Discovery or Displacement? A Major Longitudinal Study of the Effect of Web-Scale Discovery Services on Online (Journal) Usage SCELC Colloquium March 5, 2014 Michael Levine-Clark, University of Denver John McDonald, University of Southern California Jason Price, SCELC Consortium
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Discovery or Displacement? A Major Longitudinal Study of the Effect of Web-Scale Discovery Services on Online (Journal) Usage SCELC Colloquium March 5,
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Discovery or Displacement?A Major Longitudinal Study of the
Effect of Web-Scale Discovery Services on Online (Journal) Usage
SCELC ColloquiumMarch 5, 2014
Michael Levine-Clark, University of DenverJohn McDonald, University of Southern California
Jason Price, SCELC Consortium
“…a steep increase in full text downloads and link resolver click‐throughs suggests Summon had a dramatic impact on user behavior and the use of library collections during this time period.”
The Impact of Web-scale Discovery on the Use of a Library CollectionDoug Way (2010) http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/library_sp/9/
• 35 undergraduate majors and 34 minors. • Graduate programs – doctorates in educational leadership, higher education leadership and clinical psychology.• Master’s degrees in education, psychology, computer science, business administration, public policy and administration, information systems and technology, and economics. • Total enrollment – 4,282 students.
PEARSON LIBRARY
Collection features about 132,000 physical volumes, 130 active print periodicals, 158 databases, 219,000 eBooks, 65,000 fulltext journals, and 10,500 streaming online e-videos.WorldShare Management Services & WorldCat Discovery System was implemented in September 2011.
Discovery System that
o Provides single point access to many library research resources - In addition to our print collection, 80% of the library online resources overall are discoverable and searchable in our WorldCat Local.
o Enables positive end user experience o Increases usage of the subscribed electronic resources
Percentage of discoverable and searchable resources by material type
Full-text downloads: pre and post discovery system assessment
Online Catalog Usage
Selected Year (January 2013 – December 2013) Total: 472,907 Selected Period (January 2014 - February 2014)52 Weeks Prior Total: 391,151 Total: 64,159
Use at Reference
Using WorldCat Local for reference assistance is the “default action” for our Reference/Information Commons “staff”.
If the discovery service search does not yield relevant results, then they start using subject related databases and/or research guides.
Impact on Instruction
The WorldCat Local introduced to all lower–division classes.All 4 librarians at CLU teach the discovery layer and if needed additional resources (specific databases, e-journals, websites, and etc.) introduced as well.History Subject GuideBased on the CLU librarians impute and available research on impact of discovery systems on information literacy sessions, our Information Literacy Manager outlined why, when and how we use DS in instruction
Based on the CLU librarians impute and available research on impact of discovery systems on information literacy sessions, our Information Literacy Manager outlined why, when and how we use DS in instruction:
Impact on Instruction
Pros ConsMultidisciplinary searching Large result setsIntuitive information retrieval; less of a need to teach searching Some lack of relevant results
Helps identify useful databases Not knowing how results are indexedTeach at the reference/IC desk Some resistance from instruction librarians. Obviates/renders
unnecessary teaching students search process
Good for articles when few are needed Not precise enough for graduate-level researchGeared more to undergraduates Items/articles may not be covered in databasesEase of use Masks the complexities of the search process; makes it appear easier
than it really is
One-stop-shopping. Easier to sift through all the database offerings Less focus on differences in resources found
Audio/video content more visible Good for wide-range of topics/interdisciplinary Good for searching a range of formats and materials
Shifts student thinking to critically evaluating what they found rather than how to search
Shift away from “brand names” to streamlined searching
Instruction approachesIntroduce WCL as a place to launch your research, as one-stop shopping.Metaphor: A discovery tool is similar to a large department store such as Wal-Mart where everything is available and the quality of the merchandise can vary, whereas a subject database is more comparable to a boutique store, smaller selection but higher quality. Buck & Steffy (2013)Class Activities Have students explore the discovery tool and a more conventional database to discover similarities and differences. Then have a class discussion about the value of each tool.Have students work in teams of two to work on different options for refining a search and share the experience with the class.Have students list the ways they might use a discovery tool in their future work.Quick Writes (See lesson plan on the Discovery Tool vs. the Web)WCL Lesson Plan - IL Session
What is the single biggest factor that would increase use of WCL discovery system at CLU?
AWARENESS
Unique Features:
- Allows users to discover relevant content beyond the library specific holdings
- Provides librarians with collection development tool and generates more PDA through ILL
- Provides patrons with opportunity to save searches and results, create and share reading lists and bibliography.
Unique Features:
- Provides patrons with opportunity to save searches and results, create and share reading lists and bibliography.
Unique Features:
DISCOVERY SERVICE ASSESSMENTLinda Wobbe Saint Mary’s College of CA 2014
SMC Goals
◻ Google-like searching◻ Access the entire Library collection◻ Discovery of overlooked resources◻ Improve cross-disciplinary access
Discovery: search everything?
What is missing?
Reference Desk
◻Do you use Discovery at the Reference Desk?
YES: 100%
Reference
◻YES: as a way to retrieve known articles. ◻YES: when I'm not sure what discipline a topic will
fall into.◻YES: when no results are found in the subject
specific database, then I'll show Multisearch to "discover" things that might be hiding somewhere else.
◻YES: students often aren't sure whether they want a book or article
◻YES: students at the desk need something NOW and Multisearch is great for that.
Instruction
Do you teach Multisearch to undergraduates? ◻YES: 67%
Instruction for undergraduates
◻YES: one search box is easy for students◻YES: perfect for lower division courses◻YES: "Google-like" experience that makes
research easy◻YES: limit results by full text
Instruction for Undergraduates
◻NO: lower division classes focus on learning the database for that discipline.
◻NO: brings up too much, which is overwhelming for the lower division students' needs.
Graduate Instruction
◻Do you teach Discovery to graduate students
NO: 67%
Instruction for Graduate & Upper
◻YES: as a supplement to the disciplinary database particularly with interdisciplinary topics
◻NO: they need more options for limiting◻NO: their more sophisticated needs are met in
a database that has subject nuanced search features
◻NO: The search feature in subject specific databases is detailed to the particular subjects
Increase use?
◻Number one:
Present Discovery Search as the default
How to increase use?
◻ Improve precision⬜Material type limiters⬜Discipline-specific limiters⬜Take advantage of catalog scopes
◻Sign truce with ProQuest⬜Would percentage included to 60% from 50%
◻Enhance reference handbook
and statistical resources content
Multisearch Results
Impact & Assessment of Summon @ USC
Beth Namei, University of Southern California
3/5/2014
USC’s Two Major Discovery Service Implementation Goals:
#1:Provide better discoverability of our subscription and purchased content (via a unified access point)
#2: Provide (more) relevant results
Goal #1: Provide better discoverability of our
subscription and purchased content (via a unified access point)
757
85% (647) of our database content is indexed by Summon
62,797
91% (56,980) of our current journals (with active ISSNs) are indexed in Summon
OpenURL ClickThroughs to Full-Text
Summon added as default search option on the libraries’ homepage(July 2010)
Summon rolled out Direct Linking to Full-Text, bypassing the OpenURL link resolver (Nov. 2011)
Top Referring Sources to Full-text Content (via our OpenURL link-resolver)
In March 2013, 32 A&I databases were added to USC’s Summon instance.
This led us to revise goal #2: Provide better discoverability and access to information, via a single search box, regardless of whether we own or subscribe to the content.
March 2013: 32 A&I databases were turned on in Summon
(over 134 million records)
New ILL Accounts CreatedThere was a 25% increase in new ILL accounts after March 2013, when USC added an ILL button to Summon
Goal #2: Provide (more) relevant results
Typical complaints about our catalog:
Even if you know the title of the book you're looking for, HOMER searches often result in random/not relevant results. I find myself going to WorldCat just to locate books in our library! We need a better search engine.
...say I was trying to find out if the library has "The Name of War" by Jill Lepore. If I search "Name of War" or "The Name of War" as the title, HOMER gives me a list of results that are totally wrong. In fact, the first result is "Domesticating Vigilantism in Africa." What?? On the other hand, if I go to Google Books or WorldCat and type in "The Name of War," Lepore's book is the very first result.
April 2010 - Pre-Summon homepage
July 2010 - Summon is launched as the default tab
July 2012 - Summon-centric homepage (Homer tab is removed)
The catalog is still an option, just a less prominent one:
via a drop-down menu
an icon below the main Summon search box
Summon added as default search tab (July 2010)
Catalog search tab removed from homepage (July 2012)
Over 3 Million Summon Searches in 2013
How Users are Getting to the Catalog (2013)
Success!
We have had no complaints about our catalog’s (bad) relevancy since July 2012.
But…users are still not completely satisfied with the results they’re getting from Summon
Usability Study of the Homepage, 2013
The USC’s version of Quick Search just doesn’t generally turn up reliable results for me. I’ll search a very obvious keyword or a very specific keyword and it won’t turn up the most relevant results first even though I know the highly relevant results are in there it won’t bring them up so it’s probably a backend USC libraries problem with the Quick Search function. But because it’s difficult to narrow down by content and by type that I want and because the results just aren’t that relevant or they don’t turn up the best results first, I tend not to use Quick Search. Unless I’m feeling really, really lazy and I have to turn something in in 20 minutes and I’m like ‘whatever’s on top, I’ll take that!
What effect has implementation of Summon had on library instruction and reference service at USC?
Results from instruction surveySurveyed 47 instruction/reference librarians; 25 responded
(53%)
• 14 out of 15 librarians who teach introductory library sessions for freshman writing courses teach Summon:
o 1 does not teach Summon at all
o 3 spend 1/4 of the class session demonstrating it (10-20 minutes), but
also demonstrate 1-2 (or more) other databases/tools.
o 6 briefly demonstrate it (no more than 5 minutes) before moving on to
demonstrating other databases/tools (most of these respondents said
they felt obliged to address it since it was so prominent on our
website)
o 5 spend the majority of their teaching time demonstrating it
Do you teach Summon in upper level/subject specific courses?
Yes: 12
No: 9
n/a: 4
Do you use Summon at the Reference Desk?
Yes 11
No: 12
n/a: 2
In what ways (if any) has incorporating Summon into your instruction sessions changed your teaching?
• hasn’t changed my instruction at all
• allows for more time on other resources
• I spend less time with other [resources] to incorporate this one
• allowed for less lecture time spent on our webpage and what a
database is and more focus on content type, evaluations, building a
search. Also: I have significantly cut down my lecture time to allow
them to figure out these things through hands on activities.
• I spend more time talking about the information cycle and what the
different source types mean. I think it's allowed me to focus a little
more on the higher-order skills of research because they don't have
to be bogged down in the tool.
What is the single biggest factor that would increase use of USC’s discovery system?