New Discovery Tools: Moving Beyond Traditional Online Catalogs
About the Webinar
The migration of traditional online academic and public library catalogs to the notion of “discovery platforms” promises new ways to expose library collections and other resources tailored to individual patron needs. For more patrons, this personalized search and discovery experience can encompass functions and tools unheard of just a few years ago, such as powerful faceted searching tools and tagging, as well as provide a collaborative portal for social media and other online scholarly community initiatives. For many libraries, the discovery platform also provides an efficient method for maximizing the use of its online resources and overall investment.
Whether you are new to discovery platforms systems or would like ideas on how to enhance your existing solution, this informative session will explore three key areas: the discovery platform marketplace, selection and implementation strategies, and usability.
Event Sessions
Introduction
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A Web Scale Discovery Refresher
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By now, many librarians will have seen one or more demonstration of WSD systems. However, each vendor has their own preferred terminology, philosophy, and strengths - seeing several vendor demos can lead to more questions and confusion than clarity. This presentation puts WSD systems in context by overviewing the core concepts and terminology and looking at the major WSD side-by-side.
Usability Testing of Discovery Interfaces
Speaker
One of the presumed advantages of next-generation and web-scale library catalog interfaces is that the user experience is improved – that it is both richer and more intuitive. Often the interfaces come with little or no user-facing documentation or imbedded “help” for patrons based on an assumption of ease of use and familiarity of the experience, having followed best practices in use by Google, Flickr, Amazon, etc.
Building on the substantial amount of grey literature (published on library websites, etc.) interrogating these implicit claims and contrasting the new interfaces to traditional web-based catalogs, the presenter will share data about the methodology and results of his own research: a task-based usability test of vendor-provided next-gen catalog interfaces and discovery tools (Encore Synergy, Summon, WorldCat Local, Primo, and EBSCO Discovery Service). The findings will assist libraries in making or validating purchase and subscription decisions for these interfaces, as well as help vendors make data-driven decisions about interface and experience enhancements.
Case Study: Discovery Platform Evaluation, Selection and Implementation at Bob Jones University
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Library Manager Joseph Allen and Technical Services Coordinator Bryan Tyson explain why the library staff decided to add a discovery service, the requirements that were set, the RFP process, the trial process, the purchase result, and the current status of the implementation.
Additional Information
- Registration closes at 12:00 pm Eastern on November 9, 2011. Cancellations made by November 2, 2011 will receive a refund, less a $20 cancellation fee. After that date, there are no refunds.
- Registrants will receive detailed instructions about accessing the webinar via e-mail the Monday prior to the event. (Anyone registering between Monday and the close of registration will receive the message shortly after the registration is received, within normal business hours.) Due to the widespread use of spam blockers, filters, out of office messages, etc., it is your responsibility to contact the NISO office if you do not receive login instructions before the start of the webinar.
- Registration is per site (access for one computer) and includes access to the online recorded archive of the webinar. If you are registering someone else from your organization, either use that person's e-mail address when registering or contact the NISO office to provide alternate contact information.
- Webinar presentation slides and Q&A will be posted to the site following the live webinar.
- Registrants will receive access information to the archived webinar following the event. An e-mail message containing archive access instructions will be sent within 48 hours of the event.