This is the text of a presentation I recorded for an IST 616 course at Syracuse's library school. I was asked to introduce library discovery in 10 minutes, or less, with some focus on how metadata is created and used.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed a host of issues with the current scholarly communication system, one aspect being the discoverability of scientific knowledge. Observing the many shortcomings of discovery workflows in the course of COVID-19 confirms that discoverability itself is in crisis. In this article, we analyze the discoverability crisis and its root causes. We introduce open discovery infrastructure as a promising approach for the development of innovative discovery solutions. We present several efforts based on open discovery infrastructure that have emerged to provide better discovery of coronavirus research and discuss what is still needed to overcome the discoverability crisis.

That was the topic discussed recently by OCLC Research Library Partners metadata managers, initiated by Daniel Lovins of Yale, Erin Grant of the University of Washington, and Jennifer Baxmeyer of …

Writings about libraries, technology, and the Web by Matthew Reidsma.

The 11th anniversary of Google Scholar passed yesterday. Max Kemman provides an overview of the growth and impact of the platform and also looks at why Google Scholar is virtually unrivaled. The sc…

Imagining an academic library without a discovery service (be it Ebsco, Summon, Primo…etc) has become practically impossible. Where else could you begin general keyword searches or article title se…

"Most importantly, all library staff must understand that our software is our library, and is everyone’s responsibility. This does not mean that all library staff need learn to develop software themselves. But all must understand that software is critical to our mission, and most must be conversant with the software development process, and should be able to evaluate the quality and performance of software in use."

This week's CNI meeting featured a variety of thought-provoking sessions on the digital issues facing academic libraries today, including privacy and

Discovery layers turn away search engines because serials-metadata providers that feed into them don't want "their" metadata escaping into the open.

On relevance ranking.

Many libraries have responded to user demand for Google-style searching by implementing web scale discovery services such as EDS, Primo, Summon, and WorldCat Local.   By exporting their local catal…