Page 216 - Building Digital Libraries

Thinking about 9

Discovery

The ability to create, store, and curate digital content means very little IN THIS CHAPTER
if robust access and discoverability aren’t a key part of the system. In this
respect, digital preservation and library systems are very different from their  Unpacking Discovery?
analog cousins. For example, consider a book on a shelf. If one takes the  Federated Search and
book and reshelves it into a different location in the library, access is defi- Digital Libraries
nitely affected. But unlike digital content, access isn’t completely removed.  Why Think about Discovery
Users could still find the book, or the library may stumble across the mate-  Current Research
rial during an annual shelf reading. The point is, the physical content is still  Searching Protocols
accessible to the user. Digital content is very different in this respect. Because  Linking Protocols
the digital object has no physical placeholder, items that are not indexed  Evaluating User Needs
simply don’t exist. The same is true for items that cannot be found. While
serendipitous discovery does happen in the digital space, it cannot happen  Summary
when materials are invisible to the user. Content must be discoverable if it is
to be accessible to users. But unlike the past, concerns related to discovery
are no longer limited to one’s local system or environment. Current research
shows that most users discover digital content not through the systems in
which they are housed, but from outside tools like search engines. At the
1, 2
Ohio State University Libraries, this is reflected in how users access content
in the libraries’ institutional repository. Access logs demonstrate that search
engines, particularly Google, direct most users to content on the system.
This means that one needs to think about discovery very differently, or at
least view discovery beyond the horizons of one’s own local organizational
web presence.
In earlier chapters, this book has discussed the necessity of having a
cohesive collection development policy in place in order to ensure a logical
development of collections within the digital repository. This ensures that
the digital repository doesn’t become a virtual attic full of cobwebs and stale
materials—but is constantly being refreshed and weeded as the collection
continues to grow.
In the same manner, responsible digital repository administrators need
to consider what level of discovery their digital repository will support. In

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