a journey of discovery: introducing discover@bolton, the library’s new resource search interface...
TRANSCRIPT
A journey of discovery: introducing Discover@Bolton, the Library’s new resource search interface
Sarah Taylor Electronic Resources LibrarianUniversity of Bolton
9th July 2015
Discover@Bolton: today’s session
• Why
• What
• How
• Your turn!
DISCOVER@BOLTON
9th July 2015
A sea of resource-related confusion
DISCOVER@BOLTON
A to Z list of electronic resources
Resources by subject
E-journals portal
Library websiteElectronic databases
Catalogue
Reading Lists Online
Database guidesList of e-books
Google Scholar
UBIRGoogle
9th July 2015
Discover@Bolton: the start of the journey
• So many resources; so many routes; so little time
• “Is there not a page I can go to and search all databases at once? How hard can it be?!”
• Innovation = expensive
• Might not be the ultimate solution?
• Will the importance of direct access to databases be diluted in some way?
• Will it catch on…?
DISCOVER@BOLTON
http://irepairmacs.co.uk/2015/05/12/start-of-a-new-journey/
9th July 2015
Discover@Bolton: why we needed it
• Low satisfaction (recorded by surveys such as NSS, PRES, PTES and library surveys) with amount of resources, but we couldn’t establish if that was down to discoverability
• Students want to be able to go to one single interface and search across resources
• Serendipity!
• Easier to see which of our resources are used, and which aren’t
• Becoming the norm: an expected library service
DISCOVER@BOLTON
9th July 2015
Discover@Bolton: onward bound
• Product chosen with name chosen by Library staff
• Service implemented
• Soft-launched (with full launch in September 2015 to coincide with changes to how we logon to electronic resources)
• Links on the Library website just before Christmas; search boxes in various places in February 2015
• Over 8,000 searches since February
• Topics for searches reflect Subject Help Desk queries
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9th July 2015
Discover@Bolton: what it does
• Single interface to search across the full text of the majority of our resources, for example, all ProQuest resources and all Ebsco resources
• Includes electronic books, printed books, electronic journals and printed journals
• No need to know which database might be the best one to use
• Where we have full text available, it is possible to link from Discover@Bolton to that full text
• Adds value to our information, for example, pointers to specific databases and even local information such as library opening hours
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9th July 2015
Discover@Bolton: what doesn’t it do
• Currently works better on-campus only – off-campus access relies on an entirely new method of authenticating to resources
• Not all our resources are included, notably some law resources and American Psychological Association – this is a publisher issue
• The information in Discover@Bolton is only as good as the publisher provides – but mostly this information is very good!
• Any broken links (a very small number) are often due to the platform provider, rather than Discover@Bolton
• Doesn’t write the essay, of course… Nothing’s perfect!
DISCOVER@BOLTON
9th July 2015
Our journey to date…
• “Just what was needed – brilliant!”
• Meets user expectations: lots of positive feedback to date
• Allows users to find academic resources quickly and removes uncertainty
• Uncovers ‘unknown’ resources, i.e. those from databases beyond commonly-used resources
• Users might not necessarily need to gain expertise in multiple databases (e.g. ProQuest v Ebsco v JSTOR etc.)
DISCOVER@BOLTON
