The Long and Winding Road: Implementing Discovery at Indiana University Bloomington Libraries

In early 2010, Indiana University Bloomington Libraries became a beta tester for the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS)™ product, and subsequently selected it in September of that year. After working through various issues with library content and staff expectations, the IUB Libraries launched EDS™ – branded as OneSearch@IU, in August 2011. This case study provides an overview of the decision-making process and challenges encountered in the process of implementation of a Web-scale discovery tool. Specific topics such as working with a vendor Application Program Interface (API) to integrate a discovery tool within a library website, formulating an effective extract of library catalog records to import into a discovery tool, customizing a vendor discovery interface, and assessing use and user satisfaction with a discovery system are described. Broad concepts addressed in this chapter include information technology project implementation and library information systems

The Library in 2020 Will Be...

Thinking about the future of libraries, librarianship and the work librarians do is as old as libraries themselves. At no time in our memory, though, have these discussions and conversations been so profound and critical. This volume about the future of libraries brought together 30 leaders from all types of libraries and from outside librarianship to describe their vision of what the library will be in 2020. Contributors were asked to describe the "library of 2020," in whatever terms they wanted, either a specific library or situation or libraries in general. They were told: "be bold, be inspirational, be hopeful, be true, be provocative, be realistic, be depressing, be light-hearted, be thoughtful, be fun, be yourself, and for heaven's sake, don't be boring." Broadly representative of important perspectives and aspects within the profession as well as featuring important voices beyond the professional realm, Library 2020 presents thought-provoking and illuminating visions from many points of view

Leveraging Libraries to Support Academic Technology

Through leveraging the relationship between libraries and technology, colleges and universities can make the best use of the skills that librarians bring to the table. At DePaul University, three positions have been created, which report to two campus units: The University Libraries and Instructional Technology Development. The consolidation of both library and instructional technology perspectives to create this first group of blended positions at DePaul has been successful, due in large part to the fact that the primary responsibilities of these positions are in areas of mutual interest: instruction, collection development, and technology support for faculty and students, whether on a consulting basis or at the reference desk. As libraries and librarians become ever more closely and actively aligned with the teaching mission of the university, universities and colleges can transform librarians’ roles within the academy by leveraging their skills to enhance teaching and learning in today’s online environment

Strategies to Improve the User Experience

Libraries are increasingly embracing user experience (UX) and user-centered design principles to improve the satisfaction and success of library users. Electronic resources management can utilize such principles to better support users as they interact with the library's website and its electronic resources. In this column, four academic librarians discuss strategies libraries can employ to improve the user experience. These strategies include utilizing basic UX principles when designing sites and interfaces; analyzing quantitative data to inform the library on how such sites are being used; recruiting strategies for library user studies; and, finally, a call to move to a more unified user experience and to work more closely with vendors on improvements to help users succeed

IU Libraries Discovery Layer Implementation Task Force Progress Report and Notes & Recommendations for Future

In May 2013, the primary public interface for IUCAT transitioned to a new discovery layer interface, powered by the open source web application Blacklight. This document reports on progress and makes recommendations for enabling ongoing system-wide input into the development of the catalog discovery interface through the completion of the upcoming OLE migration project. Appendices include groups’ charges & memberships, and an annotated version of the original selection rubric notating status of product features.This report was prepared for the IU Council of Head Librarians

IU Libraries Discovery Layer Task Force Summary Report and Recommendation

The IU Libraries OLE Discovery Layer Task Force reviewed the candidate applications (Blacklight and VuFind) for a new public interface for IUCAT, in terms of how each best supports discovery for the IU Libraries. The Task Force created a rubric of core functionality required by all campuses in a catalog user interface, organized into several broad areas. Criteria have been designated as required, highly desirable, or desirable, and each product has been reviewed and rated according to the rubric (attached as an appendix). This report was prepared for the IU Council of Head Librarians

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

The New IUCAT: Powered by Blacklight

Recently, the Indiana University Libraries implemented Blacklight, an open source discovery layer, as the new public interface for IUCAT, the statewide shared online catalog. Blacklight was chosen as the solution to improve the usability and accessibility of the catalog in response to user and staff dissatisfaction with the traditional ILS OPAC interface and in preparation for IU’s upcoming move to the Kuali Open Library Environment (OLE). A successful discovery implementation requires buy-in from library staff as well as the approval and acceptance of users; this presentation will highlight the numerous challenges in achieving success in a complex environment of diverse stakeholders with divergent needs and goals. Courtney will give a brief overview of the project thus far, discuss the impact of the new interface on user and staff workflows, and share hopes for further enhancements and plans for the transition to OLE

Content Strategy as a Model of Web Stewardship

Content strategy is an emerging area of expertise related to user experience design work, defined as “planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.” This session will provide a brief overview of content strategy concepts and describe how a well-articulated content strategy can enable a better user experience through thinking holistically and strategically about web content -- in other words, in stewardship. We’ll also present a brief case study of how, through implementing these tools and processes, our small department was empowered to stop simply chasing web pages around and instead invest our efforts into crafting a user-centric, sustainable web presence for the IUB Libraries (http://libraries.indiana.edu)