Slide 1

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams LIBRARY DISCOVERY From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Ken Varnum University of Michigan @varnum | varnum@umich.edu Discovery Tools Now and in the Future 18 November 2014

Slide 2

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams INTRODUCTION

Slide 3

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Quick Overview About me Defining discovery for the talk Agenda Setting the stage Where we are now What are the challenges Where were going

Slide 4

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams POLL: Please tell us if you use one a web-scale discovery service in your library: A. EBSCO Discovery Service B. Primo C. Summon D. WorldCat Discovery Service E. Something else F. Nothing

Slide 5

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams SETTING THE STAGE

Slide 6

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams A Brief History Ancient History (the 1980s) Command Lines Experts only Library equivalent of a 900 area code: pay by the minute More recently (1990s) Web interfaces Many databases Despite vendor claims, still experts only Google

Slide 7

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams More Brief History Recent Past (early 2000s) Still more databases! Federated Search Google Google Scholar Today (2010s) Did I mention Google? Web-Scale Discovery

Slide 8

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Illusion of Comprehensiveness There used to be a few online sources for everything that was online Then, there were multiple places to go to find much of what was available online Now, there are a few places to go that have much of everything available. And many places to go that have small but oh-so-significant pieces of whats online Illusion of being comprehensive has never been greater.

Slide 9

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams A Sea Change In the previous eras of discovery, resources were diffuse in access and concentrated in origin. Web-scale discovery has flipped that. The resources are diffuse in origin and concentrated in access

Slide 10

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams HOW WE THINK ABOUT RESEARCH IS CHANGING

Slide 11

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams No More Silos, Please http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Silos_on_a_fa rm_on_the_Oak_Ridges_Moraine_in_2007.jpg

Slide 12

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams It Was Not That Structured How to characterize the information universe We used to have many sources A few things were in many places Many things were in few places A few flows of information across the infosphere; information owners were proprietary about their data.

Slide 13

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams The Pond Era https://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/5500714140/

Slide 14

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Where Are We Now? Web-scale discovery a few concentrated sources for some libraries Still many databases Increasing use of local repositories

Slide 15

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Oceans of Data

Slide 16

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams MANY CHALLENGES & A FEW SOLUTIONS Or perhaps, directions toward solutions

Slide 17

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Is Everything Really Everything Lack of transparency throughout Is my package of journals the same as yours? What have I licensed that isnt available? Flickr user dan_dan

Slide 18

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Open Discovery Initiative The Open Discovery Initiative (ODI) aims to facilitate progress through exploration of relevant issues and the development of recommended practices for the current generation of library discovery services based on centrally indexed search. The domain of index- based discovery services involves a complex ecosystem of interrelating issues and interests among content providers, libraries, and discovery service creators. http://www.niso.org/apps/group_public/download.php/13388/rp-19-2014_ODI.pdf NISO Open Discovery Initiative http://www.niso.org/workrooms/odi/

Slide 19

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams POLL: Before today, I knew about the Open Discovery Initiative: A. A great deal B. Some C. Never heard of it before today

Slide 20

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Getting to What We Know We Have My colleagues & I looked at link quality (a paper in review by ITAL in the spring). Link resolution so-so quality (~60% success rate), open Direct Linking high quality (90+% success rate), closed

Slide 21

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Designing for Completeness How do we build our search interfaces to accommodate everything? A few interesting approaches out there

Slide 22

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams

Slide 23

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams

Slide 24

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams

Slide 25

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams POLL: My librarys discovery tool integrates local & licensed (non-catalog) content: A. Yes B. No C. I sure wish it did

Slide 26

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Integrate the Local & the Global The previous examples start down this path What happens when you combine local resources & global resources We see hyperlocal services in other areas; why not libraries?

Slide 27

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Better Slices of the Whole Sources & formats are the easy way to slice the ocean But we could do more. Especially in academia We [can] know a lot about our users Rich local sources of context Course enrollments Course syllabi Professors Salted starting points

Slide 28

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Ways to Draw from the Ocean Courses Years of study Language preference Academic standing Closely tied to institution

Slide 29

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Streams Well-filtered searches make good current awareness tools Libraries should be asking discovery vendors for: Need to offer variable scope filters Flexible, locally customizable Filtered views should not be default view for novice users

Slide 30

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Concluding Thoughts Discovery environments still emerging What we do with them is all important Environment is ripe for innovation

Slide 31

Ken Varnum@varnum Library Discovery: From Ponds to Oceans to Streams Thanks Slides available at varnum.org/presentations @varnum varnum@umich.edu 2014 Ken Varnum