ER&L 2013

Search & Discovery

ebsco, discovery

Following this session, participants will be able to leave with: 1) Strategies for assessing the value of webscale discovery systems; 2) concrete strategies to improve the performance of their discovery tool.

Three universities will discuss assessment of discovery systems. Texas State University-San Marcos believed a discovery tool wouldn’t offer value beyond existing cross-platform searching tools. After two years of testing, we changed our minds and learned many lessons. We will present strategies and recommendations for conducting usability testing and surveys, testing and customizing interfaces, and post-implementation management. Florida International University and the University of North Florida have both implemented or trialed discovery systems in the past year and have been working on strategies to assess these systems. We will share what we have done so far, and then would like to open the floor to see what assessments attendees have planned or performed.