Web-Scale Discovery Service: Is It Right for Your Library? Mayo Clinic Libraries Experience

ABSTRACT

Web-scale discovery (WSD) tools or services promise to deliver a quick, efficient, and comprehensive search experience through a single-entry point. This article will provide an overview of the analysis conducted by Mayo Clinic Libraries to identify, investigate, and test multiple Web-scale discovery services to determine if one would enhance their library users’ searching experience. As an increasing number of health sciences and medical libraries become interested in implementing discovery tools, the resources available through these tools should be carefully evaluated in the context of user needs.

KEYWORDS:

• Discovery layers
• discovery services
• discovery tools
• federated search
• library discovery services
• online information services—evaluation
• online library catalogs—evaluation
• user experience
• Web-scale discovery
• Web discovery services
• WSD