Semantic Web Scale Discovery Services in Indian Libraries
Abstract
Indian Libraries are undergoing through a tremendous change assuming new dimensions
influenced by the technology driven applications. With the advancement in technology in
libraries, they are becoming lean and agile libraries that streamline information supply.
The omnipresent Internet, coupled with platform independent database connectivity’s are
turning library portals more and more effective. With the introduction of terms ‘unified
index’ and ‘unified search index’ libraries are getting associated with discovery services.
Discovery services are the unified search index to search content from all sources they
have access to from a single index. It is a single & simple entry point which searches the
Pre-Indexed metadata and/or Full Text Documents. Similarly Web scale discovery
services have become major potential tools to transform the nature of library systems.
These services are capable of searching quickly and seamlessly across a vast range of
local and remote content and providing relevancy-ranked results in the type of intuitive
interface that today’s information seekers expect. The paper discusses how discovery
solution works and provides the potential features of Discovery Solutions. It also
enumerates the benefits of Web Discovery interface. It compares and describes the major
discovery solution providers in libraries. The paper provides the status of Indian Libraries
adapting resource discovery applications. In India many of the academic libraries are
taking trails of the search solutions to transform search to next generation search.
Introduction
In India at present the implementation of Discovery solution in Libraries is negligible.
The users of academic libraries including students, faculty, researcher and other users
have been left to augment Google results by searching library databases individually.
Some of the Libraries are using metasearch engines, also referred to as federated search
engines, which has simplify searching across these databases, but they have fallen short
of libraries expectations—owing in part to structural complexities, as connectors to each
resource are hard to maintain. Every year with change in subscription of resources the
connectors are to be taken. In addition to this the federated solution are slower of
response, problems with relevance ranking, and inadequate handling of duplicates are
some of the major problems.
Over the last decade there has been more stress on use of integrated library search
experience across the range of electronic resource libraries which are providing access to
– through A-Z journal lists, federated search tools, and the library’s OPAC (online
catalog). But all these suffer from incompleteness, in comparison to web-scale search
tools such as Google. Like OPACs don’t include database information, federated search
tools can only search a limited set of metadata and they also don’t provide the user with
easy access to the full text. This is exactly in the case of Google which provides like
whether an database or an article entry is best suitable for the user’s needs, or where it
comes from, no matter whether or not it has been purchased by the library.
Discovery tools assure good promise for search solutions by shifting some of the IT
management responsibilities to the cloud, streamlining search, and improving the
relevance ranking of results. The users get a single window search or a single query like
in Google to search the rich content of the collection of the library with the speed they
have come to expect.
So the Discovery empowers the user with effective tools to manipulate a large and varied
search result set and is key to user success with searching the information. Discovery
tools are an impressive first step toward having the catalog reflect the best practices of
the reference interview: a single search box proclaims “tell me what you know about
what you are seeking”; the result set highlights the full portfolio of library resources; and
the user may berry-pick from there using facets and other modern tools.[1]
How discovery works
Library discovery services aim to index all the content a library has access to
electronically either by indexing the full text or the metadata. It also integrates records for
print holdings and other content-types that are available in physical form, like maps,
microform, photographic collections, albums and so on. Library discovery services don’t
search the library’s locally-held resources one-by-one; instead, they index and search a
centrally held database of publisher content, thereby allowing more complete indexing
which is much faster in searching, and provides more complex integration of result sets.
Another feature which distinguish it from other is rather than seeing multiple results for
the same article if it’s held in several different databases or abstracting and indexing
services, these search tools display a composite result for each item. Linking from the list
of results to the full text of an article is also controlled by the library through their link
resolver system, so a user is directed to the most appropriate full text copy a library holds,
generally the version of record on the publisher’s own platform.[2]
Potential Features of Discovery Solutions
1. Single Search: Web Scale Discovery provides a Google-like search experience,
allowing researchers to use one search box to discover credible and reliable
library content.
2. Relevant results: Delivers search results in a relevancy-ranked list so the most
relevant results appear at the top of the list.
3. Complete and instant access: Incorporates the comprehensive knowledge of
library's holdings so that researchers can access their results including full-text of
electronic articles.
4. Access to critical subject indexes: It provides access via Platform Blending, and
combines rich metadata with subject indexing and abstracts from leading subject
indexes
5. Hosted for easy support: The service is provided as a hosted service, making it
an easy application to support with very little impact on library staff.
6. Mobile Accessibility: Provides instant searching of a library’s collection through
the
web-scale
discovery
service
from
a
mobile
device.
7. Easily integrated: The discovery service provides an open API that allows
integration with existing applications, such as learning management systems.
8. Results refinement: Easily navigate and narrow search result sets using multiple
methods, such as filtering, faceting and sorting.
9. Clear, immediate results: Valuable information is conveniently displayed within
the results list, allowing for quick appraisal. This data includes abstracts, item
location, online full text availability, and much more.
10. Full-text filter: The discovery also provides time-efficient research for the busy
users by allowing results set to be limited to items immediately available in full
text online.
11. Citation formatting: Quickly generating of citations in the preferred style
required.
12. Bibliographic information export: One can easily export citations to
bibliographic management software applications such as EndNote, RefWorks and
ProCite.
13. Scholarship filter: Gives the ability to limit results to "scholarly" publications
including peer-reviewed material.
14. Help and suggestions: The service provides alternative guidance for misspellings
or low yield queries.
15. Technical Assistance: Also provides combination of knowledge, technical
expertise, access to content.
In addition to above Discovery solutions also provide Book jacket images and
publication-type icons; Persistent Links; CustomLinks and support for Guest Access and
Simultaneous User Access. [3]
Benefits of Discovery
Some of the common features of discovery layers for web-scale discovery services
include single search across the central index; fast response time; relevancy-ranked
results list; facets, sort, and other tools for refining and using the results; connections to
full text via direct links and OpenURL and End-user accounts and features. These can be
further elaborated as:
1. Speed: With the discovery solutions users don’t have to wait tens of seconds for
their search results. In terms of response time, live searching can’t compete with
index searching.
2. Publishers: A second factor driving the creation of discovery services is the
willingness of publishers and content aggregators to form partnerships with
developers of the services. Given the pressure to deliver search results in “Google
time,” publishers have an incentive to cooperate with one another and with
discovery service providers.
3. Connectors: Another reason for the big interest in discovery services is that the
onerous task of building, monitoring, and repairing connectors disappears since
there are no connectors.
4. Meta data: Unified indexes provide benefits due to their “homogenization” of
meta data. Duplicates are much easier to remove via discovery services than by
federated search engines. Discovery services produce more “complete” results, i.e.
results with titles, authors, publications dates and other fields of interest that
federated search can’t reliably get. With better fielded results it will be easier to
cluster and otherwise organize search results.[4]
5. Use everywhere: Discovery search functionality integrates libraries and its
institutional portals, course management systems, or other third-party software,
enabling its users to find and get information whenever they need it and wherever
they are.
6. Integrated link resolution. It provides inbound and outbound link resolution and
an A to Z journal list let users quickly connect with the articles they need.
7. Share: Discovery solutions incorporate Library 2.0 and social computing features,
enabling institution members to share tags, ratings, and reviews. It also accelerate
collaboration between institutions and wider networks through shared metadata,
resources and collaborative workflows.
8. Information Literacy: There is a new opportunity for user-centred information
literacy programs to emerge. The new web-scale discovery systems have also
made impact on information literacy programs and pedagogical approaches to
library instruction. Discovery systems offer new possibilities to shift instruction
programs away from their historical focus on explanatory searching and citing,
towards exploratory higher level thinking in relation to evaluating and using
information itself. As library search gets easier and varied platforms become
unified, the focus of information literacy on search rules and platform choice and
navigation is able to truly give way to critical thinking and imaginative
exploration.
In addition to the above benefits the Discovery One Stop Search helps users
understand that there are many types of information sources – online journal articles,
videos, tweets, e-books, e-reference materials, blogs – each with their own purposes
and uses. Understanding these purposes is the key to selecting and critically
evaluating information in relation to the need at hand, and it is key to thinking about
information is not just consuming it, but it is key to being able to wisely find and use
the right information at the right time.[5]
Discovery Solutions
The new discovery tools which include OCLC, EBSCO Discovery Service, Primo and
Serials Solutions’ Summon, among others—provide unified indexes of the licensed
scholarly publications combined with locally held content (like the catalog). It is similar
to Google-style approach of building and then searching a unified index of available
resources, instead of searching each database individually.[6]
A comparative table is given below for the major discovery solutions available at
present:[7][8]
Product
Vendor
Primo/ Primo
Central
WorldCat
Local
Summon
Aquabrowser
EBSCO
Discovery
Encore
Vufind
LibHub
Meresco
eXtensible
Catalog
ExLibris
Open
Source
Software+
Local
Index
X(Primo)
Shared
Index
X(Primo
Central)
OCLC
Local
Hosted
API
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
SerialsSolutions
SerialsSolutions
EBSCO
X
X
X
X
Innovative
SemperTool
Seecr
Software
+
Shared
Index
OS
OS/Sub
OS
X
X
X
X
OS
X
The details of above vendors are given below:
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
1.
Primo Discovery and Delivery Solution: Primo from Exlibris empowers
Libraries to Address User Needs. It is quick, easy, and effective searching and
retrieval, one-stop solution for the discovery and delivery of local and remote
resources, such as books, journal articles, and digital objects.[9]
2.
WorldCat Local: It is webscale discovery solution that delivers single-searchbox access to more than 1.071 billion items from the world's library collections. It
connects people to all libraries’ materials—electronic and digital and physical—
as well as to the delivery services that get them what they need. [10]
3.
The Summon Service: The Summon web-scale discovery provided by Serials
Solution enables a web-searching experience of the full breadth of content found
in library collections—from books and videos to e-resources such as articles. The
service is beyond federated search, beyond next-generation catalogs to create an
all-new service for libraries. Through one simple search to a single unified index,
the Summon service provides instant access to the breadth of authoritative content
that's the hallmark of great libraries. It does not need to broadcast searches to
other databases and provides one search box for a researcher to enter any terms
they want and quickly get credible results in one relevancy ranked-list.[11]
4.
AquaBrowser: The AquaBrowser discovery layer provided by Serial Solution is
a fresh, modern interface for patrons of varied backgrounds to use independently.
It provides a simple interface with a single search box where patrons are able to
quickly find relevant results when they need them. It is a fully hosted,
subscription-based solution, which significantly enhances service quality with
minimal impact on a library’s resources. [12]
5.
EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) :EDS provides a fast, streamlined, efficient
search through a single search box, but within the context of a greater experience
that
pulls
together
intuitive features
and
functionality, high-end
indexing via Platform Blending. It provides instant access to critical full text,
leveraged from the leading EBSCOhost research platform and databases, as well
as from key information providers. [13]
6.
Encore: Encore provided by Innovative Interfaces, Inc. brings true discovery to
library users by offering social features, faceted search, advanced relevancy
ranking, peer-reviewed articles, digital collections, books and more. It is built on
Web Services Architecture and provides a platform that allows for content
flexibility and streams information from article sources in real-time.[14]
7.
VuFind – It is an open-source resource discovery portal developed for libraries
by libraries which harnesses the power of contemporary Web search technology.
It enables users to query and browse the library’s resources in a simple yet
sophisticated manner.[15]
8.
LibHub: Developed by Sempertool, it is a electronic Library Gateway to
Information and provides a single interface to discover and access the institution
subscribed to and recommended information resources. LibHub integrates
metadata from publishers, database providers, eprint archives and any institutional
local information resources including the library catalogue into one central
index.[16]
9.
Meresco: It is an Open source tool, developed by Dutch company Seecr
(formerly CQ2), in cooperation with customers and is built with python.
Meresco’s most popular components include Lucene/Solr: one of the best full-text
indexers; OWLIM: the fastest semantic repositories (RDF, SPARQL);
FacetIndex: the fastest faceting search available; BerkelyDB: well-known scalable
dictionary and OAI-PMH: expose everything via OAI-PMH, automatically.[17]
10.
eXtensible Catalog: eXtensible Catalog is on Drupal toolkit which integrates
searchable library metadata, ILS circulation services, repository content and
library website content into a feature-rich web user interface. The out-of-the-box
search interface offers faceted browsing with customizable facets. It is a platform
to build custom web applications that integrate with library metadata and ILS
circulation services. Its Metadata Services Toolkit enables the XC user interface
to present FRBRized, faceted navigation across a range of library resources. The
toolkit aggregates metadata from various silos, normalizes metadata of varying
levels of quality, and transform MARC and DC metadata into a consistent format
for use in the discovery layer.[18]
Examples of Discovery Solutions successfully implemented in Indian Libraries
1. Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU): IGNOU is using
Ebscohost i.e. federated search and Ebsco Discovery Service is on trail at present
for further review.
2. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU): JNU has also started trial of Ebsco Discovery
and is very soon start the subscription.
3. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, The Vikram Sarabhai Library- The
Library has implemented Discovery Solution from Ebsco Discovery
4. xIndian Institute of Technology Hyderabad – IIT, Hyderabad Library has implemented
Summons unified discovery service from Serials Solutions
5. B C Roy Memorial Library – Indian Institute of Management Calcutta – IIM, Calcutta
Library has implemented Discovery Solution from Ebsco Discovery
The Libraries in India are examining these new discovery tools, as these products are new
and enhancements are ongoing. The trails are going on and modifications are suggested
according to the Indian environment with certain features and capabilities that are key to
making decisions about these tools. Various academic institutions are weighing each
factor differently based on local needs and objectives, collections, users, and staffing.
The basic aim for Indian Libraries to implement resource discovery is not only to provide
access to much more complex information but also to do so in as seamless and
straightforward a manner as possible so that users do not need to go to different places to
access different sets of data. The Indian Libraries must also ensure that the interface
provided to all data is easy to understand and straightforward to use.[19]
Conclusion
Discovery interfaces combined with integrated library solutions have evolved with the
advantages of Integrated web-accessible Online Public Access Catalogues (OPAC), Web
2.0 features with customised search engines, personalised service features, One-stop
resource portals incorporating meta-searching discovery tools, mobile accessibility,
multilingual support and upcoming web-scale discovery, digital assets curation and
management services. It is predicted that in near future, the discovery tools in Indian
Libraries could prove to be the ultimate reincarnation of one of the most familiar and
most enduring of all library information retrieval devices.
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