Discoverability in Digital Repositories: Systems, Perspectives, and User Studies

204 Pages·2023·4.904 MB·English

by  Liz Woolcott, Ali Shiri

Discoverability in Digital
Repositories
While most discoverability evaluation studies in the Library and Information
Science field discuss the intersection of discovery layers and library systems, this
book looks specifically at digital repositories, examining discoverability from the
lenses of system structure, user searches, and external discovery avenues.
Discoverability, the ease with which information can be found by a user, is
the cornerstone of all successful digital information platforms. Yet, most digital
repository practitioners and researchers lack a holistic and comprehensive
understanding of how and where discoverability happens. This book brings together
current understandings of user needs and behaviors and poses them alongside a
deeper examination of digital repositories around the theme of discoverability.
It examines discoverability in digital repositories from both user and system
perspectives by exploring how users access content (including their search patterns
and habits, need for digital content, effects of outreach, or integration with Wikipedia
and other web-based tools) and how systems support or prevent discoverability
through the structure or quality of metadata, system interfaces, exposure to search
engines or lack thereof, and integration with library discovery tools.
Discoverability in Digital Repositories will be particularly useful to digital
repository managers, practitioners, and researchers, metadata librarians, systems
librarians, and user studies, usability, and user experience librarians. Additionally,
and perhaps most prominently, this book is composed with the emerging
practitioner in mind. Instructors and students in Library and Information Science
and Information Management programs will benefit from this book that specifically
addresses discoverability in digital repository systems and services.
Liz Woolcott is Associate Dean for research collections at Utah State University
Libraries in Logan, Utah, USA, and Co-Founder of the Library Workflow
Exchange.
Ali Shiri is Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He teaches courses in the areas
of digital libraries and information organization and retrieval, and he conducts
research on digital libraries and repositories, search user interfaces, user interaction
with digital information, learning and data analytics, and more recently artificial
intelligence and ethics.
Routledge Guides to Practice in Libraries,
Archives and Information Science
This series provides essential practical guides for those working in libraries,
archives, and a variety of other information science professions around the globe.
Including authored and edited volumes, the series will help to enhance
practitioners’ and students’ professional knowledge and will also encourage
sharing of best practices between different countries, as well as between different
types and sizes of organisations.
Guidance for Librarians Transitioning to a New Environment
Tina Herman Buck and Sara Duff
Recordkeeping in International Organizations
Archives in Transition in Digital, Networked Environments
Edited by Jens Boel and Eng Sengsavang
Trust and Records in an Open Digital Environment
Edited by Hrvoje Stančić
Assessment as Information Practice
Evaluating Collections and Services
Edited by Gaby Haddow and Hollie White
A Guide to Using the Anonymous Web in Libraries and
Information Organizations
Enhancing Patron Privacy and Information Access
Brady D. Lund and Matthew A. Beckstrom
Practicing Social Justice in Libraries
Edited by Alyssa Brissett and Diana Moronta
Discoverability in Digital Repositories
Systems, Perspectives, and User Studies
Edited by Liz Woolcott and Ali Shiri
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Guides-to-Practice-in-Libraries-Archives-and-Information-Science/
book-series/RGPLAIS
Discoverability in
Digital Repositories
Systems, Perspectives, and
User Studies
Edited by
Liz Woolcott and Ali Shiri
Cover image: Thanakorn Lappattaranan/Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Liz Woolcott and Ali Shiri; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Liz Woolcott and Ali Shiri to be identified as the authors of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Woolcott, Liz, editor. | Shiri, Ali, 1968- editor.
Title: Discoverability in digital repositories : systems, perspectives, and user
 studies / edited by Liz Woolcott, Ali Shiri.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge,
2023. | Series: Routledge guides to practice in libraries, archives and
information science | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022059151 (print) | LCCN 2022059152 (ebook) | ISBN
9781032106595 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032106588 (paperback) | ISBN
9781003216438 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Institutional repositories. | Digital libraries. | Electronic
information resource searching.
Classification: LCC ZA4081.86 .D57 2023 (print) | LCC ZA4081.86 (ebook) |
 DDC 027—dc23/eng/20230113
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022059151
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022059152
ISBN: 978-1-032-10659-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-10658-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-21643-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003216438
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage
To digital repository practitioners everywhere –
your work is visible, impactful, and important

Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xi
List of Contributors xii
Acknowledgments or Credits List xv
Introduction 1
PART 1
Digital Repository Functionality 9
1 Digital Repositories and Discoverability: Definitions
and Typology 11
GEORGE MACGREGOR
2 Understanding Repository Functionality and Structure 32
SHARON FARNEL
3 Understanding the Role of Metadata in a Digital Repository 49
JENN RILEY
4 Understanding Linked Data and the Potential for
Enhanced Discoverability 69
ANNA NEATROUR AND TERESA K. HEBRON
5 User Searching in Digital Repositories 88
OKSANA L. ZAVALINA AND MARY BURKE
viii Contents
PART 2
Case Studies in Visibility and Discoverability Outside
the Digital Repository 115
6 Discoverability Within the Library: Integrated Systems
and Discovery Layers 117
JOLINDA THOMPSON AND SARA HOOVER
7 Discoverability Beyond the Library: Wikipedia 137
ELIZABETH JOAN KELLY
8 Discoverability and Search Engine Visibility of Repository
Platforms 157
DANPING DONG AND CHEE HSIEN AARON TAY
Conclusion 176
Index 183
Figures
1.1 Conceptual diagram of digital repository discoverability and
users’ routes to content discovery 14
1.2 Illustration of the relationship between content heterogeneity
and object complexity in digital repositories 25
4.1 Representation of figure skating relationships 71
4.2 Search results for Brian Orser 76
5.1 Example of geographic browsing 94
5.2 Example of browsing and searching options supported in a digital
repository 94
5.3 Example of advanced search options in the Dataverse digital repository 99
6.1 Discovery service architecture 118
6.2 Repository-type Import Profile details set up in Ex Libris Alma.
September 21, 2021 127
6.3 Repository-type Import Profile Inventory Information setup in
Ex Libris Alma. September 21, 2021 128
6.4 DNP project record in Ex Libris Alma. September 21, 2021 131
6.5 DNP project record in Ex Libris Primo VE. September 21, 2021 132
6.6 DNP project record in Ex Libris Primo VE Special Collection.
September 21, 2021 133
7.1 Screenshot of links to digital assets in the References and
External Links section of the Wikipedia article for Janet Mary
Riley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Mary_Riley) 139
7.2 Screenshot of Wikimedia Commons image from a digital
repository. The Summary information includes a link to the digital
repository; the File Usage on Commons and File Usage on Other
Wikis sections show image reuse (https://commons.wikimedia.
org/wiki/File:Janet_Mary_Riley_1946.tif) 141
7.3 Screenshot of a partial Wikidata item for the person Janet Mary
Riley (www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55725928) 142
7.4 Screenshot of a Wikidata item for the scholarly article “Use of
Louisiana’s Digital Cultural Heritage by Wikipedians” showing
links to the final published version of the article as well as a
postprint in an open access repository (www.wikidata.org/wiki/
Q58534448) 144