Metadata Challenges in Library Discovery Systems

With discovery systems such as Summon, EDS, and Primo Central, patrons can search nearly all of their libraries\u27 resources from a single platform. In order to create this experience, data from disparate sources must be normalized and unified into one index. In this session, we discussed some of the metadata challenges facing each of the parties involved in library discovery; the library, the publisher, and the discovery system provider. Libraries must normalize their bibliographic records to make them compatible with the discovery system’s schema. Publishers need to create mechanisms to regularly export records with meaningful metadata, and the discovery system provider must integrate metadata from these sources while ensuring the best possible user experience. We also touched on the recent guidelines of the NISO Open Discovery Initiative. The guidelines include goals such as “to streamline the process by which information providers, discovery service providers, and librarians work together to better serve libraries and their users.” The session will explore how these guidelines can be implemented along with some of the challenges and will include a discussion with the audience