CREATING A COHESIVE DISCOVERY EXPERIENCE

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BUILDING THESome stepping stones toward unification: Creation of a brand (and promoting it!) Streamlining a discovery framework Unifying disparate web presences COLLABORATION! And projects resulting...

And,How the heck we did it and what’s left to do [HINT: a lot!]?

MAKING MAGIC HAPPEN ATWho are we?

Ginny M. Boyer, MLISboyerg@ecu.edu

Virginia Bacon, MLSbaconv@ecu.edu

A LITTLE ABOUT THE The East Carolina University Libraries

Joyner (ALS)– Main Library (big) Music Library – a branch of Joyner (littlest) Laupus (HSL) Health Sciences Library (little)

About the university 24k full time enrollment Located in Greenville, NC Doctoral/research University & Medical School

WHY IT TOOK MAGICIANS Ours is a complicated situation…

Administratively separate Different cultures, both internal & external Physically separate & different division affiliations

Solutions Buy-in for a shared Libraries brand Neutral persons to facilitate collaboration Shared discovery interfaces

HISTORICALLY, SOME THINGS WE SHARED Resources, tools, and positions funded out of the Virtual Library ILS (Symphony) An ILS Administrator ERMS (Serials Solutions 360RM, 360 MARC) Costly resource acquisitions

Science Direct Web of Science, etc.

And later… Summon (but that’s where things got tricky…)

AND SOME THINGS WE DIDN’T… Public access points and discovery tools

OPACs (Symphony’s e-Library) Database List(s) ILLiad OCLC (WorldCat Local) Library websites

And pretty much everything else…

MO’ LIBRARIES, MO’ PROBLEMS What kind of problems did this division produce?

Duplication of effort Wasted and fragmented staff resources Multiplicity of access points Poorly designed and outdated search tools Poor communication between complimentary departments (mostly)

Fragmented resource discovery Isolated library websites I could go on, and on, and on, and on….

SUMMON ‘ONE SEARCH’ A resource discovery solution for the Libraries The tool was branded One Search Search widgets were deployed to both of the libraries homepages Decision: Include the Libraries local catalog MARC records… Problem: At the item level the resource links out to the native OPAC...

So what was the issue?

COLLABORATION, WHAT?! Consolidation = dirty word… ‘collaboration’ and ‘unification’ are safer

Why, yes! Everyone is special! Task forces– how the ECU Libraries get stuff done You need one heck of a project manager, and strategic leadership

You have to be willing to give a little… You need tech folks to play nicely, or tech leaders to be directly involved in the projects

Communication and interaction across departments is key!

THE EVOLUTION OF A BRAND First of all, why? Why is this necessary?

Served to fortify us from within A public declaration of our combined efforts to benefit the University

Approved by university marketing as an official logo Recruiting to support the ECU Libraries Creation of a cohesive user experience under a combined front

THE EVOLUTION OF DISCOVERYIn the beginning… Summon, ILS, WorldCat Local

In the now… Search tools and their overall usability

User experience and its impact on discovery

Integration of library websites as an essential piece of discovery

Overall access and retrieval concerns as they affect discovery

STREAMLINING SEARCH Step 1: Consolidate Classic Catalog (and a re-brand Summon) Step 2: Consolidate WorldCat Local Step 3: Consolidate the Database Lists Step 4: Redesign Research Guides (LibGuides) [and LibAnswers too] Step 5: Implementation of VuFind/Bento Step 6: Redesign all Serials Solutions pages/tools (Citation Linker, link

resolver, e-Journal/e-Book Portal) Step 7: Blackboard Bento – embedded subject specific resources Step 8: Who knows?!

SUMMON ‘ONE SEARCH’ RE-BRANDING

UNIFICATION OF THE WEBAKA ‘A TOUGH NUT TO CRACK’

Where we are… ECU Libraries

Blackboard ECU ‘Libraries’ link

Joyner’s Web Music is a sub-site

Laupus’ Web

Where we’re headed… Hopefully, an ECU Libraries Web

How? ECU Libs is trending Centralized IT dept. serves all

websites, so consolidation is more feasible… and in progress.

WHAT DO WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE? A web/discovery experience that:

Fronts a strong, consolidated ECU Libraries Delivers seamless navigation Delivers optimal discovery and retrieval of resources Integrates *everything* the ECU Libs have to offer Demonstrates a combined effort to serve the University community

Demonstrates fiscal & organizational responsibilityProvides what our users want!

HOW DO WE KNOW WE’VE SUCCEEDED?“If [the user] ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!”User Testing as our guide

UX Working GroupCollaboration with UX facultyRecruitment: UX/UI developer

Assessing the need for more staff support for UX