Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Discovery Services: Single-Search Access To Multiple Resources, Win Shih

Win Shih

Libraries can provide more effective services to their patrons with single-search access to multiple resources via “discovery service” products. These hosted discovery tools offer oneshot searchability of library local holdings and diverse electronic content from database producers, and electronic journal and book publishers and providers. Search results are ranked by relevancy, and offer navigation of large result sets using sorted groupings derived via facet limitation. Sometimes known as next-generation catalogs, these services encourage wider resource use, while recognizing the “long tail effect." Discovery services can exert “gravitational pull” similar to Google Scholar, empowering users to realize their scholarly goals with …