Simplifying and Enhancing Access to Full-Text Articles with LibKey Discovery

A Review of:
 Hanneke, R., & O’Brien, K. K. (2016). Comparison of three web-scale discovery services for health sciences research. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 104(2), 109-117. http://dx.doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.104.2.004
 
 Abstract
 
 Objective – To compare the results of health sciences search queries in three web-scale discovery (WSD) services for relevance, duplicate detection, and retrieval of MEDLINE content.
 
 Design – Comparative evaluation and bibliometric study.
 
 Setting – Six university libraries in the United States of America.
 
 Subjects – Three commercial WSD services: Primo, Summon, and EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS).
 
 Methods – The authors collected data at six universities, including their own. They tested each of the three WSDs at two data collection sites. However, since one of the sites was using a legacy version of Summon that was due to be upgraded, data collected for Summon at this site were considered obsolete and excluded from the analysis. 
 
 The authors generated three questions for each of six major health disciplines, then designed simple keyword searches to mimic typical student search behaviours. They captured the first 20 results from each query run at each test site, to represent the first “page” of results, giving a total of 2,086 total search results. These were independently assessed for relevance to the topic. Authors resolved disagreements by discussion, and calculated a kappa inter-observer score. They retained duplicate records within the results so that the duplicate detection by the WSDs could be compared.
 
 They assessed MEDLINE coverage by the WSDs in several ways. Using precise strategies to generate a relevant set of articles, they conducted one search from each of the six disciplines in PubMed so that they could compare retrieval of MEDLINE content. These results were cross-checked against the first 20 results from the corresponding query in the WSDs. To aid investigation of overall coverage of MEDLINE, they recorded the first 50 results from each of the 6 PubMed searches in a spreadsheet. During data collection at the WSD sites, they searched for these references to discover if the WSD tool at each site indexed these known items.
 
 Authors adopted measures to control for any customisation of the product setup at each data collection site. In particular, they excluded local holdings from the results by limiting the searches to scholarly, peer-reviewed articles.
 
 Main results – Authors reported results for 5 of the 6 sites. All of the WSD tools retrieved between 50-60% relevant results. EDS retrieved the highest number of relevant records (195/360 and 216/360), while Primo retrieved the lowest (167/328 and 169/325). There was good observer agreement (k=0.725) for the relevance assessment. The duplicate detection rate was similar in EDS and Summon (between 96-97% unique articles), while the Primo searches returned 82.9-84.9% unique articles.
 
 All three tools retrieved relevant results that were not indexed in MEDLINE, and retrieved relevant material indexed in MEDLINE that was not retrieved in the PubMed searches. EDS and Summon retrieved more non-MEDLINE material than Primo. EDS performed best in the known-item searches, with 300/300 and 299/300 items retrieved, while Primo performed worst with 230/300 and 267/300 items retrieved.
 
 The Summon platform features an “automated query expansion” search function, where user-entered keywords are matched to related search terms and these are automatically searched along with the original keyword. The authors observed that this function resulted in a wholly relevant first page of results for one of the search questions tested in Summon.
 
 Conclusion – While EDS performed slightly better overall, the difference was not great enough in this small sample of test sites to recommend EDS over the other tools being tested. The automated query expansion found in Summon is a useful function that is worthy of further investigation by the WSD vendors. The ability of the WSDs to retrieve MEDLINE content through simple keyword searches demonstrates the potential value of using a WSD tool in health sciences research, particularly for inexpert searchers.

Web-scale discovery (WSD) service is an important tool having capability to metamorphous the library and its services. These services enable searching quickly and seamlessly across a wide range of local and remote contents. It provides relevancy-based results that further can be sorted by applying various facets. The study is an effort to show the usefulness of WSD service for libraries. It will show various aspects of discovery services like its features, benefits for end-user and librarian. The ultimate goal of every librarian is to provide their users with best services and maximum utilisation of the resources subscribed by the library. In view of their goal, most of the libraries, having vast number of researchers, are subscribing to discovery services. This is sometime also called single-window search system as it provides a single window to search information from all the databases from the service providers as well as the contents from the libraries and other subscription from other content providers along with all open source contents. This article particularly frames the WSD services and are trying to sketch the discovery services in academic libraries and also tries to draw a clear picture of its features and uses in the academic libraries by keeping in view the end users.

This study presents an overview of web-scale discovery service adoption in Canadian academic libraries. Web-scale discovery services (WSDS) have been widely embraced in Canadian academic libraries. EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) is the most adopted system for colleges and institutes while Primo Central from Ex Libris dominates the university market for web-scale discovery services. Bundling web-scale discovery services with library services platform (LSP) implementations are increasing in Canada. This study shows that Canadian academic libraries that have migrated from a traditional integrated library system (ILS) to an LSP have also opted for their LSP vendor’s corresponding web-scale discovery service. As more Canadian academic libraries implement an LSP bundled with a web-scale discovery service, there may come a time when web-scale discovery services are no longer separated from discussions on LSPs. The choices available for LSP and web-scale discovery services are shrinking due to vendor mergers and acquisitions in this area.

This study analyzed how Canadian post-secondary libraries have managed and administered their web-scale discovery service and how adopting a discovery service has changed the traditional boundaries of standard library functions. Through a combination of survey responses and semi-structured interviews, the author investigated how Canadian academic libraries organized around their web-scale discovery service. Academic libraries can manage their discovery service from a Technical Services unit, a Library Systems, or a Web Services department, or by a committee. However, there is consensus that a discovery service requires collaboration and cooperation among many functional areas. Discovery service leaders often have organizational awareness to break down the silos between traditional library functions to perform the various duties related to managing and administering their web-scale discovery service. Individuals responsible for their discovery service are flexible and work collaboratively with staff in many different areas and often have a strong user-centred focus.

“Discovery” is today's term for user-centered information searching and access. A growing number of libraries have embraced Web-scale discovery services (WSDS) featuring one-stop searching of libraries’ owned and licensed collections. Recognizing potential benefits to users of these systems, a mid-sized ARL library formed a discovery-tool committee in spring 2012 to explore selection of a WSDS in keeping with its values, vision, and institutional mission. This article explores “discovery” as it assesses WSDS performance and reports results obtained from a request to WSDS vendors to showcase the search power of their system with actual reference questions.

An Analysis of Web-scale Discovery Services From the Perspective of User's Relevance Judgment

Web-Scale Discovery service is the new buzzword of library service in the current environment. It refers to a group of products that index a wide number of resources in various formats and allows users to search for content in the physical collection, print and electronic journals collections, and other resources from a single search box. It has the capacity to connect the researchers more easily with the vast information repository of the library including both locally and hosted content i.e. physical holdings, digital collection, and local institutional repositories. This article defines the concept of Web-Scale Discovery Service and its features. The author tries to illustrate the evaluation process for implementing Web-Scale Discovery Service. He also outlines some of important steps involved while execution.

Web-Scale Discovery service is the new buzzword of library service in the current environment. It refers to a group of products that index a wide number of resources in various formats and allows users to search for content in the physical collection, print and electronic journals collections, and other resources from a single search box. It has the capacity to connect the researchers more easily with the vast information repository of the library including both locally and hosted content i.e. physical holdings, digital collection, and local institutional repositories. This article defines the concept of Web-Scale Discovery Service and its features. The author tries to illustrate the evaluation process for implementing Web-Scale Discovery Service. He also outlines some of important steps involved while execution.

Purpose This paper aims to examine integrated library systems (ILS) and web-scale discovery services (WSDS) of the National Institute of Ranking Framework’s (NIRF) top-ranked universities for the “Overall” category in the 2020 rankings. Further, the authors analyse how the ILS-WSDS transitions work in the academic libraries of higher educational institutions (HEIs) in India. Design/methodology/approach The 200 top-ranked institutions in the NIRF rankings 2020 were chosen to evaluate their ILS-WSDS systems available through their library websites. Out of ten categories of NIRF rankings, the “Overall” category was selected as the institutions ranked under this category are discipline-independent and have a minimum of 1,000 full-time students in their undergraduate and graduate programmes. Findings The authors found that Koha is a leading ILS with 52 libraries (26%), followed by LibSys with 18 institutions (9%), SOUL with ten institutions (5%), AutoLib with eight institutions (4%), VTLS and NewGenLib with four institutions each (2%) and SLIM with three institutions (1.5%). In regards to WSDS, 73 institutions use Knimbus (36.5%), followed by 12 institutions using EBSCO Discovery Services (6%), two institutions using Ex Libris Summon and others include LS Discovery, VuFind and independent platform each at 0.5%. At the core of technology adoption, for the ILS to WSDS transitions, the uptake is found to be rather slow. Originality/value Many studies have explored ILS and WSDS India. However, this study attempts to assess the ILS in comparison with discovery services at academic libraries in the top ranking HEIs in India.

The increase number and vast of information resources in library, both internal or external resources, encourage University of Jember library to use an aplication base on Web Scale Discovery Services (WSDS) for managing open access e‐Resources. This study provide an overview of implementation open source Vufind discovery tools in order to give new e‐resources search Services at University of Jember library, so user able to access various open access databases in one indexer portal. This research uses descriptive qualitative method, with a case study approach. Data was collected by observation, interview, and document tracing methods. In this study, interviews were conducted informally, so that researchers and informants were in a natural situation. Meanwhile, data testing was carried out using the triangulation method. As results, the technical problems in implementing Vufind are in harvesting and editing metadata, because there is a lot of differences of metadata form myriad databases. Other research result show that Implementation Vufind Web Scale Discovery Services at University of Jember Library is very useful in facilitating access to various databases open access e‐resources

BackgroundPracticing evidence-based health care is challenging because of overwhelming results presented to practitioners by Google-like Web-scale discovery (WSD) services that index millions of resources while retrieving information based on relevancy algorithms with limited consideration for user information need.ObjectiveOn the basis of the user-oriented theory of information need and following design science principles, this study aimed to develop and evaluate an innovative contextual model for information retrieval from WSD services to improve evidence-based practice (EBP) by health care practitioners.MethodsWe identified problems from literature to support real-world requirements for this study. We used design science research methodology to guide artefact design. We iteratively improved prototype of the context model using artificial formative evaluation. We performed naturalistic summative evaluation using convergent interviewing of health care practitioners and content analysis from a confirmatory focus group consisting of health researchers to evaluate the model’s validity and utility.ResultsThe study iteratively designed and applied the context model to a WSD service to meet 5 identified requirements. All 5 health care practitioners interviewed found the artefact satisfied the 5 requirements to successfully evaluate the model as having validity and utility. Content analysis results from the confirmatory focus group mapped top 5 descriptors per requirement to support a true hypothesis that there is significant discussion among participants to justify concluding that the artefact had validity and utility.ConclusionsThe context model for WSD satisfied all requirements and was evaluated successfully for information retrieval to improve EBP. Outcomes from this study justify further research into the model.

ABSTRACTDuring the past several years the Colorado State University Libraries considered alternatives to their current integrated library system, Innovative Interfaces’ Millennium, and their web scale discovery service, VuFind. These explorations were conducted by two separate task forces that both led a similar course of action: “watch and wait” for the progression of open source library utilities. A few years later, another task force was formed to examine other proprietary Open Uniform Resource Locator link resolvers. In the end, the Committee resolutely understood that a holistic approach to library technology is paramount for providing optimal service and that the a la carte approach to selecting and incorporating library technologies from disparate proprietary companies has a deleterious effect on services.

"Web-scale discovery services: principles, applications, discovery tools and development hypotheses." Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2

Evaluating the Impact of Web-scale Discovery Services on Scholarly Content Seeking

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to illustrate why libraries should develop instructional plans to further integrate Web-scale discovery services into the academy, as well as propose a three-fold delivery plan to achieve this goal.Design/methodology/approachThis paper documents a strategy to integrate Web-scale discovery services into library training and instruction for multiple audiences. The strategy is informed by past analysis of discovery service search queries.FindingsIt presents a three-part training plan that can be applied to multiple audiences, universities/colleges and even discovery service platforms.Practical implicationsThe strategies and practices detailed in this paper are easily adaptable to other institutions that currently subscribe to Web-scale discovery service products.Originality/valueThis paper introduces an innovative approach toward transforming Web-scale discovery instruction across the academy, based on search query analysis.