ODI "Demystifying Discovery" Video Series: Connectivity with Other Systems
About the Series
The NISO Open Discovery Initiative defines standards and/or best practices for the new generation of library discovery services that are based on indexed search. These discovery services are primarily based upon indexes derived from journals, ebooks, and other electronic information of a scholarly nature. The content comes from a range of information providers and products--commercial, open access, institutional, etc.
As members of the Open Discovery Initiative have presented on our Recommended Practice, NISO RP-19-2020, Open Discovery Initiative: Promoting Transparency in Discovery, we have learned just how varied understanding of the complete discovery ecosystem actually is. While it may seem a straightforward environment, libraries must ensure that an entire suite of online tools and functions are in place to maximize access to the content they provide their users.
To clarify the complexities of the discovery ecosystem, the ODI Standing Committee has launched the "Demystifying Discovery" video series to provide an overview of its various components. The first three videos in the series - on link resolvers, metadata, and the discovery ecosystem - can be found here. In the next installment of this series, we will examine discovery services and their connections to other systems.
Connectivity with Other Systems
The fundamental premise of a Discovery Service is to provide a single point of access to search and discover a library’s entire collection – including its catalog, journal collection, eBooks, Institutional Repositories, full-text databases, and even its special collections. Very often a given library may have partnerships with other libraries for the purpose of exposing and sharing their respective collections. Ultimately, each library uses a variety of tools, services and platforms to connect and serve these content resources to its end users, and in various cases, to streamline and optimize workflows for library staff. While a discovery service is the tool through which a single search of the library collection is accomplished, it is critical that these discovery services consider that the library’s larger ecosystem must be included. In other words, connectivity and interoperability between and among the discovery service and other library systems is paramount.
Click above to watch the embedded video or click through here to view the recorded presentation on our Cadmore Repository.