Library Discovery Layer

First Meeting of ALS Discovery Layer Evaluation committee was held on February 22,2011 in the Board Room of the Arrowhead Library System.

The meeting consisted of a web presentation by Marshall Breeding which was very similar to in person meeting at the Mountain Iron Community Center attended by many of the school librarians on COMPASS. While Marshall is very knowledgeable about automation in libraries, he is bending over backward not to point ALS in any particular direction. He suggested looking at examples from his Discovery Guide Page.

Some assignments to look at recently implemented discovery systems used around the state were given and will be reported back to the group. You can probably find some, or know of some, and get to them from his page.

It would be very helpful to know what you all expect of this discovery layer. What do you want it to do? What do you think should be included in search results? What would make it more helpful to you and your users? Of course, I know that cost is a major consideration for school libraries and will keep reminding them of that, but we are not really knowing much about cost until closer to knowing what we want the discovery layer to do.

I personally found that the January 2011 Library Technology Reports issue on Web Scale Discovery Services was very much more informative and helpful to my understanding of what the committee should be doing. You can access the issue full text in the ELM databases if you'd like to read it for more understanding of the issues involved. It might help you to help me in bringing to the group issues of importance to you as school media people.

The March issue of Computers in Libraries also is also about Discovery Systems and includes many facets of discovery. It covers implementing ILS discovery systems in libraries, museums, and archives; the library website as a discovery interface; mobile apps as a channel. Stories about technologies and platforms that help patrons surface information from the collections of libraries, museums, or archives. It is also available full text in the ELM databases.

I know I'd like the discovery layer to search more than just our collection and the ELM databases. I frequently end up using Google Books, Google Scholar, and Hathi Trust for verification in interlibrary loan and location. It would be great for me if I could use the ALS search to go out there at the same time as it searches local resources. How about WorldCat? Ebook Vendors? Open access repositories?

What about authentication and rights management issues? Are there any special situations for any of you in this area?

Is local library customization important to you?

Are social features such as the ability to comment or review books, tagging, ratings etc. important to you?

Do you see a need for users accounts or the ability to save a list of results for use at a later time? Save queries? See a list of recently viewed items?

Is there a need for mobile interfaces for use with devices with small screens? What platforms should be supported?

I could really use your input here for these and any other issues you'd like me to bring forward as I represent you on the committee.

School librarians on the ALS COMPASS system should e-mail me with their concerns and issues.