Thinking About Discovery Layers

• Published in: The Journal of academic librarianship Vol. 38; no. 6; pp. 346 - 347
• Main Author: Little, Geoffrey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ann Arbor Elsevier Science Ltd 01-11-2012
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Archives & records; Discovery tools; Internet resources; Librarians; Library Materials; Product design; Public access; User behaviour
• ISSN: 0099-1333; 1879-1999
• DOI: 10.1016/j.acalib.2012.09.019

Little talks about using online resources in starting one's research. Many of the reasons behind this shift in user behavior are obvious and have been exceedingly well documented: the simple Google (www. google.com) keyword search has transformed the ways in which people can retrieve information or start researching a topic on which they have no previous knowledge or understanding. As a result of this challenge, libraries have been turning to "discovery layers" in order to provide new ways for users to access library collections. OCLC's Lorcan Dempsey has described discovery layers as providing "a single point of access to the full library collection across bought, licensed and digital materials." But no one should expect discovery layers to solve all of the problems associated with information display and retrieval. Most discovery layers are based in the cloud, which means that data is stored on a server somewhere outside of the library. As well, selecting a proprietary discovery layer means yet another product from the shrinking numbers of big library vendors.