Paths of Discovery: Comparing the Search Effectiveness of EBSCO Discovery Service, Summon, Google Scholar, and Conventional Library Resources

Asher, Andrew; Duke, Lynda M.; Wilson, Suzanne M.

doi:10.5860/crl-374

Cited by 112 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…As relevancy ranking algorithms are proprietary, and therefore unknown to the user, this reliance is problematic. For instance, Summon seems to rank newspaper articles fairly highly according to a number of studies (Asher et al 2013;Way 2010), even though students often need more scholarly resources for their research. The way libraries configure these tools can also factor into rankings.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovering Usability: Comparing Two Discovery Systems at One Academic Library

Djenno

Insua

Gregory

et al. 2014

Journal of Web Librarianship

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In the spring of 2013, the University Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago was in the unique position of having access to two discovery systems, Summon and WorldCat Local, at the same time. When tasked with choosing between the two systems, librarians undertook a usability study of Summon and WorldCat Local. The goal of this study was two-fold: to test the ease-of-use of each discovery system with an eye toward identifying one tool to retain for the longer term, and to learn about the search behaviors of different types of user groups.Eighteen subjects, consisting of undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty, participated in the study. Participants performed usability tasks using each tool and answered pre-task and post-task questions. While there was no clear preference among study participants for either discovery layer, individual groups did express preferences. Faculty, for example, preferred Summon to WorldCat Local at a rate of five to one. The study findings are explored in detail through an examination of the three major data sets produced by the usability test instrument: results derived from tasks performed by participants as part of the study; themes and trends identified by the investigators within the recorded participant tests; and discovery tool preferences as determined from pre-task and post-task questionnaires administered to study participants. This study has implications for librarians engaged in information literacy instruction; those considering implementing discovery tools, as well as for librarians currently using Summon or WorldCat Local at their libraries.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovering Usability: Comparing Two Discovery Systems at One Academic Library

Djenno

Insua

Gregory

et al. 2014

Journal of Web Librarianship

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“…These are still early days of RDS and libraries are still grappling with understanding their RDS fully and fine-tuning it. There is an increased interest in evaluating performance and comparing RDS systems and other discovery tools, particularly in terms of search effectiveness (Asher, Duke, and Wilson, 2013).…”

Section: Impact Of Rds On Content Resource Usagementioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of RDS on Usage of Electronic Content in UK Academic Libraries: Selected Results from a UKSG-Funded Project

2015

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Citation: SPEZI, V., CREASER, C., CONYERS, A., 2015 Abstract (100 words)Resource Discovery Services (RDS), also called Web-scale Discovery Services, have attracted considerable attention in recent years. This article aims to provide an environmental scan of the adoption of RDS in UK higher education libraries and provide an analysis of RDS resource usage data to gauge whether RDS have an impact on the overall usage of e-journals and e-books. Findings show that there appears to be a positive impact in most cases, although the extent of this impact varies across libraries and publishers. There is undeniably a degree of complexity in the usage analysis owing to the multi-dimensional nature of the environment.

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“…(Yang &Wagner, 2010). Google Scholar may also be considered a major web-scale discovery tool (Asher et al 2013), but it does not cover all library sources or publishers and provides very few limiting or refining options. Summon and EDS seem the most well-known, grabbing early headlines through presentations like the "EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) vs. Serials Solutions Summon Faceoff" at the 2010 Charleston Conference (Hadro, 2010).…”

Section: Web-scale Discovery Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Still Desperately Seeking Citations: Undergraduate Research in the Age of Web-Scale Discovery

Rose-Wiles

Hofmann

2013

Journal of Library Administration

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This is an electronic version of an article published in the print edition of the Journal of Library Administration, Volume 53(2) 147-166. It is available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjla20#.UjthUFNlzK0 2 Abstract. Web-scale discovery services promise fast, easy searching from a single Google-like box, pleasing users and making library resources more discoverable. Some librarians embrace the concept of giving users what they have come to expect from Google, while others are concerned that this will "dumb down" searching and undermine information literacy. In this paper we explore the potential impact of web-scale discovery tools on information literacy, focusing particularly on undergraduate research skills. We review the existing literature and present findings and experiences from two mid-sized academic libraries that have adopted EBSCO Discovery Service as their library home page portal.

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Paths of Discovery: Comparing the Search Effectiveness of EBSCO Discovery Service, Summon, Google Scholar, and Conventional Library Resources

Cited by 112 publications

References 12 publications

Discovering Usability: Comparing Two Discovery Systems at One Academic Library

Discovering Usability: Comparing Two Discovery Systems at One Academic Library

The Impact of RDS on Usage of Electronic Content in UK Academic Libraries: Selected Results from a UKSG-Funded Project

Still Desperately Seeking Citations: Undergraduate Research in the Age of Web-Scale Discovery

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