Scott Schuetze, Ex Libris

As we explained in our last post, an effective web-scale discovery service can improve the use of your library collections and strengthen your library’s role in the research process. In fact, studies confirm this: libraries that have evaluated their discovery tools have found them to have a positive impact on the institution.

Here are some illuminating examples of recent studies examining the effectiveness of web-scale discovery in research libraries.

• At the University of North Texas, library staff analyzed the number of times users requested the full text of articles and resources they found through Summon, as indicated by clickthrough traffic from the university’s link resolver, in order to determine Summon’s effect on e-resource use. They found that since the university implemented Summon in 2012, link resolver clickthrough stats have steadily increased. “With Summon, we’ve seen a big increase in requests being passed through the link resolver,” UNT library staff concluded. “People continue to find Summon useful and continue to use Summon to access full-text e-resources.”