Rediscover Discovery: Evaluating Web‐Scale Discovery Platforms

In 2012, the University of Houston Libraries conducted an extensive evaluation process of the major library web-scale discovery platforms in the marketplace. The methodology included evaluation of vendor demonstrations, selection of uniform and targeted questions for vendor responses, development of a ranking and weighting formula for vendor responses, and analysis. A major effort was initiated to collect feedback from public services librarians including a survey of impressions about the current/existing discovery platform, and an open forum discussion with a survey for thoughts on next steps.

As part of the process a one day library discovery platform conference was held with a keynote speaker, panel discussions, vendor demonstrations, and round table discussions. Data collected from all of these activities was analyzed and key findings were categorized for decision-making. A statement of findings was prepared for each vendor under consideration.

This project was undertaken consortially to streamline and centralize the data gathering effort and to maximize input and feedback from representative institutions. Each institution was able to draw information from the same data pool, but was free to customize findings for their own decision-making.

This presentation outlines the evaluation process and findings that will greatly enhance the participant's knowledge of web-scale discovery platforms. The methodology developed can be repurposed and reused for efficient evaluation of discovery platforms at other institutions.