Discovery services fared as well as Google Scholar and far outpaced strategies such as abstract databases and Wikipedia across a range of activities, such as locating and accessing known items, carrying out an initial subject search, and pursuing a line of inquiry.

In a Jisc-commissioned survey of 80 research institutions across the United Kingdom in 2016, respondents were asked how their users find information.Meanwhile, use of Google and Google Scholar decreased and remained flat, respectively. During this four-year period, patrons were using the library’s discovery service nearly 10% more than they were four years earlier. At the University of Manchester in England, in-person and online surveys of more than 1,000 library users from 2013 to 2016 indicated that library patrons relied on the library’s discovery tool to find relevant content more often than Google, Google Scholar, or even course reading lists.Here are some illuminating examples of recent studies examining the effectiveness of web-scale discovery in research libraries: In fact, studies confirm this: libraries that have evaluated their discovery tools have found them to have a positive impact on the institution. Digital Magazines and Premium PublicationsĮvaluating the Impact of Primo Library Discovery ServiceĪn effective web-scale discovery service can improve the use of your library collections and strengthen your library’s role in the research process.

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