Manager

Discovery is a crucial aspect of working with eResources for content providers and libraries. It encompasses actions related to searching, retrieving, and accessing relevant content that end users may not be aware of. The term ‘Discoverability’ is key here. It refers to the extent to which eResources are searchable in a discovery system, and it directly influences the ease with which users can find the information they need, thereby enhancing their overall experience. In this post I will explore the complexities of discovery and how to enhance discoverability in libraries.

Discovery Systems

In the academic sector, the discovery of electronic resources is mainly associated with using discovery systems as libraries are required to meet the growing information needs of patrons increasingly accustomed to single-search box technology.1 Resource discovery systems began to be implemented around 2010. Discovery systems aim to provide end users with a single interface for one-stop shopping for various resources. They combine local resources and central index data to provide many results. Index data provision is the main integration activity between content and discovery providers through metadata feeds.

Discovery is a complex area where the activities of its main stakeholders are interconnected. The success of the end users’ Discovery journey from search to access is dependent on the successful integration, implementation, and maintenance of the Discovery systems. This necessitates a combined effort from the three Discovery stakeholders: content providers, discovery system providers, and libraries. Their collaborative work is not just crucial, but integral to support discovery and fulfilment in the most efficient manner possible.

Discovery stakeholders
Discovery stakeholders

The NISO Open Discovery Initiative (ODI)

The NISO Open Discovery Initiative (ODI) was implemented to help the three stakeholders-content providers, discovery systems providers, and libraries collaborate transparently and efficiently. Its recommendations aim to help people understand what is available in Discovery systems.

The ODI’s recognition of the complexity ofDiscovery and its introduction of the ODI Content Provider and Discovery Service conformance checklists underscore the need for transparency in data deliveries, integration, and ranking.  This conformance statement will make it easier for libraries to know what is included in their Discovery service.

Gale’s activities in Discovery are outlined here including our ODI conformance checklist. Our discovery provision is not static; we constantly adjust and improve our processes and deliveries to refine the success of our library customers’ end users’ discovery experiences.

Discovery systems are complex tools that require significant maintenance from library staff. A few studies have shown the impact of the complexity of library configurations in discovery systems. These studies have also shown that a “significant percentage of libraries do not select all the subscribed collections in their discovery tool configurations and do not update configurations when new collections are added. Furthermore, they may fail to select all the related packages from their link resolver knowledge base, making full-text content unavailable to library users.” 2

To address this situation, the ODI published in 2020 a library conformance statement that provides some advice on librarians’ discovery-related tasks. The Library Conformance statement helps libraries follow the necessary steps to enhance the discoverability of the eResources, like following the discovery providers’ and content providers’ guidelines, ensuring that all the desired content is activated, documenting decisions, and continuing maintenance.

Activating resources in the discovery service has real benefits, including increasing usage. Figures 1 and 2 capture the increase in usage after the library staff activated an eResource in their Discovery system in February 2024.

Increase in sessions after library staff activated an eResource in their discovery system.
Increase in sessions after library staff activated an eResource in their discovery system.
Increase in sessions after library staff activated an eResource in their discovery system.
Increase in retrievals after library staff activated an eResource in their discovery system.

Other benefits of appropriately connecting the Discovery systems are related to collection management impacting the appropriate usage of the library budget (value for money) and adequate support for the library end users’ research and teaching information needs.

Enhancing Discoverability in Libraries

As part of our Discovery work, we encounter library staff requests for support information when configuring their Discovery systems. While Discovery system providers support mutual customers using their discovery tools and content providers support and troubleshoot the data integration, librarians carry the burden of making discovery tools work on their shoulders.1 In 2023, Fiona Tinto, eResources Librarian, University of Strathclyde, presented in the UKSG seminar Understanding Resource Discovery and Delivery.

Her presentation was about how she, as an electronic resources librarian, made her library collection discoverable. She gave a comprehensive presentation of her steps and provided examples of electronic resources she has worked with.  She has allowed us include an overview here, based on a transcription of her presentation.

During the webinar, Fiona presented the steps she and her colleagues take to make electronic resources discoverable in a comprehensive way. For the presentation, the tasks are based on Strathclyde library’s specific workflows and Discovery service. Still, the advice below is helpful for any library staff looking for steps to follow, and they can adapt them to any library ecosystem.

The Steps to Make Resources Discoverable

Here is what she explained.

  • There are several tasks to make eResources discoverable when setting up access to a new resource or trialling it. To manage these tasks, having a planner tool to organise the workload is helpful, listing all the tasks that need to be worked through.
  • Try to understand the eResource you are working with. Play around with the resource itself, look at the about pages, and look at the content provider’s marketing material. If there’s anything unclear, speak to colleagues and get in touch with the eResource provider. While doing this, consider where the eResource will fit within your library collections. It’s really important to spend some time doing that because your understanding of the resource will impact all your decisions and how you make it available to your users.
  • The most significant chunk of work relating to eResource discovery is setting up the resource records in your library catalogue, knowledge base and Discovery tool. Here are some steps you may want to follow:
    • Identify what title-level records are available for the eResource.
    • Once the different options are identified, speak to the Faculty Librarians to determine their discovery requirements for this resource.
    • Decide what off-campus authentication method will be used from the links in the catalogue records.
    • Decide if you need to catalogue or update existing MARC records. Then, import them into your catalogue. At Strathclyde we tend to import MARC records for eBook content and work with our Knowledge Base to activate records from the available metadata for serial content.
    • Investigate the available discovery records in your discovery tool. These are the lower-level records like article and book chapter records that appear in your discovery layer. Depending on the Discovery system you are using, you will have the choice of using the fully flexible activation settings (you can select which collections you’ll have on) or the easy active activation settings (all the discovery collections being automatically on).
  • Another major discovery route is our A-Z Databases list:
    • discuss with Faculty Librarians whether they want a record in the A-Z for this particular resource and what would be the scope of this record:
      • would they want one record for the whole resource or
      • potentially, do they want separate records for different modules or collections?
      • and where would they like the URL to link to from this record?
    • work with relevant colleagues to decide what information will be included in the database record, including the description, the subjects, the keywords, the URL, and the authentication notes.
  • To increase discoverability, add database records to both the A-Z list, and the library catalogue. Setting up the catalogue records in the library catalogue, discovery service, and A-Z are the main discovery tasks, but other things can be done in terms of discovery when setting up a new resource, such as setting up OpenURL linking, and integrations with other discovery-related products you may use. A common example would be Reading Lists. At Strathclyde, when items are added to a Reading List, citations are based on the existing holdings – so once everything is set up and catalogued, the Reading Lists work from these same records.
  • The last area to ensure discoverability is routine test and check; this means checking access and connections to the metadata available. For smaller collections, this could be done on an individual title basis. In contrast, for more extensive collections, it has to be done based on spot-checking and comparing the number of titles accessible to us in the platform with the number of titles in the title list and then using the browse, the sort, the filter options on the site to try and narrow it down and identify the rogue titles if we find anomalies.

In Conclusion

That’s an overview of the specific tasks related to resource discovery when setting up a new resource. The list of tasks is basically the same if we’re setting up a new resource trial. eResource promotion could also be seen as connected to discovery, however this was outside of the scope of Fiona’s specific presentation and not something she included.

With thanks to Fiona Tinto, eResources Librarian at the University of Strathclyde, for her permission to share her insight and advice in this article.

If you enjoyed reading about discoverability, then check out these posts:

Blog post cover image citation:

Compo, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Symmetry_in_a_compass.jpg

  1. Bascones, M., Cummings, R. (2021). Discovery is the researcher’s dream. Insights, 34. 23. doi: 10.1629/uksg.571
  2. Zhu, J., & Kelley, J. (2015). Collaborating to reduce content gaps in discovery: What publishers, discovery service providers, and libraries can do to close the gaps. Science & Technology Libraries, 34(4), 315–328. doi:10.1080/0194262X.2015.1102677 )

About the Author

Magaly has more than 15 years’ experience in Discovery, Metadata and Usage in libraries, content providers and a service provider. Magaly has worked in several types of libraries and has contributed to different working groups and committees internationally. Currently, she is Discovery and Usage Manager for Gale, part of the Cengage Group.