Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Resource discovery
Graham Stone
Introduction
Today's researchers use a wide variety of tools to discover the
information resources they require. These resources may be located
within a physical library or available on the web and, if so, are available
in a proliferation of formats and interfaces, which has often meant that
users were directed to a number of different in-house or external
systems to find the information they required. Over the past ten years
libraries have, to a varying degree, sought to manage and expose this
data, while attempting to dissuade users from flocking to the simplicity
of Google (Scholar), Amazon, YouTube, etc. However, the provision of
these different resource-discovery systems uses an increasing amount of
the resources in today's academic library.
A review of the recent literature suggests that users prefer simple
search interfaces such as Google (Nicholas et al., 2009). The implication
here is that libraries often fail to make their resources discoverable and
that this may in turn affect the perceived value of the library.
In a recent report for vice-chancellors and senior institutional
managers the Research Information Network (RIN) stated that:
The usefulness of the content and collections provided by libraries and
from other sources depends on how easily researchers can discover,
locate and gain access to them. Institutions need to ensure that their
researchers can readily make use, through the library and other
