Web Scale Discovery and Information Literacy – Solution or Problem?

SheilaCorrall,UniversityofSheffieldiSchoolMikeSweet,CredoReference

The context for web scale discovery Social•  24/7onlinenetworkedsociety

•  self‐serviceandmutualsupport

•  learningcommuniDes

•  GooglegeneraDon

Technological•  digitalassetmanagement

•  cloudcompuDng

•  mobileconnecDvityandapps

•  businessuseofsocialtechnology

Economic•  worldfinancialcrisis

•  exchange‐ratevolaDlity

•  serviceclosuresandjoblosses

•  highunemployment

PoliDcal•  publicexpenditurecuts

•  doingmorewithless

•  sharedservices

•  demonstraDngvalueandimpact

Perceptions of libraries, 2010 “Whencomparinglibrariestosearchengines,overwhelmingly,Americansconsidersearchenginestobemoreconvenient,faster,morereliableandeasier‐to‐use.Americansconsiderlibrariestobemoretrustworthyandmoreaccurate.

WhileAmericansrankedlibrariesaheadofsearchenginesintrustworthinessandaccuracy,thisdisDncDonevaporateswhenaskedabouttheinforma(onthatisprovidedbysearchenginesandlibraries.MostAmericans(69%)believetheinformaDontheyfindusingsearchenginesisjustastrustworthyastheywouldfindfromtheirlibrary.”

(OCLC,2010,p.40)

Next generation discovery services Commercial•  AquaBrowserLibrary•  BiblioCommons

•  EbscoDiscoveryServices•  Encore(InnovaDveInterfaces)•  PrimoCentral(ExLibris)

•  SirsiDynixEnterprise•  Summon(SerialsSoluDons)

•  Visualizer(VTLS)•  WorldCatLocal(OCLC)

Opensource•  Blacklight•  Fac‐Back‐OPAC(Kochief)•  LibraryFind•  Rapi•  Scriblio(WPopac)

•  SOPAC(SocialOpac)•  VuFind(Breeding,2010;Yang&Wagner,2010)

Desired features of discovery services •  Singlesearch/pointofentry−  foralllibrarymaterials

•  State‐of‐the‐artwebinterface•  Enrichedcontent

e.g.bookcoverimages,userinput

•  FacetednavigaDonofresultse.g.dates,formats,locaDon

•  Simplekeywordsearchbox−  oneverypage

•  Relevancyrankinge.g.influencedbycirculaDondata

•  Didyoumean...?−  spell‐checkingmechanism

•  RecommendaDons

•  UsercontribuDonse.g.summaries,reviews,raDng,tagging,folksonomies

•  RSSfeeds•  IntegraDonwithsocial

networkingsites

•  Persistentlinks(Yang&Wagner,2010)

Web scale discovery – the story so far •  Combiningnext‐generaDoncatalogueswithfederatedsearch−  integraDngprintanddigital,localandremote,recordsandcontent

•  Providingaccesstolibraryresourceswithinuserworkflows−  searchfromlibraryhomepage,LibGuide,uniportal,Blackboard,etc

•  AllowinglibrariestocreatemulDpleprofilesforcommuniDes−  subjectsubsetsofdiscoveryresourcestoavoidoverwhelmingusers

•  EarlyreportsofdramaDcimpactonuseoflicensedresources−  studentsabletofindthingseasily,butnotabletointerpretresults

•  ImplicaDonsforinformaDonliteracyandreferencesupport−  fromdatabasesearchingtounderstandingandevaluaDnginformaDon

(Gross&Sheridan,2011;Howard&Wiebrands,2011;Luther&Kelly,2011;Kenney,2011;Way,2010;Wisniewski,2010)

Seven Pillars of Information Literacy (SCONUL, 2011)

“InformaDonliteracyisknowingwhenandwhyyouneedinformaDon,wheretofindit,andhowtoevaluate,useandcommunicateitinanethicalmanner.”(CILIP,2004)

One-stop info-shopping: pros and cons ✔ Convenient,easierand

fasteraccesstoinformaDon

✔ Exposuretoawiderrangeofsourcesandmaterial

✔  Focusonhigher‐orderinformaDonliteracyabiliDes

✔ Morevisibilityanduseoflibraryscholarlyresources

✔ Beiervalueformoneyfrominvestmentincontent

✘  DumbingdownoftheinformaDonsearchprocess

✘  LessfuncDonalitythannaDvedatabaseinterfaces

✘  NeglecDngdevelopmentofbasicinformaDonskills

✘  PoorfoundaDonforhigherdegreesandfuturecareers

Competing visions of the library

Theresource‐basedview•  ThelibraryisessenDallya

bundleofinformaDonandotherresources

•  ItcreatesvaluethroughuseofitsdisDncDveresources

•  ResourceuDlisaDonisthekeyperformancemeasure

(Barney,1991;Wernerfelt,1984)

InformaDonliteracyview•  ThelibraryisessenDallya

placeoflearning

•  Itcreatesvaluethroughthedevelopmentoftheabilitytofind,evaluateanduseinformaDonincontext

•  InformaDoncapabilityisthekeyperformancemeasure

How?AdvancedsearchopDons

Singlesearchbox

What?Approvedscholarlycontent

Openweb

contentMostpeoplestartasearchwithGoogle

SomeuseGoogleScholar(withlibrarylinks)

Webscalediscoverysteersusersbacktothelibrary

Librarians,facultyandgradstudentswantmorefuncAonality

Studentsneedhelpinunderstandingsearchresults

Four questions for reflection and debate 1.  ArewebscalediscoverytoolsagoodstarDngpoint

forsubjectsearchesorforexploringnewtopics?

2.  WillsuchtoolshelpstudentsbecomecompetentinformaDonusersintheworkplaceandlaterlife?

3.  DoweneedtochangeourinformaDonliteracyeducaDontofitthenewdiscoveryenvironment?

4.  CanweaugmentourdiscoveryservicestosupportanddeliverourinformaDonliteracymission?

SessionDtlehere

Web‐scaleDiscovery–What’sMissingfromthisLibraryAnswertoGoogle?

CharlestonConference2011

Agenda

•  KnownItemvs.ExploratorySearching

•  OntheOpenWeb:Googlevs.Wikipedia

•  InTheLibrary:Web‐scaleDiscoverySystems

•  Something’sMissing:InformaDonLiteracySkillReinforcement

InformaDonLiteracySkills

•  FindingresearchtoolsbeyondGoogleandWikipedia•  Understandingthepurposeofthelibrary•  NavigaDngthelibrary•  AssessingqualityandreliabilityofinformaDon

•  Discerningbetweendifferenttypesofmaterials

•  ConducDngeffecDvesearches•  Narrowingtopics•  CiDngsources&avoidingplagiarism

TheERIALProject:hip://www.erialproject.org/

NotAllSearchesAretheSame

-Have specific information (article, book, journal, etc.) in mind

-Familiar with keywords or relevant search terms

-Know where to start (website, database, stacks)

-Information Need

-Opportunity for Information

Literacy Skill

Reinforcement

-Need general information

-Lack subject orientation or familiarity with keywords

-Need guidance to start searching

Known Item Searching Exploratory Searching

SearchingontheOpenWeb

KnownItemSearchinginGoogle

Genome DNA forterre

KnownItemSearchinginGoogle

ExploratorySearchinginGoogle

Source: http://flic.kr/p/4XmARC

ExploratorySearchinginGoogle

Wikipedia•  Advantages

–  Providesbackgroundandvocabulary–  Comprehensive,consistent,easytoaccessanduse

–  ProvidespotenDallyusefullinks

•  LimitaDons–  Notalwaystrustworthy–  Notcustomizedforaudience–  Doesn’tacDvelypromoteinformaDonliteracyskills

KnownItemSearchinginDiscoverySystems

KnownItemSearchinginDiscoverySystems

ExploratorySearchinginDiscoverySystems

PossibiliDes

•  WhatistheWikipediaequivalentforthelibraryandWebscaleDiscoverySystems?

•  Whatcouldwedowiththesetools?

OnlineReferenceServices

•  Blendingofcontextualcontent,searchingandlinks

•  ComprehensivecoveragefromauthoritaDvesources

•  Giant,interconnectedencyclopedia

•  EasilydigesDblepresentaDonofinformaDon

OnlineReferenceServices

•  Linkstolibrarycuratedresources

•  ToolsforexploraDonandnarrowingoftopics

•  IntegraDonwithrelevanttools,inc.discovery

•  HelpandtutorialstobuildinformaDonliteracyskills

OtherApproachestoInformaDonLiteracy

OtherApproachestoInformaDonLiteracy

OtherApproachestoInformaDonLiteracy

Integration in Web-scale Discovery

Summary

•  Discoverysystemsarepowerfultools

•  OnlineReferenceServiceshavethepotenDaltocomplementdiscoverysystemsANDpromoteinformaDonliteracyskills

ExploratorySearchinginDiscoverySystems

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InformaDonLiteracy•  keyfactorstolibrary/facultyinformaDonliteracysuccess(asstatedbythe

ERIALProject:hip://www.erialproject.org/).

–  FindingresearchtoolsbeyondGoogleandWikipedia

–  Understandingthepurposeofthelibrary–  NavigaDngthelibrary–  AssessingqualityandreliabilityofinformaDon

–  Discerningbetweendifferenttypesofmaterials

–  ConducDngeffecDvesearches–  Narrowingtopics–  CiDngsources&avoidingplagiarism

OtherApproachestoInformaDonLiteracy

Library’sAnswertoWikipedia•  ProviderelevantcontextualinformaDon

•  AuthoritaDvesources•  Curatedlinkstolocalresources•  HelpandtutorialstobuildinformaDonliteracyskills

•  ProvideforalternaDvemodesoftopicexploraDon–  VisualizaDontools–  Relatedvocabulary

•  IntegratedinkeyeducaDonsystems,includingDiscoverySystems

ModesofShopping

Itisnotcontent,butcontextthatwillmaiermostadecadeorsofromnow…

PaulSaffo,InsDtutefortheFutureWired,March1994

It’stheContext,Stupid

“Thescarceresourcewillnotbestuff,butpointofview...

Thefuturebelongstoneithertheconduitorcontentplayers,butthosewhocontrolthefiltering,searching,andsense‐makingtoolswewillrelyontonavigatethroughtheexpansesofcyberspace.”

(Saffo,1994)

Four questions for reflection and debate 1.  ArewebscalediscoverytoolsagoodstarDngpoint

forsubjectsearchesorforexploringnewtopics?

2.  WillsuchtoolshelpstudentsbecomecompetentinformaDonusersintheworkplaceandlaterlife?

3.  DoweneedtochangeourinformaDonliteracyeducaDontofitthenewdiscoveryenvironment?

4.  CanweaugmentourdiscoveryservicestosupportanddeliverourinformaDonliteracymission?