Unit 11: Finding Content: Discovery Tools

A to Z lists
On the surface, this seems like a simple list where a library's electronic resources may be organized alphabetically and provided online. Okay, so far so good. A staff member may just update the lists and links from time to time, no problem. But what happens when a journal title is listed in numerous licensed resources with varying dates of overall availability and full text access. The example provided by Weddle and Grogg on the full text access of The Journal of Black Studies is a prime example of what kind of complications may occur. That title is available from six vendors, although it was not necessarily clear which exact title in the case of Sage Publications, with dates ranging from 1970 to 2004, depending on the vendor. It would be challenging, and probably a full-time job, to maintain that kind of a list for every journal title, especially at a large institution. Therefore, many libraries are opting for an A to Z listing service like Serials Solutions in order to maintain their lists. With this type of service, an ERM librarian will check the titles his or her library subscribes to and the service populates the local knowledgebase, which is basically the back end journal title and database searches.

So what happens with the list? How may patrons Find It useful? While they may not directly see what is happening, patrons do experience the benefits of OpenURLs and link resolvers. Link resolvers, like SFX from Ex Libris, use the information from the knowledgebase and pull together connections of an institution's e-resources in order to point the patron to an appropriate copy of the article s/he is wishing to access. So, a link resolver take the information on the source from the OpenURL and redirects the patron to the article, the target. An OpenURL is a structure for sharing metadata about a resource using particular standards, such as Z39. Basically, an OpenURL is like a MARC record with the added features of dynamic linking (i.e. not static) where the OpenURL recognizes the user, is sent to that user's link resolver and knowledgebase, compares the metadata in the knowledge base for a match to the query, and then links that information back to the user. This is what we see on the front end in FindIt.

How are the appropriate objects linked back to the user? Magical metadata fairies? Sometimes it appears so. In actuality, there are these things called Digital Objects Identifiers (DOI) registered through an agency, like CrossRef. A DOI is a persistent unique identifier and can be used as or within the metadata of the OpenURL, which according to Brand is becoming more common. A publisher will assign an object a DOI and then deposit that DOI with the corresponding URL into the CrossRef database. CrossRef connects the DOI with the URL providing the user with an appropriate copy of the desired resource. However, it should be noted that these is only for items at publisher's websites. If the resource is from an aggregator or an Open Access source, then a link resolver is still needed.

What about searching across multiple e-resources you might ask? Enter federated searching. While this is still relatively new, the idea is that by using a federated searching tool, librarians and users will be able to search across multiple e-resources. However, there are varying standards and usability issues. To that end, NISO started the Metasearch Initiative in order to bring together vendors, libraries and others to create a set of standards and protocols that would make federated searching more productive. Recently, UW – Madison added a federated searching function (Xerxes?) on its database page, which I have found quite useful.