Information Literacy Commons^™

What Does It Take To Make Discovery A Success?: A Survey Of Discovery Tool Adoption, Instruction, And Evaluation Among Academic Libraries, Aaron Nichols, Emily A. Crist, Graham Sherriff, Megan Allison

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Discovery tools have been widely adopted by academic libraries, yet little information exists that connects common practices regarding discovery tool implementation, maintenance, assessment, and staffing with conventions for research and instruction. The authors surveyed heads of reference and instruction departments in research and land-grant university libraries. The survey results revealed common practices with discovery tools among academic libraries. This study also draws connections between operational, instructional, and assessment practices and perceptions that participants have of the success of their discovery tool. Participants who indicated successful implementation of their discovery tool hailed from institutions that made significant commitments to the operations, …