Discovery, Learning, Teaching: The Library

as an Integral Part of Higher Education

Christine Stohn
Senior Product Manager, Discovery and Delivery
 TOPICS

Users studies – What do users need?

1
Discovery concepts and ideas
2
Discovery and library services: A Core Part of Higher
3 Education

4 Leganto – a new reading list solution

Users come with different expectations

Access to a known
book or article

Get a quick overview Find materials for a

of a specific topic course assignment

Locate the latest articles in Obtain data for a

a specific field research project
User Studies - Purpose

Challenge assumptions and gain new insights

Who are the (potential) users and what do they need?

Understand differences and similarities

Identify recurring themes
Cluster them into groups with the same characteristics
Create Personas and identify common themes

Enhance discovery experience and effectiveness

Ex Libris Ltd., 2015 - Internal and Confidential

Methodology

Library reported user scenarios

Workshops with librarians from different institutions

Harvard University workshop, with participation from Harvard University,

Brandeis University, CUNY, Boston College, Boston University, NYU

Oxford University workshop

User interviews/questionnaires

Ex Libris Ltd., 2015 - Internal and Confidential

Recurring themes – User groups

• Students often need to build up terminology first

• Graduates to understand their research area first and then
narrow it down
• Undergraduates to gain more knowledge for papers/projects

• Undergraduate students take most of their resources from

reading lists/set text books – but there are exceptions
Recurring themes – User groups

Faculty members and researchers know their core

publications

they are usually (but not always) interested in the newest material
they often follow citation trails to find similar material
they may also follow author trails (known authors and co-authors)

Graduates and researchers

tend to look for thorough lists

often work on projects where they need an overview as well as

very specific aspects of a topic
Recurring themes – Subjects

Undergraduates in the humanities work often on papers and

essays and need literature for that

Undergraduates in the sciences work towards exams and are

often satisfied with text books, they use other literature for
occasional tasks

Also noteworthy - the same subject is not taught in the same

way in every country: Example Medicine
 User Studies - conclusions

Many users include learning as a desired part of their

information research, e.g. to build up terminology

Researchers/Grad. Students like to follow trails to find

relevant material

Different disciplines and academic grades behave

differently and have different expectations

Integration with other institutional tools and services is of

key importance

Ex Libris Ltd., 2015 - Internal and Confidential

Discovery core concepts

Search and find

Exploration

Learning

Personalization

Ex Libris Ltd., 2015 - Internal and Confidential

Exploring the vicinity: Virtual browse
Seeing a preview: Featured results
Exploring article relations: The bX Recommender
On an exploration trail: The bX Recommender
Library services: A Core Part of the Higher Education Environment

Student life

Discovery
Unified Discovery & Delivery
Teaching & Research
Learning Resource
Management
Print, Electronic & Digital

Institutions
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Library services: A Core Part of Higher Education Environment

Student
Mobile apps

Reading Content
List Repositories
Discovery
Unified Discovery & Delivery

Resource
Course Management Google
Management Print, Electronic & Digital

Institutional
Portals
16
© 2015 Ex Libris | Confidential & Proprietary 17
© 2015 Ex Libris | Confidential & Proprietary 18
© 2015 Ex Libris | Confidential & Proprietary 19
20
Everything discoverable with different entry
points
Library collections

Electronic resources

Research data sets

Digital Repositories

Research Guides

E-Reserves

…
Library services: A Core Part of Higher Education Environment

Student
Mobile apps

Content
Leganto
Repositories
Primo
Unified Discovery & Delivery

Alma
Course Print, Electronic & Digital
Resource Management Google
Management

Institutional
Portals
22
Current challenges with resource lists

• Complex and disintegrated processes to create them

• Manual work required, year after year
• Often, instructors bypass the library
• Copyright clearance is sometimes ignored
• Usage information is not always logged
• Non-traditional materials are transparent to the
library
• New teaching methods, such as massive open online
courses (MOOCS), require new practices
 A reading list with cross-
cross-system workflows: Leganto

• Instructors create, maintain, evaluate, and share

resource lists and monitor their use

• Students access materials, share their views, and

suggest additional materials

• Librarians make materials available through the

library management service and track their use

• Supports cross-system workflows: Course

management system, library management and other
Cross-
Cross-system workflows

Authentication
Course
Management

Resource
lists
Discovery Library
Management
Copyright
Clearance
Service
Cross-
Cross -system
An instructor wishesworkflows
to
add a book chapter to … chooses the
next week’s class.He logs in, course and the
week,
2
Authentication He then adds it to the
… andlist
opens 3
resource withthe
a note for
Blackboard
course resource list. 6,
1 Next, an automated the library (‘Chapter
notification isThe instructor
sent to Alma enters
please’).
the
and triggers book
the title and finds
relevant
the book in Primo.
Leganto 4 The 7book chapter
5 Alma workflow.
is scanned.
Primo Alma
6 Copyrights
8 cleared.
Copyright
9
The task isClearance
assigned to
Service
a librarian who10
processes the request.
When done,
item is ready
for use.
The interface
Adding items from external webpages
Adding items from external webpages
Adding items from external webpages
Adding items from external webpages
My collection
Our Leganto development partners

Partners
 Library services: A Core Part of Higher-Education Environments

Student
Student life Mobile apps

Reading Content
List Repositories
Teaching & Discovery
Unified Discovery & Delivery Research
Learning
Resource
Course Management Google
Management Print, Electronic & Digital

Institutional
Portals Institution
34
 Thank you
[email protected]

© 2015
35 Ex Libris | Confidential & Proprietary