Re: defining web-scale discovery

On Aug 12, 2009, at 9:48 AM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:

> Marshall Breeding and I will be sharing some of our ideas about "next
> generation" library catalogs, "discovery interfaces", and "Web-scale
> discovery" as a part of a webinar called "Returning the Researcher to
> the Library: Defining Web-Scale Discovery" sponsored by Library
> Journal and Serials Solutions...



Last week (Tuesday, August 18) Marshall Breeding and I participated in  
a webcast sponsored by Serials Solutions and Library Journal on the  
topic of "'Web-scale' discovery services".

Our presentations complimented one another in that we both described  
the current library technology environment and described how the  
creation of amalgamated indexes of book and journal article content  
have the potential to improve access to library materials.

Dodie Ownes summarized the event in an article for Library Journal.  
[1] From there you can also gain access to an archive of the one-hour  
webcast. [2] (Free registration required.) I have made my written  
remarks available on the Hesburgh Libraries website. [3] From the  
remarks:

   It is quite possible the do-it-yourself creation and maintenance
   of an index to local book holdings, institutional repository
   content, and articles/etexts is not feasible. This may be true
   for any number of reasons. You may not have the full complement
   of resources to allocate, whether that be time, money, people, or
   skills. You and your library may have a set of priorities forcing
   the do-it-yourself approach lower on the to-do list. You might
   find yourself stuck in never-ending legal negotiations for
   content from "closed" access providers. You might liken the
   process of normalizing myriads of data formats into a single
   index to Hercules cleaning the Augean stables.

   If this be the case, then the purchasing (read, "licensing") of a
   single index service might be the next best thing -- Plan B.

I sincerely believe the creation of these "Web-scale" indexes is a  
step in the right direction, but I believe just as strongly that the  
problem to be solved now-a-days does not revolve around search and  
discovery, but rather use and context.

Thanks go to Serials Solutions and Library Journal for the opportunity  
to share some of my ideas. It is also always a pleasure to share a  
podium with Marshall. "Thank you."

[1] summary by Dodie Ownes - http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6685531.html
[2] archive of webcast - http://tinyurl.com/nwf6k5
[3] my written remarks - http://www.library.nd.edu/daiad/morgan/musings/web-scale/

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan
Head, Digital Access and Information Architecture Department
Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame

(574) 631-8604