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College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

• Questions to ask:– What’s under the hood?– What’s involved in setting it up?– What do I have to do to maintain it?

• Answers depend upon your configuration and your vendor

College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

Components of a Discovery Tool:• User Interface – The “front end” that the user

searches and retrieves information

College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

Components of a Discovery Tool:• ILS (Integrated Library System) – The system that

manages your library’s physical holdings.

College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

Components of a Discovery Tool:• Other Library-Related Data – Digital collections,

institutional repositories, HaitiTrust, etc.

College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

Components of a Discovery Tool:• Link Resolver – Software that is used to link article

citations directly to their corresponding articles within authorized databases. Also contains a file of all journals an institution has access to via online databases and/or print collections.

College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

Components of a Discovery Tool:• Discovery Tool Repository – A HUGE database of

article records, eBook records, etc. that the vendor collects from:– Their own databases they manage (EBSCO, ProQuest)– Other databases that share their records (Gale, MedLine,

ERIC, Springer)– Publishers

College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

Discovery ToolUser Interface

ILS Records

Other Records

Vendor Repository (Article citations, eBook records, etc.)

Link Resolver

College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

So, what needs to be configured?• User Interface – This includes:• the front page of system• limiters to the initial search • facets to narrow the results• brief and full record display

– Specialized search boxes or widgets.

College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

• ILS and other databases– Need to have a mechanism to “publish” the

records from your ILS and other sources into the discovery tool. • Usually provided by the vendor.• If the data is constantly changing, such as the data from

the ILS, this needs to be done at frequent intervals.• Need to establish a way for the discovery tool to link

back to the ILS for information regarding availability.

College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

• Vendor Repository– Cannot control the data itself. (i.e., if there is a

citation that is incorrect, that must be changed by the vendor and/or with the source that the vendor obtained the record.)

– Can control which citation collections are accessed when a search is performed. In some cases, more is better.

College Center for Library Automation

Configuring Discovery Tools

• Link Resolver– Crucial piece that allows the discovery tool to

work.– The knowledgebase file of the link resolver is

used to determine which citations to display and whether a full-text article is available.

– It also links the citation to the article within a subscription database.

– It is imperative that the link resolver data is accurate and is configured correctly.

College Center for Library Automation

Contact Information

Dave WhisenantLibrary Services ConsultantCollege Center for Library Automationemail: dwhisenant@cclaflorida.orgtwitter: dawhisenantPhone: 850-922-6044