The NISO Open Discovery Initiative defines standards and/or best practices for the new generation of library discovery services that are based on indexed search. These discovery services are primarily based upon indexes derived from journals, ebooks and other electronic information of a scholarly nature. The content comes from a range of information providers and products--commercial, open access, institutional, etc.
As members of the Open Discovery Initiative have presented on our Recommended Practice, NISO RP-19-2020, Open Discovery Initiative: Promoting Transparency in Discovery, we have learned just how varied understanding of the complete discovery ecosystem actually is. While it may seem a straightforward environment, libraries must ensure that an entire suite of online tools and functions are in place to maximize access to the content they provide their users.
With that in mind, we are pleased to announce the first three videos in our “Demystifying Discovery” series. These short videos provide overviews about the various components of the discovery ecosystem.
The Discovery System Ecosystem
An overview of the entire ecosystem. Discovery systems have simplified the research process for library users with the provision of simultaneous searching of both local library resources and external content. This video explains how discovery systems differ from online library catalogs (OPACs) and reviews some of the maintenance requirements of discovery systems.
