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Behind the Search Box Tools and Techniques for Enhancing Discoverability

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Behind the Search Box Tools and Techniques for Enhancing Discoverability ABC springer.com Behind the Search Box Tools and Techniques for Enhancing Discoverability White Paper springer.com/whitepapers springer.com/discovery Behind the Search Box Executive Overview Exponential growth in the availability of information makes finding relevant, peer-reviewed content a key issue for academic researchers and scientists. The search box on the library portal may look similar to that on a search engine, but behind it sophisticated search tech- nology and indexing of comprehensive metadata combine to deliver relevant results from the best in global scientific research. This research can be cited, shared and found time and time again. This paper looks at what libraries can do to facilitate greater discoverability for end users and the myriad of ways Springer works to enhance discoverability using: • MARC records • Link Resolvers and Search Providers • Search Engine Optimization • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for library portals • Usability • Crowd Assisted Products • The Discoverability Review • @ Your Library resources for librarians • Working with Authors and Societies • Discovery Implementation Guide Introduction When researchers and students need to find an authoritative chapter or article on their chosen research topic they don’t always know what database to search or the journals that exist, much less who the publisher might be. For this reason, a very wide net across many resources is the rich experience users expect from their library search box. Indexing and selec- tion lie behind this experience, making the library website the most reliable place to begin a research project at any academic level. As usage becomes standard for assessing the value of a library collection and informing future acquisitions, discoverability is also assuming a new role. If library patrons cannot find an article or ebook, they cannot use it, even if it is the most up-to-date work in its field. Discover- ability drives usage of library resources, allowing usage patterns to more accurately represent the needs of patrons and inform collection management and acquisitions. It has always been part of the role of the librarian to guide patrons to the resources they need and now good discoverability practices are essential to this aspect of librarianship. Powerful indexing and search technologies need the support of well-designed library websites with good SEO and usability and librarians who communicate and guide users to resources using all possible means, including social media. Springer is committed to facilitating discoverability both through engaging with technology and through partnerships with librarians that add to the quality of the end user experience, ensuring patrons have quick, smooth access to electronic resources. 2 Behind the Search Box springer.com/discovery Driving Discoverability Through Metadata Distribution As a publisher of thousands of journals and ebooks, part of Springer’s role is to ensure that digital publications are accompanied by metadata that is accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date. Librarians need to see high usage for all the content they provide, and effective metadata distri- bution is one element of driving that usage. At the Forefront of MARC Records Libraries can now offer patrons access to millions of digital articles, book chapters and other resources without the need for physical space to store these publications. This growth makes the library catalogue more central than ever to the life of the library, even at a time when the cata- loguing librarian appears to be an endangered species . Machine Readable Catalogue (MARC) records are essential for large collections of resources such as SpringerLink. MARC records play a role in two different types of searching. They can provide more detailed information for search engines and library OPACs looking for a keyword from the title or the summary, and they provide information about where the publication sits within a controlled vocabulary or classification system. There are two sets of MARC records available for Springer eBooks. Springer’s own MARC records are available from springer.com/marc and can be loaded straight into an Library Management System (LMS), or loaded into a conversion program to integrate with an LMS that needs a different format. Springer´s new comprehensive MARC records implementation guide (also available at springer.com/marc) helps librarians through the process. OCLC-compliant MARC records are also available through the OCLC WorldCat Collection Sets service. Springer undertakes continuous enhancements to MARC records. The most exciting recent development is the addition of the Table of Contents field to eBook records. Chapter titles often provide unique keywords not found in the book title or other metadata. Adding Table of Contents information to the MARC record will make eBook chapters far more discoverable. Another recent update is the inclusion of additional subject metadata to augment the Springer subject classes and Library of Congress Subject Headings, conforming to a number of interna- tional controlled vocabularies including: • Library of Congress Classification • Dewey Decimal Classification • BIC/BISAC 3 springer.com/discovery Behind the Search Box The Springer MARC download tool allows selection by subject collection and series, ensuring faster selection of the records a librarian is looking for. Updates to MARC records apply to all MARC records provided, so there are no legacy records. Springer aims to create the same levels of discoverability for older publications as well as newer ones. Librarians with an interest in MARC records and cataloguing can get involved in the Springer MARC advisory board to further develop the service. Springer is consulting on new cata- loguing formats, including Resource Description and Access (RDA) and there is close collabo- ration with libraries on topics such as Linked Open Data formats and Semantic Linking for discoverability. Powering the Library Search Box with Commercial Search Solutions When students choose to begin their project by using a general search engine, they are probably unaware of its limitations when it comes to finding published documents. General search engines tend to favour unscholarly sites and resources that are not suitable for research purposes. Peer-reviewed published resources may be lost in the search results. A federated search engine provides a common interface from which to search many different publisher platforms and databases. Federated search engines operate as if they are very quickly querying lots of different publishing platforms . In doing this they replicate the action of a user who has the patience and time to fill out the search form on many different publisher sites. Pre-indexed commercial discovery services are different. They ingest large volumes of publisher metadata and full text content to create a massive index that is then used to deliver results to the user. The library can still control the resources that are searched within the pre- index, often including the local catalog of online and print books and the corpus of purchased online content in the results. Federated search does allow the library to manually control the resources that are searched, but since the query is sent in real time out to various platforms, the results can take some time to return. Pre-indexing delivers a faster, controlled search result from selected resources, though it is dependent on the currency of the index used. An important feature of commercial discovery services for librarians and researchers is searching that quickly delivers highly relevant results from various media forms, interleaving journal articles, book chapters, newspapers, and even video and other formats. If, when using the library search box, users consistently encounter irrelevant results or no results at all, they 4 Behind the Search Box springer.com/discovery may turn to the general search engines to find an answer. Deploying a pre-indexed commercial discovery service makes the library search box extremely powerful, enabling users to get results quickly that keep within the universe of trusted, high quality, library resources. One aspect of relevancy is that users should be able to find content that the library has already purchased and it is partly for this reason that search and OpenURL link resolvers often go together. Put simply, the link resolver is the tool that takes the user from the library search results to the full text on a publisher platform such as SpringerLink . The most widely known link resolvers and commercial search tools come from the same suppliers: Serial Solutions , EBSCO , and Ex Libris . The relationship between publishers and search providers relies both on technology - many of the data exchange and indexing processes are automated - and on good relationships. There are, and will always be, changes that need to be manually monitored at the level of individual libraries, consortia and from the publisher side, such as the introduction of a new publisher platform. Springer’s engagement with search providers is led by its metadata team, composed of specialists and staff librarians familiar with data exchange and discovery technology. If a company has developed a tool that clients are enthusiastic to try out, Springer will work as hard as possible to ensure they have what they need. Data from Springer is both comprehensive and free of charge. As an enthusiastic early adopter, Springer is also involved with creation of industry-wide stan- dards
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