CASE STUDY
Transforming the Discovery Experience at
Monash University and Curtin University
Established in 1966 as the
Western Australian Institute of
Technology (WAIT), Curtin
University gained university
status and was renamed
Curtin University of
Technology in 1987. Home to
nearly 47,000 students and
graduate students, Curtin
University offers a wide range
of undergraduate and
postgraduate courses in
business, humanities, health
sciences, resources,
engineering, and science
programs.
Monash University was
established in Melbourne in
1958, and now has over
62,000 students enrolled at
six Australian campuses and
overseas sites in South Africa
and Malaysia. The library
collection in Australia
comprises over 3 million
physical items and provides
access to thousands more
resources via electronic
networks. The Library spends
over half its acquisitions
budget on electronic resources
that are available to Monash
staff and students anywhere,
anytime.
An internationally respected research and teaching university based in Perth,
Australia, with campuses in Sydney, Malaysia, and Singapore, Curtin
University Library has used Ex Libris solutions for a decade.
Established in 1958, Monash is the youngest member of the highly-regarded
Group of Eight universities in Australia. As Australia’s largest university,
Monash offers global reach, outstanding facilities, and an extensive range of
courses. The university has run Ex Libris Voyager ® since 2004.
A quest for a one-stop solution
Curtin University Library has always been responsive to innovation in service delivery,
and had been looking for a way to present multiple sources of data together to Library
clients for some time. From 2008 the quest for a new solution intensified, in response to
user demand for a more streamlined route to library resources. Having used Ex Libris
solutions—the Aleph® integrated library system, SFX® OpenURL link resolver, and
MetaLib® federated search system—in 2002, Curtin library managers were open to
deepening the relationship with Ex Libris via a unified search solution.
The library’s robust and extensive evaluation process meant that Ex Libris was not the
only vendor considered during this period. Despite a limited field of competitors at that
time, Curtin ensured that all viable candidates were considered against their principal
criteria: interoperability with other library systems, ease of use, quality of the user
interface, and flexibility for administrators.
Alongside Primo’s rich functionality and unified search interface, the option of continuing
its collaboration with Ex Libris was important to Curtin University. Having run Ex Libris
solutions for many years, the potential for seamless integration of Primo with the
library’s existing systems provided a compelling advantage. As Peter Green, associate
director of resources and access at the library, remarked, “The most important benefit we
wished to bring to clients was a single starting point for discovery followed by the
seamless delivery of resources.”
CASE STUDY
Challenge
With the expansion of electronic
and digital collections at Curtin
University and Monash University,
both libraries found that users
were increasingly frustrated in
their attempts to obtain relevant
and useful materials through
parallel and often confusing search
interfaces. Users’ growing
expectations of speedy access to
scholarly materials and their
familiarity with ‘Google-like’
searching meant that the existing
search systems at both institutions
no longer met the users’ needs.
Solution
After extensive evaluation, both
Curtin and Monash found that the
rich functionality of the Primo®
discovery and delivery solution,
which includes faceted navigation,
highly accurate relevance-ranked
results, and the integrated Primo
Central Index, offered a one-stop
solution that enables researchers
and librarians to locate the
resources that they need.
Results
Complemented by the bX article
recommender, Primo and the
Primo Central Index have
significantly increased access to a
broad range of electronic scholarly
resources subscribed to by both
institutions via a single search.
Curtin University Library saw over
240,000 searches in Primo per
week in Primo, while Monash
University library users made more
than 250,000 Primo searches
within weeks of going live.
Soon after implementing Primo in 2009, and offering the Primo Central Index of scholarly
e-content in 2010, Curtin received feedback from library users. “Clients appear to have
taken the product in their stride,” observed David Wells, manager of resources at Curtin
University Library. “In addition to their enthusiasm for a single search interface, students
and faculty welcomed the broader scope of discovery, enabling a greater variety of
resources to be exposed, integrated linking to full-text of licensed e-resources via SFX,
and above all, a feeling of truly inclusive searching across the entire spectrum of library
collections,” Dr Wells added.
“The most important benefit we wish to bring to clients is
a single starting point for discovery followed by the
seamless delivery of resources.”
Monash’s pursuit of a unified search interface
At Monash University Library, the interest in creating a unified search interface arose
from growing frustration with multiple search points and the resulting failure to find
helpful material. Users could choose to search in the traditional Voyager OPAC, licensed
databases, institutional repositories, or public web sites. “Further adding to confusion, our
ordinary users did not understand the often complex terminology required to carry out
successful searches on these systems,” explained Director of Central Services Janette
Burke. Many users envisioned a Google-style search rather than separate searches for
each library collection.
Monash’s criteria for a discovery solution therefore highlighted the critical importance of
a unified search interface and results list, which must be easy to navigate and accessible
for students as well as experienced researchers. With this aggregated system, Monash
hoped to receive a better return on investment for electronic and digital resources which
were previously less visible. Applications Librarian Megan Lee explained the overarching
requirements for the new system: “As well as supporting these principles, the solution
must conform to international standards, be consistently scalable, and suited to a multicampus environment.” With such a system, Monash hoped to receive a better return on
investment for electronic and digital resources that were not sufficiently visible.
As part of its evaluation process, Monash University examined current use and
effectiveness of the library catalog and parallel systems, which included the Ex Libris
MetaLib metasearch system and SFX OpenURL link resolver. The study took a widereaching look at each search system, including probing the range of resources that were
currently, and should ideally be, available; the ability of students to locate relevant
information; and identifying barriers and their impact on research for both novice and
experienced users.
CASE STUDY
Results
Primo is now the primary search
interface at both Curtin and
Monash university libraries,
providing a front end to the Aleph
integrated library system at Curtin
and to Voyager at Monash, as well
as the libraries’ electronic and
digital collections.
In addition, the study analyzed the library’s future needs and created a vision for the
future that became the selection criteria for a discovery solution. “Developing this vision
enabled us to reflect on the ideal discovery architecture and functionalities for our
diverse user community,” noted Ms Lee.
Having conducted a thorough assessment of commercial systems, Monash selected Primo
in 2010. The library’s research confirmed that Primo was the market leader in areas
ranging from its ability to harvest external collections, its flexibility for administrators,
and the availability of APIs for advanced customization. Among Primo’s rich capabilities,
the system’s ‘did you mean’ function, de-duplication, and pre and post search filters
were especially important to selectors.
“The cloud-based Primo Direct deployment that we opted for offered the right balance
between flexibility for our systems administrators and freedom from the technical
burdens associated with hosting the system locally,” according to Library Web and
Applications Manager Stephanie Foott. “Because of our extensive use of electronic
journals, databases, and e-books, the concentrated collection of resources in the Primo
Central Index was also very appealing.”
“The cloud-based Primo Direct deployment offered the
right balance between flexibility for our systems
administrators and freedom from the technical burdens
associated with hosting the system locally.”
A simple interface with a dramatic impact
Both Curtin University and Monash University found that usage of electronic resources
increased following the launch of the Primo Central Index. At the same time, the
expansion in use of search systems has broadly doubled following the introduction of
Primo. After its launch at Curtin University, the number of Primo searches per week grew
to over 240,000 by the end of its first year of use. At Monash, the number of searches
reached 250,000 per week just a few months after the library went live with Primo.
CASE STUDY
Library staff at Monash University reported the speed with which library users adopted
the system after its launch in 2011. “Using Primo to search library resources is fairly
intuitive and so requires minimum user education,” explained Ms Foott. “As a student’s
research requirements progress from generic to specific, they can seek staff assistance
for discipline-specific resource queries.”
Since its launch at Curtin University, the number of Primo
searches per week grew to over 240,000. At Monash, the
number of searches reached 250,000 per week just a few
months after the library went live with Primo.
CASE STUDY
A lasting partnership
Both Curtin University and Monash University consider the implementation process to
have been largely smooth and successful. In particular the Ex Libris model of assigning a
project manager to work on each implementation project facilitated a painless transition.
“Having a dedicated project manager was extremely beneficial; the project manager was
very responsive in ensuring that our requests were responded to,” noted Stephanie
Foott.
For Curtin University Library, the strength of their relationship with Ex Libris lay in the
realm of shared strategic thinking. As Peter Green explained, “We’ve always found Ex
Libris to be strong on ideas, innovation, having the vision to go to the next step.”
Expressed through relationships with the Australia office and the internationally-based
executives, synergy between the university libraries and Ex Libris continues to be close.
“Ex Libris is open to our ideas, and having a number of Ex Libris staff dedicated to
customer relations makes dealing with Ex Libris easy,” concluded Janette Burke. “Above
all, our long term vision for the library meshes well with the Ex Libris product roadmap.”
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