Discovery: The Information Literate WorldCat

Locating, synthesizing, and evaluating information is the heartbeat of information literacy. Using a highpowered discovery layer can assist in the mission of information literacy. However, in order for this partnership to come to fruition, traditional teaching practices must be re-examined to accommodate new technologies. This paper will define discovery, explore instructional practices, and investigate emerging teaching practices concerning the integration of information literacy instruction with discovery layers. The author of this article will use WorldCat local as the primary discovery layer for this study. As defined by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), WorldCat Local is a “webscale discovery solution that delivers single-search-box access to more than 1.071 billion items from your library and the world's library collections.” William Allen White Library at Emporia State University adopted WorldCat Local as its discovery solution after reviewing several discovery layers services. WorldCat Local was selected due to it continually evolving nature when dealing with the electronic resources and physical collection. Editor-in-Chief Cynthia Akers Kane, Emporia State University This article is available in Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings: http://newprairiepress.org/culsproceedings/vol3/iss1/4 CULS Proceedings, Volume 3, 2013 14 Volume 3, 2013 Driving Towards New Frontiers Discovery: The Information Literate WorldCat Earl Givens Jr. Emporia State University Emporia, Kansas Abstract Locating, synthesizing, and evaluating information is the heartbeat of information literacy. Using a highpowered discovery layer can assist in the mission of information literacy. However, in order for this partnership to come to fruition, traditional teaching practices must be re-examined to accommodate new technologies. This paper will define discovery, explore instructional practices, and investigate emerging teaching practices concerning the integration of information literacy instruction with discovery layers. The author of this article will use WorldCat local as the primary discovery layer for this study. As defined by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), WorldCat Local is a “webscale discovery solution that delivers single-search-box access to more than 1.071 billion items from your library and the world's library collections.” William Allen White Library at Emporia State University adopted WorldCat Local as its discovery solution after reviewing several discovery layers services. WorldCat Local was selected due to it continually evolving nature when dealing with the electronic resources and physical collection.Locating, synthesizing, and evaluating information is the heartbeat of information literacy. Using a highpowered discovery layer can assist in the mission of information literacy. However, in order for this partnership to come to fruition, traditional teaching practices must be re-examined to accommodate new technologies. This paper will define discovery, explore instructional practices, and investigate emerging teaching practices concerning the integration of information literacy instruction with discovery layers. The author of this article will use WorldCat local as the primary discovery layer for this study. As defined by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), WorldCat Local is a “webscale discovery solution that delivers single-search-box access to more than 1.071 billion items from your library and the world's library collections.” William Allen White Library at Emporia State University adopted WorldCat Local as its discovery solution after reviewing several discovery layers services. WorldCat Local was selected due to it continually evolving nature when dealing with the electronic resources and physical collection. 1 Givens: Discovery: The Information Literate WorldCat Published by New Prairie Press, 2013 CULS Proceedings, Volume 3, 2013 15 What is Discovery? The word discovery can be defined in many different ways. The Merriam-Webster dictionary calls it “the act or process of discovering.” In librarianship this basic definition for the word discovery is mingled with library technology and defined as such: “Discovery layers are online services that allow library users to search for library resources (at the level of books and individual articles) and organize them or narrow their searches through faceted browsing capabilities” (Grotti & Sobel, 2012). A discovery layer collects its information from a centralized index and provides access to content via a single search box similar to Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Discovery layers also provide facet limiters which narrow search results similar to eBay and Amazon (Hoeppner, 2012). Not Federated Searching Remember in the mid 2000’s the new revolutionary search tool that would sweep the library nation called “federated searching”? While federated searching was a great idea in theory it frustrated users and librarians because of its sluggish delivery of search results and limited access to remote resources (Helfer, 2005). Discovery moves beyond federated searching. Unlike federated searching, which uses real-time retrieval from multiple systems, most discovery tools retrieve information from a single knowledgebase populated with library resources. This approach gives patrons faster and arguably more accurate results when searching. However, the manner in which results are delivered is part of the concerns expressed by librarians as it relates to locating, synthesizing, and evaluating information (Grotti & Sobel, 2012). Why Discovery? With threatening budget cuts looming, adoption of library technologies can seem to move at the pace of a tortoise. Nevertheless, libraries are receiving pressure from powerful places to adopt better ways of searching for library resources. Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo set the standards and models in contemporary search technologies (Fagan, 2011). Enter discovery, which behaves similarly to Google, Bing, or Yahoo, searching down to the article level and finding resources to meet user needs. It’s that simple, right? Wrong. Just like technologies before it, discovery layers present the following set of challenges and questions: New Challenges with WorldCat Local  How do we teach discovery?  Pre-search Boolean operators are gone.  Pre-search limiters missing.  Relevancy Ranking of results is unclear.  Too many results for our users.  Where is information literacy? Where Do We Start? Based on the challenges listed above discovery layers can be intimidating to any information literacy instructor. However, given the nature of information literacy and the ACRL competency standards, discovery layers present librarians with a rare opportunity to use the challenges of discovery layers to enhance information literacy instruction. In other words, use what you already know. The common concerns about WorldCat Local can be solved through information literacy skill building (Grotti & Sobel, 2012). For example, discovery layers tend to yield countless results when performing a search using the single search box, leaving users frustrated an overwhelmed. At this moment users can be taught how to narrow their search results down using the information dissemination timeline (see figure 1). 2 Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings, Vol. 3 [2013], No. 1, Art. 4 http://newprairiepress.org/culsproceedings/vol3/iss1/4 DOI: 10.4148/culs.v1i0.1829 CULS Proceedings, Volume 3, 2013 16 (Figure 1)