Discovery Project, 2017

Communication and Feedback

We want to hear from you.  You are going to have questions and comments, and we would like to hear them.  Likewise, the Libraries will be providing regular updates, presentations, etc. about the work going on and way to participate.

• Project Feedback Form - Send questions and comments about the testbed
• Communication and Presentations – Review past presentations or announcements about the project

Project Sponsors:

• Jennifer Vinopal
• Karla Strieb

Core Project Team:

• Project Lead: Terry Reese

• Implementation Lead: Beth Snapp

• User Experience: Michelle Henley, Robyn Ness, Meris Mandernach and the /wiki/spaces/libraries/pages/1673367

• Implementation Team: Applications Development & Support

Project Description:

Libraries have always been organizations made up of a wide array of information silos, and the OSU Libraries is no different.  The Libraries makes available a wide array of information, representing the gambit of locally created content (LibGuides), vended scholarly content (academic journals), distinct special collections (both digital and physical), just to name a few.  These silos are organized and maintained by content experts, individuals dedicated to the curation and development of cultural heritage resources to support the teaching and research missions of the OSU community.

In recent years, this notion of libraries as organizations of silos has fallen out of favor.  Within the library literature, countless articles have been written on how libraries can blur the boundaries of our silos to reestablish the library as the primary trusted repository within its specific community.  And that’s an interesting goal, but likely a futile one.  The reality is libraries, even one as large and exceptional as OSU Libraries, make up one small part of our communities’ information landscape.  Information access has become so ubiquitous for some communities that current studies paint a picture of faculty viewing the library primarily as a purchasing agent for content, and not the central information provider on campus.   It’s in this environment, that the OSU Libraries seeks to embark on an ambitious project to rethink how the Libraries supports the active and serendipitous discovery of information resources managed by the Libraries. 

Project Goals:

Long-term, this project will require the Libraries to rethink how we talk about discovery of resources.  If successful, the project should enable users to natively understand the Libraries discovery services, and enable our targeted users to find not only specific information that they may have been looking for (like a book, or journal articles), but get connected to the hidden collections and materials that currently make up the libraries.  This is also an ambitious project, with a lot of moving parts that will touch several individuals inside and outside the Libraries.  As such, this project will seek to follow a more iterative and  incremental and flexible approach to project management and around the completion of deliverables.

Discovery Work Streams:

The Libraries will embark on 4 work streams related to the discovery project.  These streams will focus on not only the development and implementation of a technological solution, but will result in a new way of thinking about not only how we make information available in the Libraries, but the audiences that we serve and the experiences that we create.  The 4 discovery themes will be as follows:

1. The user experience, aka, the discovery layer
2. The Library Platform
3. Resource Selection
4. Information Propagation

For more information related to the work streams and specific theme activities, please see: Discovery Work Streams

Project Milestones

Work Stream: Discovery Layer

• DSMWG report: “Discovery Inquiry Proposal”
• Completion of Initial Library Platform API
• Selection of Initial Resources
• Development of initial bento-box proof-of-concept design
• Initial “alpha” reveal; User-testing
• Re-iterate
• Synchronize with the Library Web Site Redesign
• Switch over to the new Interface
• Retire Current Discovery Tool

 Work Stream: Library Platform API

• Investigate technology options/available APIs
• Develop API roadmap
• Develop API data model
• Initial API Development
• Selection of Initial Resources

• Adaptor development for selected resources

Work Stream: Resource Selection

• Identify key resources for primary user audience
• Evaluate data availability
• Create a prioritized list of resources 

Work Stream: Information Propagation

• Investigation of current practices related to SEO
• Investigation of current rich data practices
• Completion of Initial Library Platform API
• Working with the Web redesign effort to embed rich data (schema.org) into content

More information to come!