Simplifying resource discovery and access in academic libraries : implementing and evaluating Summon at Huddersfield and Northumbria Universities

Facilitating information discovery and maximising value for money from library materials is a key driver for academic libraries, which spend substantial sums of money on journal, database and book purchasing. Users are confused by the complexity of our collections and the multiple platforms to access them and are reluctant to spend time learning about individual resources and how to use them - comparing this unfavourably to popular and intuitive search engines like Google. As a consequence the library may be seen as too complicated and time consuming and many of our most valuable resources remain undiscovered and underused. Federated search tools were the first commercial products to address this problem. They work by using a single search box to interrogate multiple databases (including Library catalogues) and journal platforms. While going some way to address the problem, many users complained that they were still relatively slow, clunky and complicated to use compared to Google or Google Scholar. The emergence of web-scale discovery services in 2009 promised to deal with some of these problems. By harvesting and indexing metadata direct from publishers and local library collections into a single index they facilitate resource discovery and access to multiple library collections (whether in print or electronic form) via a single search box. Users no longer have to negotiate a number of separate platforms to find different types of information and because the data is held in a single unified index searching is fast and easy. In 2009 both Huddersfield and Northumbria Universities purchased Serials Solutions Summon. This case study report describes the selection, implementation and testing of Summon at both Universities drawing out common themes as well as differences; there are suggestions for those who intend to implement Summon in the future and some suggestions for future development

Library Resources: Procurement, Innovation and Exploitation in a Digital World

The possibilities of the digital future require new models for procurement, innovation and exploitation. Emma Crowley and Chris Spencer describe the skills staff need to deliver resources in hybrid and digital environments. The chapter demonstrates the innovative ways that librarians use to procure and exploit the wealth of resources available in a digital world. They also describe the technological developments that can be adopted to improve workflow processes and they highlight the challenges faced on this fascinating journey

The Sound of the Crowd: Using Social Media to develop best practices for Open Access Workflows for Academic Librarians (OAWAL)

For the past nine months, Graham stone and Jill emery have been promotion OAWAL: Open Access Workflows for Academic Librarians on a blog site, through facebook, through Twitter, and at in-person events in both the US and UK to raise awareness of open access management in academic libraries and in an attempt to crowdsource best practices internationally. At the in-person meetings, we've used a technique known as the H Form which was developed by an independent consulting group known in the UK as "Peanut". This overview will outline the current project and focus on feedback received. It will also highlight some of the changes that have been made in response to the feedback given and future plans of this project

The Irish Research electronic Library initiative – levelling the playing field?

Purpose - The Irish Research electronic Library (IReL) is a nationally funded electronic research library providing online access to full text articles from thousands of peer-reviewed publications in a range of disciplines. This paper examines the opportunities that have arisen for academic libraries at a local level in terms of how they expose resources and promote the initiative. It discusses the challenges that have arisen as libraries enhance, or indeed introduce, value added services to their research community. It examines the results of an in-depth national survey which yielded invaluable insights into how Irish researchers were using library services. Finally, it reflects on the challenges libraries face in facilitating and nurturing research behaviour. Design/methodology/approach – In the first quarter of 2007, seven university libraries asked their researchers for feedback on how they use IReL resources and their awareness of the initiative in the form of a national survey. These results and in particular the feedback from DCU researchers are further analysed. Focus groups and visits to research centres also provided more in-depth analysis. Findings- This paper finds that a collaborative approach to the negotiation of a single national licence for seven academic libraries, with associated training and a discount for consortium contracts has been highly successful. However, it has also posed significant challenges for all libraries in terms of ensuring that the resources are fully exploited and that the necessary support structures are in place to facilitate the provision of appropriate services to the growing research community. Originality/Value –This paper will be useful to libraries planning services for fourth level researchers and in particular, services that promote access to online resources

Report of the Stanford Linked Data Workshop

The Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (SULAIR) with the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) conducted at week-long workshop on the prospects for a large scale, multi-national, multi-institutional prototype of a Linked Data environment for discovery of and navigation among the rapidly, chaotically expanding array of academic information resources. As preparation for the workshop, CLIR sponsored a survey by Jerry Persons, Chief Information Architect emeritus of SULAIR that was published originally for workshop participants as background to the workshop and is now publicly available. The original intention of the workshop was to devise a plan for such a prototype. However, such was the diversity of knowledge, experience, and views of the potential of Linked Data approaches that the workshop participants turned to two more fundamental goals: building common understanding and enthusiasm on the one hand and identifying opportunities and challenges to be confronted in the preparation of the intended prototype and its operation on the other. In pursuit of those objectives, the workshop participants produced:1. a value statement addressing the question of why a Linked Data approach is worth prototyping;2. a manifesto for Linked Libraries (and Museums and Archives and …);3. an outline of the phases in a life cycle of Linked Data approaches;4. a prioritized list of known issues in generating, harvesting & using Linked Data;5. a workflow with notes for converting library bibliographic records and other academic metadata to URIs;6. examples of potential “killer apps” using Linked Data: and7. a list of next steps and potential projects.This report includes a summary of the workshop agenda, a chart showing the use of Linked Data in cultural heritage venues, and short biographies and statements from each of the participants

The case for metadata harvesting

Metadata harvesting is an increasingly popular model of interaction between the mutually autonomous parties of medium, medium-large federations of digital library services. With a harvesting protocol, in particular, resource descriptions locally available at each party can be served to remote applications for the implementation of federated services, such as resource discovery. This article offers a systematic explanation of the success of the model and its standard implementations in the context of current initiatives for national and international federations

Implementing a resource list management system in an academic library

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the key components of the introduction of a new resource list management system (RLMS) at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) using the Aspire application from Talis Education. It explains the key service goals; the implementation milestones; the main technical challenges which needed to be addressed; and the dynamic relationship between the rollout of the RLMS and existing selection, acquisition and resource delivery processes

A grid-based infrastructure for distributed retrieval

In large-scale distributed retrieval, challenges of latency, heterogeneity, and dynamicity emphasise the importance of infrastructural support in reducing the development costs of state-of-the-art solutions. We present a service-based infrastructure for distributed retrieval which blends middleware facilities and a design framework to ‘lift’ the resource sharing approach and the computational services of a European Grid platform into the domain of e-Science applications. In this paper, we give an overview of the DILIGENT Search Framework and illustrate its exploitation in the field of Earth Science

The Future of Open Access Journals in Academic Libraries: a Survey on Current Practices and a Blueprint for Collection Development (Survey Data)

Print journals collection development is a long-standing academic library role, whose support of university curriculum and research is essential. However, academic libraries have weathered difficult collection development decisions due to costs and strained budgets. As technology has given rise to online journals and space is reallocated, libraries have shifted focus to online journals. In addition, some academic libraries select open access journals to supplement subscriptions, but lack criteria. Furthermore, academic libraries are challenged by some open access journals’ predatory practices, unreliable access, and lacking peer review. This article explores academic libraries’ open access journals collection development and provides a blueprint